Jehovah-Jireh

Jehovah-Jireh:  The Lord Will Provide

          Gen. 22:14 NKJV “And Abraham called the name of the place, The Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, ‘In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.’”

          (1)  God promised Abraham that from him He would make a great nation; and He ordered Abraham to leave his homeland, the ancient moon-god city of Ur. Abraham was 75 and Sarah 65 at this time, already old for moving and pioneering. Yet they obeyed God, packed up, and head (go) out for faraway Canaan.

          (2)  Twenty-four years later, when Abraham was 99 and Sarah 89, God promised that they would soon have a son named Isaac, who would be Abraham’s covenant’s heir.  Months later, when Abraham was 100 and Sarah 90, by a miracle of Almighty God, Sarah gave birth to Isaac.

          (3)  Then the great test came some years later.  God commanded Abraham to take the young Isaac (his only child by Sarah, his heir, his sole hope of the future fulfillment of God’s promise that Abraham would be a father of many nations) and offering him as a burnt offering on Mt. Moriah, later the site of Jerusalem. 

          (4)  In trust and innocence Isaac asked his father, “But where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”  Abraham’s reply of faith and compassion was simply, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burning offering” (Gen. 22:7,8).

          (5)  One of the most moving moments in the Bible history occurred (happened) when God’s call stopped Abraham’s hand from slaying his son, and a ram for the sacrifice was seen caught by his horns in a nearby thicket (bush). Abraham called that place Jehovah-Jireh, “The-Lord-Will-Provide.”

          (6)  Abraham believed that God, who miraculously brought Isaac into the world, would raise him from the dead, even if the boy was sacrificed (Heb. 11:19).

          (7)  Isaac, as a type, or illustration, of the submissive Christ, went to the same Moriah—the site of the temple and near to Calvary—in obedience to the Father’s will (plan).  Christ was the true Lamb of God provided by Jehovah.

          (8)  In this case the Father did not stop the sacrifice at Calvary; but in His love for us and desire for our salvation, He allowed His only Son’s life to be taken.  Christ’s coming and His atoning (forgiving) death were fulfillment of the name Jehovah-Jireh (John 3:16 memorize it).

          (9)  Jesus said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56).  Jesus was referring to the day that Abraham offered Isaac and saw, in a typical way, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). 

          Key: This great outline, it should teach us to trust God daily for His provision in every test of life.  God is Jehovah-Jireh, “The-Lord-Will-Provide.”