The Names of God
07/29/2001 - Jehovah Jireh, "The Lord Provides"
This morning we continue our series on The Names of God and the name we're going to look at today is Jehovah Jireh, "The Lord Provides." That's God's promise to every believer who waits on him, to every one of his children who trusts in him. Many times in our walk with God our faith will be tested. And when that happens, God wants to show us that he will provide.
I can remember a vivid test of my faith when Jennifer and I were about to leave our former church in Bristol and head out to Chicago with the Giessler's for a one-year internship at Willow Creek Community Church. That internship prepared us to start Valley View. We had just purchased a house about two years before and we weren't quite sure what to do with it while we were in Chicago. At first we considered selling it, but then decided to rent it instead.
And so we advertised the house in a variety of places and prayed for a tenant. And at first we weren't too concerned about it, it was a good house and we didn't think we'd have any trouble renting it. But as the days turned into weeks, and the weeks turned into months, I started to get nervous. The thought of leaving behind an empty house and not drawing any rental income for a whole year was frightening. I can remember sharing my fears with another man in the church and he said, "What's the big deal? People leave behind empty houses all the time!" And I said, "Gee, thanks. You certainly have the gift of discouragement!" It was a big deal to us.
One week before we were to pack the truck and leave we still didn't have a tenant. And I can remember saying to God, "What are doing to us? We're convinced that you want us to start this church and go to Chicago to prepare. And you've provided for us in so many ways. Are we going to have to leave an empty house behind? What about the payments?" God can we trust you?
Another test of our faith came that same year when the supervisor for our internship said, "You can come to Willow Creek and do the internship, but we're only going to pay you $12,000 a year. And that's not enough for a family of four to live in Chicago. In fact, it's going to cost you at least twice that much to live out here. But if God's really in this he'll provide for you. So you and the Giessler's need to trust God to raise an additional $12,000 a piece, $24,000 total to spend a year out here." God can we trust you?
When we came back from Chicago to start Valley View we spent a month looking all around the area for a place to meet. We checked out schools and day care centers and other public buildings, but couldn't find a thing. It didn't help that we didn't have any money to rent a facility. And again God tested our faith. We were convinced the he had called us to start this church and knew that he would provide a place to meet, but we weren't finding it. "God can we trust you?" was the question again.
There have been lots of tests of faith in our lives over the years and I'm sure in your lives as well. Tests of faith like that happen all the time to those who are serious about walking with God. They certainly happened to Abraham the man whose life we've been looking at so far in this series. The man that the Bible calls "the Father of our Faith." And each time he was tested, God revealed himself to Abraham in a fresh new way. And it's in times of crisis that God often reveals himself to us in new ways as well.
In Genesis 14, God had just fulfilled his promise to make Abraham's name great. He became a war hero overnight, the General Schwarzkopf of his day. And after the dust settled and the smoke cleared he was offered a lot of loot by the wicked King of Sodom. But Abraham knew the motive behind the offer. It was so that that evil king could say, "I made Abraham rich, not this God he talks about." And in the midst of that crisis of temptation God revealed himself as El Elyon, "God Most High," creator and possessor of heaven and earth, the God who owns all the wealth in the universe. And that revelation gave Abraham the strength to resist Sodom's temptation and trust God to meet his needs. And God did and eventually made Abraham very wealthy, the Bill Gates of his day.
Last week, we met Abraham in the midst of another crisis. God had promised him a child through whom he would build a great nation. But Abraham and Sarah were childless. She couldn't get pregnant. Abraham had received that promise when he was seventy-five years old and now he was ninety-nine and that promised child hadn't come yet. He had already given up on himself and on Sarah and now he was tempted to give up on God. When in Genesis 17, God reveals himself to Abraham as El-Shaddai, "God Almighty," the God who's able to fulfill all of his promises. Abraham knew God to be El Elyon, the Most High God, but now he needed to know that God was not only powerful, but trustworthy. He always keeps his word. And when he was one hundred years old and Sarah was ninety, Isaac, the promised child was finally born.
Now fast forward another fifteen or twenty years and Abraham is about to face the toughest test of his life. If you have a Bible turn with me to Genesis 22. For years everything was bumping along pretty well. Isaac, who's name means "laughter," had brought a lot of joy into Abraham and Sarah's life. And he was growing up well. Abraham had sent Hagar and Ishmael away so they weren't around to torment Isaac and cause trouble. Life was good and Abraham was enjoying the blessing of God.
Then his whole world took a drastic turn. Look at Genesis 22:1-2, Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. 2 Then God said, "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."
And Abraham went, "Say what? Sacrifice Isaac? You gotta be kidding me? Kill my own son, my son whom I love, the promised child! That's barbaric! That's what the Canaanites do who worship false gods! First you make me wait a hundred years to have a child and now you want me to kill him? I've already sent Ishmael away and now you're taking Isaac! What kind of God are you? How will your promise of great nation ever be fulfilled?"
None of that's written in the text, but I can't imagine that Abraham wouldn't think at least some of those thoughts. But what he does next is absolutely amazing. He wakes up early the very next morning, splits wood, saddles his donkey, takes Isaac along with two of his servants, and obeys God.
Look at verse 3, Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled 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.
This is why Abraham is such a spiritual giant! When God asked him to do something he did it, even when it didn't make sense, even when it would cost him dearly. He obeyed. That's Hall of Fame faith.
The book of Hebrews in the New Testament gives us some insight as to what may have been going through Abraham's mind as he walked to Mount Moriah. Listen to Hebrews 11:17-19, By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." 19 Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.
Abraham believed in El Elyon, "God Most High," creator of heaven and earth, who had the power to raise his son, Isaac, from the dead. He believed that God was strong enough to do that, yet he had no guarantee that he would. Still he obeyed.
Look at verses 4-10, On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you." 6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 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?" 8 Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together. 9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
Abraham was about to go through with it. The altar was built. The wood was arranged. The boy was bound. The knife was raised ready to plunge through Isaac's heart. And at the last possible second the Lord spoke.
Look at verses 11-15, But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. 12 "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." 13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place (Jehovah Jireh) The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided."
All along God had planned to provide a substitute, a ram to die in Isaac's place. He gave that ram an appetite and led it up the high mountain and when it was rummaging around for food in a thicket it got it's horn stuck. And just at the right time it was there as God's provision. Abraham passed the test with flying colors and God showed him a fresh new part of himself, Jehovah Jireh, "the Lord Provides."
Abraham passed the toughest test of his life. And God honored him for it. Look at verses 15-19, The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, "I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me." 19 Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.
God blessed Abraham's faith and eventually made his descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the beach. And you and I are his descendants if we believe in Abraham's God and what He did for us two thousand years later. For you see, God himself took the same test that he gave to Abraham. On a hill, not far from Mount Moriah, just outside of Jerusalem, God took his son, his only son, the son whom he loves, Jesus Christ, and sacrificed him in our place, for our sin, on a Roman cross. Jesus became the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He became our substitute and took the punishment for our sin, so that if we believe in him we have eternal life. That's the gospel. That's the provision Jehovah Jireh has made for each one of us. He has provided forgiveness of sin through the death of his son on the cross. Have you received that provision? Do you know Jehovah Jireh?
We were to leave for Chicago on a Sunday. And for months we had been praying that God would provide someone to rent our house. On Wednesday night, just four days, before we left, God provided a tenant. And we breathed a huge sigh of relief. Jehovah Jireh. God will provide.
We needed $24,000 to live in Chicago for a year to do the internship. $12,000 for us and $12,000 for the Giesslers. And by the end of that year God had provided more than double that. $48,000 was given to meet our needs and help start Valley View Community Church. Jehovah Jireh. God will provide.
We looked high and low for a place to meet and the Wednesday after our first meeting under the oak tree in Valley Forge Park, a staff member of the Fairview Village Church of the Nazarene offered us rent free use of their beautifully, restored barn. And we gathered there on a Saturday with tears in our eyes and said, "Jehovah Jireh. God will provide!"
Where do you want to see God provide for you right now? Trust him. Obey him. And wait for him. And when it is a good thing, he will provide. That's our God. Jehovah Jireh. My Provider. His grace is sufficient for me. Jehovah Jireh. My Provider. Jehovah Jireh cares for me. And for you. And for us.