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.
B. THE SACRIFICE REQUIRED OF ABRAHAM
1. Alone in his meditation, Abraham prayed. And God spoke to him once again. The divine words were chilling: “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering…”
2. Did Abraham reluctantly obey? No! “Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled 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” (Gen. 22:3).
3. Abraham had to endure three days of travel to Moriah!
a. Three days of seeing his Son for the last time -- his voice, his eyes, his features, to observe his precious personality.
b. Abraham's own hand would grasp the sacrificial knife!
4. He leaves the servants behind, lest they interfere. He builds the altar, arranges the wood; He binds his son and places him on the altar.
5. Finally (with tears flowing), he unsheathes his knife and raises it -- to plunge it into his Son's heart. Then the angel stopped him.
6. ILLUSTRATION It’s Hard to Obey!
a. A man used to have problems getting his son to clean his room. He would ask him to “Do it now,” and he would always agree to, but then he wouldn’t follow through.
b. After high school, he joined the Marine Corps. When he came home for his leave after Boot Camp, he said to me, “My life makes sense now, Dad. Everything you said and did when I was growing up now makes sense. “Oh yeah, Dad,” he added. “I learned what ‘now’ means.”
C. ABRAHAM’S EXPECTANCY
1. Genesis 22:4-8 tells us that in all that Abraham did, he was expecting a miracle from God.
2. Abraham said to his servant, "We will come back to you." Abraham wasn't lying to his servant, but expecting.
3. Hebrews 11:18-19 says, “Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.” “Through Isaac shall your descendants come…”
4. He believed death could not touch Isaac, or that God would raise him to life again, even from the ashes of a fire!
5. Expectancy -- "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him."
II. THE MEANING OF THE NAME
A. HOW GOD PROVIDED
1. Isaac had asked, “Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Gen. 22:7. Abraham answered that God would provide it.
2. Afterward, Abraham did see a ram (adult male sheep) caught in a thicket and used it for the burnt offering. In this way God did provide for Abraham’s need.
B. HEBREW MEANING
1. The word “jireh” (vs. 14) is the Hebrew root word meaning “to see.” Why then is it translated in modern versions as “provide?” Because it was also used in verse 8 where Abraham said, “God will provide Himself a lamb….”
2. The Hebrew of this word is much like the English and the Latin. In all three, “”provide” comes from “to see beforehand,” “to take precautionary measures.” Prophetic Foresight.
3. Think how often God “sees beforehand” to meet our needs
a. A woman was going out to gather a few sticks to make her last meal, and up walks Elijah who had traveled the length of Israel.
b. David was on his way to kills Nabal & all the males in his house when Abigail stopped him, by God’s decree;
c. Peter was going down to catch a fish with a 4-drachma coin in its mouth. That fish had to be where he cast his line!
d. Peter had a vision on a roof. As soon as it was finished, men who had traveled all day knocked on the gate!
4. God definitely sees beforehand!
III. THE BIG PICTURE BEHIND THIS NAME
A. THE CHARACTER OF GOD
1. I want us to see in this name a revelation of the heart of God – that He is a God who loves you as a Father loves His children.
2. 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matt. 6:25-33
3. He wants to walk with you and I, to care for us, to provide for us! He sees beforehand (only He can) what the needs will be, and He has told us not to worry about what we will wear, for He is our God, our provider, and He will take good care of us. All we need to do is trust in Him.
B. PROPHETIC FULFILLMENT
1. After Abraham almost offered his son and God provided a substitute (the ram), God revealed to Abraham that something awesome would happen in the future at that very location.
2. That same mountain, Moriah (2 Chron. 3:1), became the very site where God’s Son Jesus, the Lamb of God, would be offered up for the sins of the world! The Lord Jesus said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56).
3. No wonder Abraham (Gen 22:14) called that place “the Lord will provide” (Jehovah-Jireh) and said, “In the Mount of the Lord it shall be seen.”
CONCLUSION
A. REMOVING OUR DEFECTS/FLAWS
1. The story is told of a laborer who was a mature Christian and gave a solid testimony before all who knew him. His boss came to him one day and said, "You know, whatever you've got, I want it. You have such peace and joy and contentment. How can I get this?"
2. The laborer said, "Go to your home, put on your best suit, come down here, and work in the mud with the rest of us -- and you can have it."
3. "What are you talking about? I could never do that. I'm the boss, you’re the worker. I can't do that. That's beneath my dignity." The boss came back a couple of months later and said, "I ask you again, what is it that you have and how can I get it?"
4. "I told you, go put on your best suit, come down and work in the mud with us, and you can have it." Again the boss became furious and walked off.
5. Finally, in desperation, he came back to the laborer and said, "I don't care what it takes! I'll do anything." The laborer said, "Will you put on your best suit and come down and work in the mud?" The boss agreed that he would do even that. Then the laborer said, "You don't have to."
6. Do you see the point? The laborer knew what was standing between the boss and Christ -- pride and self.
B. THE CALL
1. God tested Abraham. We must expect God to test us with what we hold most dear. He that is unprepared may fail the test.
2. Is there something standing between you and Christ?
3. Do you need healing? Sometimes God allows wounds, but He also heals!
4. "If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" Do you need to be saved?
