Knowing God As Jehovah Jireh

I have entitled our message this morning, “Knowing God as Jehovah Jireh,” and I wish to look at our passage of Scripture in a practical way. First off, I want to say that I am well-aware of the symbolism that parallels the crucifixion account of Christ; however, there is more to this passage than a prophecy of the Messiah. We find here an example of walking in obedience to God, and an example of experiencing the Lord’s provision in our lives. This is a message on faith, and I believe that many of us will be challenged this morning. So, let’s go ahead and begin by looking at verses 1-2.

God Will Test Our Devotion (vv. 1-2)

1 Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

Here, we encounter a huge dilemma for Abraham, which is probably an understatement! The Lord asked him to sacrifice his only son Isaac and offer him as a burnt offering, which poses two huge problems.

The first problem is that the Lord was asking Abraham to do something that totally goes against God’s nature, which is to offer a human sacrifice. In Leviticus 18:21, the Lord said, “You shall not let any of your descendants pass through the fire to Molech.” In Jeremiah 32:35 the Lord tells us, “They built the high places of Baal which are in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech, which I did not command them, nor did it come into My mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.”

In The New Bible Dictionary we are told that “the worship of Molech seems to have been associated with the sacrifice of children in the fire,”(1) and the Lord says that such a practice is an “abomination” and “sin” in His eyes. Let me caution you that we must not jump to the conclusion that God delights in human sacrifices. Some will take this passage out of context and say that the Lord is sadistic, and that He requires human sacrifices. When we view this passage in light of the entire Bible, we see that the Lord despises human sacrifices; so, there must be something else happening here, and I will discuss what that is in a moment.

The second problem with what the Lord asked Abraham to do was that God had earlier made a promise to Abraham that could only be fulfilled through his own offspring. In Genesis 17:4-6, the Lord told Abraham, who was then called Abram, “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.” Listen to Abraham’s response: “Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, ‘Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child’?” (Genesis 17:17).

Did you hear what their ages were when the Lord promised a child? Abraham was one hundred, and Sarah was ninety! Another situation that made this promise seem impossible was that Sarah had been barren her entire life (Genesis 11:30). The Lord came through, though, for in Genesis 21:1-3 we read that Isaac was born! The huge dilemma here is that the Lord was asking Abraham to sacrifice the very son of promise, and the anticipated son of hope! It didn’t seem to make any sense! How could this promise of Abraham becoming a great nation be fulfilled, if the promised heir were dead? Well, let’s look at this a bit more!

God wasn’t requiring a human sacrifice, and God wasn’t going back on His word that He would provide Abraham with an heir. This was a test of Abraham’s faith, or faithfulness. The Lord had given Abraham a big dream or promise, but He wanted to see which was more important to Abraham – the big dream, or God himself. He also wanted to see who he would trust – God, or himself.

Back in Genesis chapter sixteen, we read of how Abram and Sarai became impatient waiting on God to fulfill His promise, so they thought they should help Him out a little. They used their own human reasoning to conclude that Abram could have a child from His own flesh if He went in and had relations with Sarai’s maid Hagar. So, that is exactly what he did, and Hagar conceived and bore their son Ishmael. Ishmael, however, was not to be the son of promise.