Imagine your back is up against the wall. You have reached the end of your rope. Every prospect for the future is dark and gloomy. Maybe that is not so hard for you to imagine. That is when there is only one thing that could possibly turn the situation around. A miracle from God. Will God provide?
When you have that need in your life that is beyond anything you could work out will God intervene. Will God provide for your need?
Genesis chapter 22 is one of the most dramatic and moving stories of the Old Testament. This is the account when God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham had been tested before. He was called to leave his home. He was called to give up his past. Now he is called to give up his future.
Through Isaac Abraham’s descendants would be as numerous as the sand of the seas, the dust of the earth, the stars of the sky. Abraham was promised the blessing of an inheritance.
The passage says much about Abraham and his faith, but we will look the character of God in this passage. We see God as provider. So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.” (Genesis 22:14)
The Lord will provide. Jehovah-Jireh
Jehovah is the covenant name for God. How God relates intimately with man.
Jireh is provider. The name speaks of God providing for human need.
In the story of Abraham as found in Genesis 22 his son Isaac is bound and laying on the altar. The knife is in Abraham’s hand. God demonstrated his profound interest and ability to meet human need.
I have heard testimonies from many people today of how when time had all but run out God met a need. He still provides. He is still Jehovah-Jireh. This is a big deal to me because I am trusting him to come through in an area of my life right now. I see trusting God in this as faith stretching for me.
For Abraham to name the place Jehovah-Jireh comes in the context of a great turning point and crises in the life of Abraham. God appears to Abraham and gives him a surprising command. 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.” (Genesis 22:2)
The story of Abraham instructed to sacrifice his son reveals the obedience and faith of Abraham. God is sovereign and in control of our lives. He is able to provide in any need. He is able to provide for Abraham. He is able to provide for us.
The story is so shocking to us because God is about underscoring the sanctity of human like. It was one of his main points to Noah after the flood, God stresses the sanctity of human life. In no way does God take lightly the human life that was destroyed. Man is made in the image of God. “Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind. (Genesis 9:6)
We need to see that what is not unusual about this story is that God wants Abraham, and us, to lay everything on the altar by faith and obedience.
Abraham was to go to Mount Moriah. It is a mountain in the region of Moriah. Mount Moriah is the location of Solomon’s temple. Then Solomon began to build the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place provided by David. (2 Chronicles 3:1)
So Abraham and Isaac traveled from Beersheba to Jerusalem. That is a fifty-mile journey. It took them 3 days to get there. 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. (Genesis 22:3-4)
You could probably see the distant look in Abrahams eyes. He is deep in thought. I am to sacrifice Isaac, my son whom I love. It must have been a long three days for Abraham. When he finally saw Mount Moriah in the distance he told his servants to wait. He told them he and Isaac would worship and come back.
Isaac was about ten years old and Abraham loaded him up with the wood. Abraham carried the fire and the knife. Isaac had a question. 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?” (Genesis 22:7)
This is horrific if God does not provide a lamb for the burn offering. It would be unthinkable for Abraham to cut his son with that knife. Abraham had reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. The angel of the Lord called out, Abraham! Abraham!
“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.” (Genesis 22:12)
Abraham looked up and there was a lamb in the thicket. God provided. He met the need in the darkest moment. It is horrible to think of Abraham plunging the knife into his son. How glorious that God provided and God delivered. God sees the need and God provides for that.
In Genesis 22:14 the New International version says God will provide. The King James version translates as it shall be seen. God see the need an makes the provision
And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen. (Genesis 22:14 KJV)
God did see Abraham’s need and God did provide for it. We see beautifully the character of God in a story that looked shocking at first.
Hebrews chapter 11 gives us some commentary on what Abraham was thinking.
By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” 19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death. (Hebrews 11:17-19)
Abraham exhibited a tremendous faith, but it was because he believed in a faithful God. It was we must keep in mind. We believe in the same God. Our God is Jehovah-Jireh. He sees our need and provides.
God miraculously provided for Abraham. God miraculously provided for us in Christ. The theological lesson of this account is God’s deliverance through the provision of a substitute. This Old Testament account anticipates something yet to come in New Testament.
Jesus said, Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.” (John 8:56)
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)
Abraham had a need God saw it and provided for it. God saw man’s need. He saw that the human race is poisoned by sin. All have sinned. The penalty for sin is death, both physical and spiritual. The knife was about to be plunged, but God provided in the fullness of time. The provision was the Lamb of God, the only sinless man Jesus Christ.
The death of Jesus was in the same vicinity in the same city where Abraham held that knife to slay Isaac. Christ died on the cross and cried, “it is finished”. God provided a substitute.
Abraham loaded his son with the wood to carry up Mount Moriah. Jesus, God’s son bore his own cross.
4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Hebrews 10:4, 10)
It probably breaks your heart that Abraham was instructed to give up his beloved son of promise. Now you begin to understand how richly God provide. The cost of the Father in giving up his only son to take away the sins of the world.
Imagine the irony of Abraham heard the voice of God, saw the ram in the thicket and said, no I will handle this myself. It would be just as tragic to reject Jesus Christ the provision for your sin.
19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death. (Hebrews 11:19) God can do that. He is the God who will provide.
You need a savior. God, Jehovah- Jireh has provided a sacrifice. Abraham heard God cry out to him. Listen for the voice of God. He sees your need and he will provide for it. Put your faith in Jesus Christ.
