Jehovah-Jireh

JEHOVAH-JIREH

Gen. 22:14

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR:

1. There are times when even doing what is right seems like it will backfire on you. Old habits are hard to break.

2. One guy invariably left off the cap to the toothpaste and for years his wife had hounded him about it. Finally, on their 25th anniversary, he made a private commitment to break the annoying habit.

3. With faithfulness and regularity he screwed on the toothpaste cap every time he used it. After a week of unbroken success the poor guy was blindsided by his very suspicious wife.

4. She cornered him at the breakfast table and said, "Why did you stop brushing your teeth?"

B. SERIES: THE COMPOUND NAMES OF GOD

1. We’re on the Series of the “Compound Names of God.” The first one we’re going to look at is the name Jehovah-Jireh.

2. Naturally these names owe something of their significance to the name of Jehovah itself, which as we discussed last week, reveals God as the Eternal Self-Existent One, the God of Revelation, the God of moral and spiritual attributes – of righteousness, holiness, love, and therefore of redemption.

3. He’s the God who stands in special covenant relationship to Israel, in contrast to Elohim, the general name of God in relation to all the nations.

4. Most of these compound names of God, arise out of some historic incident, and portray Jehovah in some aspect of His character as meeting human need.

5. Let’s read the historical basis of the name Jehovah-Jireh.

C. TEXT

22 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. 2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” 3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” 6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” 8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together. 9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied.

12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” 13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place ‘The Lord Will Provide’[Jehovah-Jireh]. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

D. THESIS

1. We’re going to look at the origin of this name, it’s meaning, and the big purposes behind why God revealed it.

2. The title of this message is “Jehovah-Jireh.”

I. ORIGIN OF THIS NAME

A. ABRAHAM’S ACT OF FAITH

1. The testing of Abraham’s faith. Every event of his life led up to this momentous event. God called upon him to offer up his own son Isaac on an altar in sacrifice. Never before or since has God required anything like this: it was a test.

2. Faith is not static, but dynamic. We walk, stand, live, and must continue in the faith. Faith is not just head-knowledge. To Not obey betrays the fact that one is not believing.

3. There are different types of surrender in war – limited, conditional, etc. – but the only type God wants is unconditional surrender.