The Lord Will Provide Series

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)