Names of God - Jehovah Jireh
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Introduction:
Introduction:
I. The Meaning of Jehovah Jireh
I. The Meaning of Jehovah Jireh
We come, in our study to another compound name of the Lord.
The first part of the compound word “Jehovah” is the name that is most often used for God in the Bible and means “The Self-Existent, ever present God.”
The name “Jehovah” is the name in the Scriptures that are used to speak of the God that protects or provides for His people.
“Jireh” is another name for God that gives us tremendous insight into the character and attributes of God.
“Jireh” is a Hebrew word that means “will provide.”
Now, the English word provide is make up of two Latin words: “pro” means “before” and “vide” is the word from which we get our English word “video,” meaning “vision” or “to see.”
Thus, “provide” means “to see before hand.”
It is the idea of seeing future needs and meeting them.
So, an accurate meaning of the Hebrew “Jehovah Jireh” is “The Lord will Provide.”
God is more than an all powerful and all knowing God as we have gotten to know Him in other names.
When we know God as the Jehovah Jireh we also see Him as the God Who will provide for our future needs.
The Hebrew form is “ראה” (Jireh) and literally means “to see, to understand.”
The self existing God see and understands and needs and based on the usage of the word, He meets those needs.
Listen, He is personally involved in our lives in an intimate way.
You may find it interesting to note that this name appears about 142 times in the OT.
However, only once is it translated “to provide.”
The other times it is translated “to appear” or “to see.”
And all of those things work together for us to understand that our self-existent, all powerful God looks and sees our needs and provides for them.
II. The Manifestation of Jehovah-Jireh
II. The Manifestation of Jehovah-Jireh
To see the greatness of this name when return to our hermeneutical rule of biblical interpretation: “the rule of first mention.”
Again, the rule says that the first time a name, place, phrase, or event is found in the Bible holds the key to understanding its meaning elsewhere in the Bible.
And the first time that we see “Jehovah-Jireh” in the context of God providing is in Genesis 22:14.
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.
This could also be translated as: “The-LORD-Will-Provide—in the mound of LORD it shall be provided.”
And, of course, this name comes to us in connection with the ultimate test of Abraham’s faith.
As we saw in a previous study, in Genesis 21 God told Abraham to send Ishmael away.
And with the sending away of Ishmael, the stage is set for the supreme test of Abraham’s faith.
And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.
And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
Now, here again is the “rule of first mention” because here is where we see the word “love” for the first time.
It occurs in connection with Abraham’s love for his only son.
This is also the first time where the phrase “only son” appears in the Bible as well.
Now, it is significant that God calls Isaac Abraham’s only son because Ishmael was Abraham’s son as well.
However, as you remember from our previous studies, Isaac was the only son of promise.
Remember that God had given Abraham a promise years before this that he would have a son that would be the first of a line that would number as the stars in the sky.
Now, he asks him to take the only son that He had promised him and sacrifice him.
Certainly Abraham’s faith must have certainly been put to the test.
God have me this promise and now He is asking me to kill the promise that He gave to me?
Not only must Abraham have been thinking about the promise of a son, but also the promise of a lineage.
If I kill my son, then what about the promise of a son and a lineage.
What a test of Abraham’s faith.
Notice Abraham’s reaction to such a command.
And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.
Abraham was immediately obedient, leaving early the next morning.
Boy, how much would we try to negotiate the God.
“Lord, this cannot be what you want me to do, this does not make any sense.”
You know, it must grieve the Lord when we try and make sense out of things that He clearly tells us to do.
And we will not move until it makes sense to us; that is the way that our brain, unfortunately, works.
If it does not make sense by human wisdom, then this cannot be from the Lord.
I doubt very seriously that the command that the Lord gave to Abraham made sense, but the command was clear.
And Abraham did not hesitate, he immediately rose to obey the voice of the Lord.
When he arrived at the foot of Mount Moriah notice what he said to his servants.
And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.
Interesting note here; this is also the first time that the worship appears in the Bible.
Is it, perhaps, instructive for us that when worship first appeared in the Scripture that is revolved around sacrifice?
Notice the words of King David.
And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
David understood very clearly that a true sacrifice to the Lord was a sacrifice that involved a cost.
The Church today has a warped idea of what consists true worship.
The idea today in so many “religious” venues is that worship is what God does for us.
They look for a “feeling” from the Holy Spirit to relieve them from the pressures, distractions, and defeats of the week.
They look, as one fellow pastor told me, for “heaven to come down.”
This is also the same idea in the NT with the writer of Hebrews.
By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.
So, in the Scriptures, the idea of worship is not what God can do for us, but it is what we do for God; and that is an offering of Sacrifice.
If someone is not willing to sacrifice to God, then there is no actual worship only emotion that does not last past the first trial of life.
That is there are so may defeated Christians, because their worship does not contain any substance only being emotionally stirred and believing is meeting with the Lord.
And so many Churches developed that in believers, because that is what builds large crowds.
But you starting talking about sacrifice, then you will lose the ones that are not true followers or are very apathetic about the service to God.
Abraham was going onto the mountain to worship, knowing that He was going to sacrifice.
The English word “worship” come from two old English words, “worth” and “ship.”
“Worth” means “that quality of a person or thing that lends importance, value, or merit.”
“Ship” refers to rank of office, such as kingship, dictatorship, governorship, and in the case of God, Lordship.
So, when we worship God we are acknowledging His importance, divine status, as He is revealed through His names in the Scriptures.
Notice one more important area of verse 5.
And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.
Even in the midst of a situation that was incomprehensible for Abraham, he still believed the promise of God.
He assured his servants the he and “the lad” would return together from the mountain.
I am not sure if Abraham believed that God would provide another sacrifice or believed that once he obeyed and sacrificed his son that God would then resurrect him; although, at this time in the Scripture resurrection was something that was not understood.
So, I am not sure what was in the mind of Abraham, but he longed to obey and believed the promises of God and that He would provide.
After Abraham built the altar notice what he did.
And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
This is the greatest demonstration of faith and obedience in the OT because Abraham knew that the promise of God was all wrapped up in Isaac.
And now God wanted him to sacrifice Isaac.
He could not reconcile the two things in his mind.
And you know, that is what faith is like many times.
The inability to reconcile human reasoning; however, if it were reconcilable from the human perspective, then it is not much faith.
Genesis 22 is also the first time in the Bible we find the word “obey.”
And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
True obedience is when we obey even if it does not make sense.
True obedience is when we do what God says even if it goes against the grain of our selfish nature.
How could Abraham sacrifice is only son, which would mean the loss of the promise of God that his seed would be a great nation and bless all the people of the earth?
Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.
As I said before, resurrection had never occurred yet, but the writer of Hebrews says that was certainly a possibility with Abraham.
Abraham had already learned that God was the El Shaddai, the God that can do anything that He wants to do.
If God can bring us this child by a miracle, then He can certainly do what needs to be done to keep His promise true; even if it means resurrection.
III. The Material of Jehovah-Jireh
III. The Material of Jehovah-Jireh
We learn in this account in the Scriptures the wonderful truth that God will provide, miraculously.
Gods wants us to know that when we are obeying Him, when we are sacrificing to Him, whatever the cost or whatever the sacrifice, He will provide for us.
And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.
Did you notice how Abraham understood worship and sacrifice; “God will provide for Himself...”
Our sacrifice needs to always be about God and not about us.
Remember how we have been talking about the first words that appear in this text?
We also have the first time appearance of only son, love, worship, and obeyed.
God will provide for our needs and it is based on our love, sacrifice, and obedience to Him.
At various times in our lives all of us have our “Isaac’s,” those things that have become very dear to us and may even take God’s place as number one in our lives.
And from time to time all of us must have to go to our Mount Moriah where we must be willing to give up those things that squeeze God out of our lives.
Many times we are reluctant to give us our security or the things that we hold dear, but we will never truly know God as the “Jehovah-Jireh” the Lord will provide unless we are willing to go to our own Mount Moriah and there lay everything on the altar.
Understanding God as the Jehovah-Jireh is understanding:
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
And only when we understand God as the Jehovah-Jireh do we know Him well enough not to worry.
Jesus taught that we can trust the provisions of God one day at a time.
We cannot get God’s provisions for tomorrow, today.
Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be.
God will give is the necessary provisions and strength to meet each day that He has given us to live.
He is the Lord who Provides, He is the Jehovah-Jireh.