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
that He will and does provide for those who follow Him;
and to present our needs
and the needs of others to Him
in our prayers of intercession and supplication.
One of God's greatest provisions is contained in Hebrews 1:3 and 1st John 1 v.9
where it says God provides purification, cleansing, from ALL sins
providing we admit we have done wrong.
Apart from providing for our salvation through the blood of Christ,
perhaps the best two promises of God’s provision are:
Philippians 4:19 where the Holy Spirit inspired St Paul to write:
My God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus,
and also1st Timothy 6:17 - He will richly provide His people with everything.
Now Bible teaching and doctrine are all very well
but Christianity is nothing if it is not practical
and applicable to our daily lives and situations.
So I ask the question: Does anyone here have a need?
It’s a silly question, because we all have needs,
either physical or emotional, financial or social, or spiritual.
They could be personal needs,
or the needs of nations, or of people that we care about, and pray for.
So my next question is: Does anyone have a need that God cannot supply?
By faith the answer to this should be NO.
Remember the words in Philippians 4:19 (ALL)
and 1st Timothy 6:17 (EVERYTHING).
If there really is a God, and He really is Omnipotent or all-powerful,
and He’s Omniscient or all-knowing,
then we should be able to trust Him to supply every need, at the right time,
and in the right way.
In June I marked some GCSE scripts and one of the questions that 16-year-olds
had to answer was “If God knows everything, why pray for anything ?“
Well, if there really is a God then of course He does know everything,
so the question in the Bible: “Will not the Lord of all the earth do right ?“
is a rhetorical one, because God will always do the right thing,
but He wants us to talk to Him in prayer about our needs
and those of other individuals, and situations, and for the world,
not because He does not know what is going on,
but so that we can show Him that we know and that we care,
and that we have the faith to bring these things before His throne.
Abraham must have known in his heart of hearts
that God would never allow him to kill his son Isaac,
but he had the depth of faith to believe
that even if God did require the sacrifice of Isaac,
everything would work out right.
Do we have that depth of faith ?
The title that Abraham gave God in Genesis 22:14 - Jehovah Jireh
means “God is our Provider”.
This name or title should remind us that the Lord God Almighty
cares about each and every one us so much that He sent
not only a ram to die in Isaac’s place,
but His only begotten Son, the Agnus Dei or Lamb of God
to die in our place on the cross at Calvary
to take the punishment that we deserve for our sins.
If He loves us that much, then whatever our situation, whatever our need,
God not only can provide, God will provide,
if it fits in with His eternal plans and purposes.
God invites each and every one us to come to Him in faith.
Come to Him believing His promises are true and still valid today
because they are recorded in the Holy Bible
which is not just a man made history book
but God's revealed and written and timeless Word.
God invites us to come to Him in the name of Jesus,
with every need, great and small
asking in his name, and pleading his blood,
believing that nothing is TOO BIG for God to tackle
or TOO SMALL for Him to be bothered about..
God invites us to come to Him believing that what is impossible for man
is possible for Him.
In Mark 11:24 Jesus said: “I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer,
believe that you have received it, and it will be yours”,
and John 16:24 Jesus said
“Until now you have not asked for anything in my name.
Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete”.
God wants us to believe that He is not just “The Provider”,
(IMPERSONAL, ABSTRACT, THEORETICAL)
or the Provider to people in the past, but “Our Provider”,
(PERSONAL, PRACTICAL)
and that the many promises contained in the Bible
are not just for Christians in general, but for each one of us in particular.
Remember the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount -
“Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find”.
Providing that what we ask for and what we seek is in accordance with God’s will,
that health need, that personal need,
that financial or relationship need,
that job need, that situation that is on our heart,
the situation in Northern Ireland,
the situation in the Holy Land,
the situation in your workplace,
the situation in your home -
God knows, God cares, God can do it, and He will do it,
if we put our faith into practice and take it to Him in prayer.
In closing I hope these thoughts have all been encouraging
and that we'll remember that God is not just A Mighty God
but OUR Mighty God,
and that in our hour of need,
we will pray to Him, in faith, believing that every prayer is answered in some way.
according to His divine will.
God is not deaf, and is certainly not uncaring
about that person, that situation, that problem
you have prayed about for so long.
Persevere in prayer
believing, that at the right time, in the right way,
Jehovah Jireh WILL provide,
in Jesus' name, Amen.
