The Names of God – Jehovah-Jireh

When I became a new babe in Christ the first thing I wanted to do was to know everything about God and my new found faith.  That was 40 years ago and I am still learning about our Heavenly Father and His multifaceted nature.  One valuable lesson I learned is that knowing the names of God gives us a “picturesque” view of His ways and descriptive explanations of His character and nature.  Once such name, which I call upon often is his name Jehovah-Jireh.

Jehovah-Jireh is God’s descriptive name for “the LORD our Provider.”  We find the first occurrence of God’s name Jehovah-Jireh in Genesis 22:13-14.  This is an awesome story in which Abraham was asked by God to offer up his only son, Isaac.  Twenty-five years prior to this event, God called Abraham to depart from his native land and family to follow Him.  With this call, God gave Abraham the promise of making him a great nation, to make his name great, and He (God) will bless those that bless Abraham and curse those that curse Abraham, and through Abraham all families of the earth would be blessed.  Abraham and Sarah were in their senior years when God called Abraham to follow Him and they had NO children, so this reveals to us that a supernatural miracle is about to happen, which did and Isaac was born. 

So we now come to the amazing story of God asking Abraham to offer his only son, that he waited 25 years for, on an altar as a sacrifice.   Now, envision this scene played out in your mind.  You, your son and several servants embark on a three-day journey to a mountain of God’s choosing.  You tell the servants “wait at the bottom of the mountain while my son and I go up to the top of the mountain to offer a sacrifice to our LORD.”  Imagine the thoughts going through Abraham’s mind with each step up the mountain!   As they are going up the mountain, Isaac asks, “father, where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”  And Abraham replies, “my son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering.” They finally arrive at the place told to Abraham by God and Abraham builds an altar then binds Isaac, his only son, and lays him on the altar.  Would you have been obedient as Abraham?  Would you so willingly offer your only son as a live sacrifice?

With Isaac laying on the altar, Abraham lifted up the knife to kill his son!  Suddenly, the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven and said “lay not thine hand upon the lad, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your only son” (Genesis 22:12).  Verse 13 tells us that Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw a ram nearby caught in a thicket by his horns.  Abraham took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering instead of his son.  Abraham called the name of that place “Jehovah-Jireh, the LORD will provide!”

Hebrews 11:17-19 gives us the answer why Abraham, by faith, was able to walk up that mountain to offer Isaac as a sacrifice.  When learn from these verses that when Abraham was tried, he believed that if he killed Isaac, God was “able” to raise him up from the dead.  Why, because God gave Abraham a four-fold promise and Abraham knew God kept His promises.  On that day Abraham already knew God to be a promise keeper, now He learned of Jehovah-Jireh, “the LORD that provides.”

What we learn from this amazing story is that Jehovah God tries (or tests) His children’s faithfulness.   Just as He tried Abraham, He also tries or tests us of our faithfulness.   Abraham passed the test by believing “all things are possible with God.”  Do you want to grow in your relationship with the LORD?  Then we too need to know, Jehovah God will test us of our faithfulness.  Will you too be faithful knowing that whatever Jehovah God asks us to do, He will provide the means.  Has Jehovah-Jireh called you into ministry full-time, then know there will be tests or trials you will experience!  Has Jehovah God asked you to wait and trust Him for your future spouse?  You will be tempted, but will you wait?  Has Jehovah God asked you to give your grocery money to your neighbor in need?  Will you trust Him with the outcome?  Friends, we all need to believe and trust that whatever God has called us to do, He will provide the means, but we will go through something first.  God owns everything and knows everything and will not leave us hanging.  Father God called my husband and I both into full-time ministry upon retirement.  Our journey has been one of many tests of our faith to believe in Jehovah-Jireh for the outcome of this ministry.  With each test as we trusted God, He provided.  Now I won’t say it was easy in the beginning!  Several times when we had limited resources Jehovah-Jireh asked us to provide funding for a particular program that we couldn’t figure out how.  We quickly learned we had to trust God for what He called us to do.  These tests drew us closer to Father God and I thank Him daily for them.  So remember, whatever storm you are in, it is only a test, and tests do not last long nor forever!  Jehovah-Jireh will provide the means for whatever He has called you to do!  Believe and trust in Jehovah God for the results.

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