Jehovah Jireh - Your Provider Too

Genesis 22:1-18

SERMON - Jehovah Jireh, my Provider

God is almighty and omnipotent

and does not NEED anything,

but He does want to know how genuine and sincere and deep OUR faith in Him is.

We don't know if God would ever have allowed Abraham to kill Isaac,

or if Abraham ever questioned God’s instruction to do so,

but Abraham passed the Faith Test in Genesis 22,

and as a result God blessed him and his descendents for many centuries.

Another sign of Abraham’s faith is that even before he had been blessed

he raised a monument to God

giving Him the title Jehovah Jireh, the Lord Who provides,

in recognition of all that God had done for his followers up to that time,

and his confidence in God’s faithfulness to keep His promises

about how He would provide for Abraham’s descendents in the future.

Many people pretend that everything is OK

and they have no needs,

and would never pray to God

even if they did have.

Are they REALLY self-sufficient, or just TOO PROUD to admit that they are not?

I think Christians are only being HONEST by admitting we are not self=sufficient,

and admitting that we do have needs

or that there are problems and situations that we can do little, if anything, about,

and I think it is very SENSIBLE to go for help to SOMEONE, THE ONE,

who has the POWER and the INCLINATION to help us - Almighty God.

In Ps 116:6 the Psalmist says "When I was in great need, he saved me".

Our needs are met by different people or agencies and in different ways,

but there is no one Who can meet our needs in the ways God can.

As Christians we believe there is not only a Mother Nature, or “Providence”,

but an Eternal Creator God,

and this God is not an impersonal “Force” in the Universe, as in "Star Wars",

but One who loves us, who wants to be our Heavenly Father, and Provider.

The Bible contains many names and title for God,

such as El Shaddai, God Almighty, Yahweh, the I Am, Adonai, or Lord,

but of all these I think Jehovah Jireh is the best one to remember

and rely on in a time of personal or other need.

Our faith in God’s provision

is not a “Fingers Crossed” faith,

but faith based on recorded history

because throughout the OT there are hundreds of examples

of how God provided for the needs of His people.

He provided an ark for Noah and his family.

He provided a ram for Abraham to sacrifice instead of his son.

He provided a wife for Isaac.

He provided Jacob with 12 sons.

He provided for the Hebrews in a time of famine by making Joseph PM of Egypt.

He provided the land of milk and honey for the Israelites.

He provided a whale or big fish for Jonah to get to land in.

He rescued Daniel from the lions in the den,

and saved Daniel’s three friends from burning to death in the fiery furnace.

Ps 68:10 says He will provide for the poor.

Ps 111:5 says He will provide food for those who fear Him.

Ezekiel 18:7 says He will provide clothing for the naked.

All of these promises were fulfilled, and,

for 2,000 years God provided priests to comfort Israel

and prophets to challenge them.

Is God only the Provider for Jewish people?

No, for God continued to be Jehovah Jireh under the terms of the New Covenant

instituted by Jesus.

In the New Testament we can read how God in the person of Jesus

provided wine for those at a wedding feast,

provided sight for a blind man, new skin for lepers,

food for 5,000 hungry people, hearing for a deaf man,

a healed limb for a paralysed man,

and provided new life for Jairus’ dead daughter, for the widow of Nain’s son,

and for Lazarus.

God through Jesus provided forgiveness for Zacchaeus and Matthew

and He provides the same today to all who believe and repent and rely on His grace.

In 1st Peter 4:11 it says He provides strength - which might be physical

as in the case of Samson who slew hundreds of Philistines

with the jaw-bone of an ass,

or it could be emotional or spiritual strength in a time of crisis.

God has many attributes and characteristics

and I am sure we all appreciate every one of them in some way,

so I hope we are here in church today,

not out of a sense of religious obligation or tradition,

but because we want to thank God for being our Great Provider.

I hope we are here today because we feel a desire to thank God

in our prayers and hymns for keeping the promises contained in the Bible