Getting to Know God – Jehovah Jirah – The Lord who provides
One of the incredible things about many missionary testimonies and books is the way that God incredibly provides in the nick of time and with such practical and incredible answers. I must admit that as I was sitting down this week to write this sermon, I was bemoaning the fact that God doesn’t ever seem to do that in my life. I am either not that spiritual or am not that faithful and I don’t see God answering my prayers. I spent an hour trying to figure out how I could even start writing the sermon.
But do you know what, God taught me a very clear lesson, showed me that he does still provide for his people in a miraculous way and proved it to me personally.
As I said, I had been sitting around for an hour, waiting for inspiration, flicking through books, looking for funny illustrations to catch your attention and generally not getting anywhere. I was getting desperate and thought to kill some time, I’d download some notes I had sent home from work and while doing that I checked my other emails. One of them was from Kylie Love. I don’t know how many of you remember Kylie. She was a teacher her up until last year when she went to England to do the work holiday thing and subsequently met the man of her dreams, got married and (no she hasn’t settled down), they are moving back out here at the end of the year.
Now earlier in the week, we’d received another email from Kylie – desperate and in despair, frustrated and upset. It seems as though despite checking 3 times previously that her visa was valid until the 2nd of Jan, the anniversary of her entering the country, she was being told that no, the validity dates were now on the 27th October (2 months earlier) when it was issued. This meant that poor Kylie would not be able to work for the last couple of months in the UK and would have to apply for a tourist visa. Where was God in all this? How was he going to provide? Kylie was begging everyone far and wide, religious and non-religious to pray and pray hard for God to work it all out
Well the second Email that I opened up yesterday was another from Kylie saying that God has answered her prayer and she now has a spouse visa that was issued on the spot. Kylie has been able to keep working and has proved that God does provide.
But that is not all, because, I too can say that God does provide because I had the most wonderful start to this sermon.
You see, when I stopped and started to think about it, I realised that the problem was not the lack of God’s provision, but the lack of my vision. I was blinded to the things God was doing in my life, the ways in which he reaches out and provides.
There was once an old man trapped on a roof top during flood conditions: A helicopter flew over and a crew member drops a ladder and yells - " grab the ladder."
“Thanks but no thanks” calls the old man. “My God will rescue me. God will provide."
The flood keep rising and before long a rescue team in their little yellow SES boat row up to the roof line and yells at the old man "Hop in. We`ll take you to safety."
The old man replies, "Thanks but no thanks ...my God will rescue me. God will provide. "
A little bit later a power boat cruises up to the roof top. A police officer yells at the old man, "Get in or else you’re going to drown."
The old man replies, "Thanks but no thanks ... my God will rescue me. God will provide. "
Just as the water is reaching the apex of the roof, a dog that looks like Lassie swims by with a life jacket. the old man just says, "My GOD will rescue me . He will provide." Just then the levy breaks and a wall of water sweeps across the old man`s roof and knocks him off his perch, and he drowns. Now since the man had previously received Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord , after arriving in heaven he asks the Lord, " Why didn`t you provide for me? I had such great faith!"
The Lord replied," I sent you a helicopter, A row boat, a power boat and last but not least Lassie. I did provide for you."
I think that just like this old man, we just don’t recognise all the things that God provides for us. We are too blind to see how God provides for us in the day to day lives. He certainly does take care of us, but we don’t give him credit for the things he does for us.
Well today, I want to unpack another of God’s names and this one is all about a God who provides. Jehovah Jireh is his name. Before we go any further though, lets pause and pray.
Pray.
The name Jehovah Jireh is one of those compound names of God.
The Hebrew name for God was YHWH. It was such a sacred name that it was never pronounced. When they came to read it in the Scripture, they would read the name Adonai instead. Now the original Hebrew language only had consonants and so you had the four letter word YHWH. Vowels were added by that person doing the reading. When vowels were added to the language in around 600-700AD, the vowels of Adonai were placed below the word YHWH to remind people to say the word Adonai. It is thought that in the middle ages, someone had the idea to combine the two names to get YeHoWaH and so we get the English Jehovah.
Jehovah or YHWH was the name that was given to the God of the Patriarchs. We often find the phrase “YHWH the God of Abraham” or “YHWH the Elohim of Abraham.” YHWH was therefore the proper noun. i.e. it was a name of a person rather than an object. YHWH the Elohim (God) is a bit like John the Carpenter. YHWH is his name, Elohim a bit like his profession
Anyway, I am not going to say much more about YHWH as a name, that is for another day, but the bit I want to focus on is Jireh this morning.
The only place where this name is used is in Gen 22.
Read Gen 22:1-8
The story is actually quite a shocking one on its face value. Here God asks for a human sacrifice. There is nothing leading upto the events of this account which prepare either Abraham or the readers for such a request. Abraham has waited over 25 years for a son and has finally god has fulfilled his promise. Things are looking up and Abraham has much to be thankful for – God has provided him with a Son, an heir, a promised one.
Now we get to 22:2 and God says to Abraham “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”
Child sacrifice was not An unusual thing in the period of the patriarchs and even into the kings. It is not what probably not what shocked Abraham the most believe it or not. I think what was hardest for him to accept was the fact that this was his only Son, the son he had waited 25 years for. We are not told in this narrative what Abraham was thinking as he prepared for the journey. He got the supplies, cut the wood, saddled the donkeys and the little party of four headed out. The silence is conspicuous but Abraham’s mind must have been churning with all sorts of questions…
• “I waited for my son to be born for so many years. Will Sarah and I ever have another one?
• “What will happen to all the promises that God has given to me?
• “How will I ever be able to look Sarah in the face again? How will I be able to return home with the stains of Isaac’s blood on my clothes?”
But despite these, Abraham was resolute in his faith and steadfast in his determination to obey God.
As a bit of an aside, Moriah is an interesting place. It is only mentioned twice in the bible. Once in this account and once in 2 Chron 3:1 as the place where Solomon built his temple. While there is some conjecture, It seems entirely possible that the place where Abraham met God and offered a sacrifice was the place that later the rest of Israel also met with God and offered their sacrifices. Muslim tradition believe the Rock beneath their temple the Dome of the Rock is the same rock as which Abraham offered Isaac on. And of course the Dome of the Rock occupies the land where the temple was once built. Isn’t God’s plan incredible how it all just fits together nicely.
When they arrive at Moriah Abraham and Isaac go on ahead and the silence is finally broken by Isaac’s question. Abraham must have been expecting it – “Dad, I think we’ve forgotten something – where is the lamb.” And Abraham’s answer shows the extent of Abraham’s faith “God will himself provide the lamb”
This word Provide is the Hebrew word ra’ah and is where the word Jireh comes from. It actually means to see. Abraham was literally saying here God will see the lamb. What Abraham is meaning here is that God will see what we need and will provide for us. He is God after all, he sees everything, he forsees everything, he knows everything and foreknows everything and therefore as God he will provide. And prophetically Abraham relates what actually takes place.
Read Gen 22:9-14
Abraham is about to go through with the horrible act when God stops him. The test is complete, Abraham has shown himself completely obedient and faithful and now God provides the way of escape by providing a lamb.
And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah Jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.
Abraham called that place The Lord will provide or literally, The Lord sees. He sees our needs and he will act on them to provide. How prophetic. Here is where the temple was to be built. Here is where God would dwell among his people and witness their devotion. Here is where he would provide for them forgiveness through the sacrificial system – God would see and in seeing he would provide.
There are 3 things which are completely amazing about God’s Provision that I want to briefly focus on before we close and they all start with the letter P ….
1) God’s Provision is Prophetic
God’s provision is perfect because He knows what we need, where we need it and when we need it. He provides the right thing at the right place and at the very right time. Remember that the word Jireh means to see or foresee. We have a God who sees what we need. In actual fact, he foresaw yesterday what we need today.
Have you ever wondered where did the Ram come from? Did it just pop out of thin air. Probably not. You see it is more than likely that a few days before Abram arrived at that spot, a shepherd lost a ram. Not any ram, not a wild ram that was unkempt and scraggly, but a perfect ram – one that met every single qualification for sacrifice to a holy God. God knew that Abram was going to need a sacrifice at that particular time and in that particular place and he provided. He started to provide even before the need became apparent.
What secular man often puts down to coincidence is actually God’s providence.
Normally all of the good choir people came to church on Wednesday night to practice, and they tended to be early, well before the 7:30 starting time which is early for us Baptists. But one night, March 1, 1950, one by one, two by two, they all had excuses for being late. Marilyn, the church pianist, overslept on her after- dinner nap, so she and her mother were late. One girl, a high school student, was having trouble with her homework. That delayed her, so she was late. One couple couldn’t get their car started. They, and those they were to pick up, ended up being late. All 18 choir members, including the pastor and his wife, were late. All had good excuses. At 7:30, the time the choir rehearsal was to begin, not one soul was in the choir loft. This had never happened before. Now for the rest of the story. That night, the only night in the history of the church that the choir wasn’t starting to practice at 7:30, was the night that there was a gas leak in the basement of the West Side Baptist Church. At precisely the time at which the choir would have been singing, the gas leak was ignited by the church furnace and the whole building blew up. Was this just a fluke that no one was injured or killed? Was it just coincidence that made everyone late for choir practice that night? That’s what some people would say. But we know better. We know that God was watching over the members of West Side Baptist Church that night and as Jehovah Jireh, he saw the need before it was there and he provided.
Not only does God provide the perfect things before there is a need, he often provides before there is even a prayer uttered. There is no prayers recorded in the Genesis account, no arguing or debating with God. I don’t know, maybe Abraham did pray, or maybe he just didn’t know what to say and so said nothing. Ignorance or the lack of asking doesn’t stop God from providing for us. He is a loving Father who knows what we need before we ask and He loves to surprise us. Is 65:24 says “Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear”.
What is it that you need now? God knows and he knows even better than you do, because he knows what is going to happen tomorrow. Paul says in Ephesians 3:20 that God is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” God is able to do anything we ask, but he goes much further than that. You see, not everything we want is actually good for us. So God in his love, wisdom and foreknowledge gives us not what we ask for, but something far better – what we need. Are you trusting God to give you what you need or are you dissatisfied because he is not giving you what you want. Believe it when I say, he know what you need and he will provide the right things, at the right time and in the right place because God’s provision is Prophetic.
2) God’s Provision is Productive
God’s provision is usually the end of process. While our faith is strengthened when God provides, the process leading upto that point is also important. The process for Abraham had been a long one – 25 years culminating in YHWH providing a son. I believe that Abraham already knew God as Jehovah Jireh. His answer to Isaac’s question was that God would provide. He had faith even though he could see no way out. Even though the request to sacrifice his son was a horrifying one, the knowledge that God would provide was strong and it allowed Abraham to do 2 things and these are things which a knowledge of God’s provision can produce in us …
Firstly the fact that Abraham knew that God would provide allowed him to worship. Abraham made it abundantly clear to everyone that he was going to Worship God. He was going to offer a burnt offering to God. In the Old Testament, there were essentially 2 types of offerings or sacrifices. The first was a group which were worship offerings. They were meant to provide a “pleasing odor” to God They included grain offerings, peace offerings and burnt offerings. The second type of offering were offerings to expiate or atone for some wrong. They were made to appease an angry God. They included the sin offerings and the guilt offerings which were offered later on the day of atonement.
The offering God requested of Abraham was a burnt offering (vs 2). He was being called to come and worship God and Abraham was prepared to do this. Verse 5 he tells his servants to wait while he and Isaac go and worship God. Don’t you think that is amazing? Before God provided for Abraham, he was willing to worship him as God and Lord. Are we willing to worship God before we see the provision in our lives? Or do we actually wait for the provision and worship the provision rather than the provider?
When we are down in the dumps and we are in the midst of huge loss, do we worship God or do we condemn him? If we know God as Jehovah Jireh, we will worship him in every situation, because we will know that he our provider.
The second thing that Abraham was able to do was to be a giver. Because he knew that God would provide all his needs, he was willing to give to God that which was most valuable to him. What is most valuable to you today – your spouse, your child, your career, your house, your car, your dreams, your freedom, your time? What is it that you could not dream of giving up? Recognise this that if we can’t bear to think of giving that very thing up, we don’t know God as Jehovah Jireh. Hear that again. … if we can’t bear to think of giving something up, we don’t know God as Jehovah Jireh because if we did, we would hold that thing loosely. Are you prepared to give up all that God has given you now so that you can receive what he has in store for you?
There was once a widow that lived at Zarephath during a famine. One day a hungry prophet Elijah came out of nowhere to her door asking for a bit of bread. She didn’t have much, infact, she was preparing the very last of her flour and oil for her last meal – she didn’t know where the next meal was to come from and fully expected that after this morsel, she and her son would starve to death. But Elijah let her know that if she was willing to give all that she had to God’s servant then Jehovah Jireh would step into your situation and provide for the rest of the famine. This woman was prepared to give up what she had and as a consequence God provided a bottomless flour jar and an oil bottle which wouldn’t run dry and this went on for the duration of the drought.
Are you prepared to give up what you have if and when God asks? Trust him he will provide for you when you do.
3) God’s Provision is Perpetual
Our God is an eternal God who doesn’t change. Therefore his provision will always be there for those who trust him. Hudson Taylor, the great missionary to China said "God’s work, done God’s way, will not lack God’s support." Abraham proved this again and again – God would provide in every situation. And down through the ages he has provided for his servants
YHWH however is not just the God who provides but he has also become the PROVISION itself. This story has often been seen as type of God’s sacrifice of his own son. In the Genesis account you have the Father’s Sacrifice, the Son’s Submission and God’s Substitution. In Jesus’ death at Calvary, you have the Father’s Sacrifice, The Son’s Submission and God’s Substitution. God as Father loved the world so much that he gave his son to be sacrificed. Just like Abraham, it was his only son, heir to his throne and one he dearly loved. Jesus as the Son, unlike Isaac, knew through the whole sequence of events what it was that he was on earth to do. He was willing to go to the cross to submit to his Father’s will, to die.
The offering however wasn’t going to be a burnt offering of worship, but a sacrifice of atonement. God’s holiness had been offended by my sins and your sins. He demanded that we be punished and the requirement needed something to be killed. Rather than us shedding our own blood, God provided a substitute in the form of his own son. When God provided a substitute for Isaac, Abraham called that place “The LORD Will Provide” and for evermore there became a saying about that place “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.” Centuries later, outside the walls of the city of Jerusalem, a city built on that very same mountain, Christ was crucified and the prophecy of Abraham was fulfilled. At Calvary “It was provided” and it was provided for all generations. What Christ accomplished on that cross, no one else could have. What he accomplished was the chance for us to be forgiven completely of all our sins. We don’t need to offer guilt offerings ever again, because the one offering of the perfect Lamb of God achieved once and for all what we needed. God Provided and his provision is perpetual.
Do you know God as Jehovah Jireh?
Do you trust him to provide just what you need when and where you need it. He will because his provision is prophetic.
Are you trusting in his provision enough to be worshipping him now in all your current circumstances? And are you willing to give up all you have to gain what he is wanting to give you? Get to know him as Jehovah Jireh and you’ll get to know that his Provision is Productive.
Lastly are you relying on the provision of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the ultimate provision that God can give – it is the way we can enjoy a restored relationship with our creator. That gift from God is free and is open to the taking. It is perpetual – so take up the invitation if you haven’t already and get to know God as Jehovah Jireh. May you all be able to say with me that he is “my provider.”
