Sermon: Jehovah-Jireh: The Lord Will Provide, Genesis 22.1–19

Don Ruhl

5 years ago

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Jehovah-Jireh: The Lord Will Provide

Genesis 22.1–19

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • March 3, In the year of our Lord Christ, 2019

Persuasion:

Genesis 22.1–2 | Offer Your Only Son

1 Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
1. Abraham had already been following the Lord for decades.
  1. Genesis 15 says that God made a great promise to Abraham and
  2. that Abraham believed God:
    
    5 Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” 6 And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness (Genesis 15.5–6).
2. Yet, decades later the Lord was testing Abraham’s faith.
Genesis 22.3–6 | “We Will Come Back to You”

3 So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. 5 And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.” 6 So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together.
1. It took three days to reach the spot,
  1. giving Abraham three days to let this run through his mind.
  2. Yet, he did not waver.
    1. He knew what the Lord had said.
    2. He knew what He had to do.
2. However, look at his words in verse 5 again:
  
  5 And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.”
  1. Abraham did not make a mistake when he said, “we.”
  2. He knew that both of them were coming back,
    1. although he knew that he was going to sacrifice Isaac.
    2. Hebrews 11 explains for us what Abraham was thinking:
      
      17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18 of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,” 19 concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense (Hebrews 11.17–19).
      1. God had made a promise to Abraham
      2. that through Isaac, Abraham would have countless descendants.
        Abraham reasoned that God keeps His word.
        Therefore, Abraham God will raise Isaac from the dead.
3. What Abraham said next is equally remarkable.
Genesis 22.7–8a | God Will Provide

7 But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8a And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.”
1. Abraham knew
  1. that when God commands,
  2. He also provides the resources.
2. Abraham believed he would offer Isaac as that lamb, and
  1. did not know
  2. that God would provide another sacrifice.
Genesis 22.8b–10 | Abraham Prepared to Sacrifice Isaac

8b So the two of them went together. 9 Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. 10 And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
1. We have to credit Isaac also, because
  1. the story does not indicate
  2. that Isaac struggled but cooperated with his father.
2. Watch Abraham.
  1. He reaches for the knife to slay his son.
  2. What will happen next?
Genesis 22.11–12 | “I Know that You Fear God”

11 But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” 12 And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”
1. Just like when God called Abraham in verse 1 and
  1. Abraham said, “Here I am,”
  2. so he did it again,
    1. ready to obey because
    2. he lived by faith, he trusted in the Lord.
2. God saw Abraham’s faith in action.
  1. God did not need to see Isaac die,
  2. only Abraham’s full faith,
    1. that he was willing to put anything on the altar,
    2. knowing that everything he had came from God originally.
Genesis 22.13–14 | Jehovah-Jireh

13 Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 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. Abraham knew that it was still appropriate to make an offering to the Lord.
2. Therefore, Abraham used the ram,
  1. which somehow, for some reason,
  2. had become caught in a thicket nearby, and
    1. Abraham saw his opportunity and
    2. this man over 100 years old offered the ram.
3. Abraham could see,
  1. just like he had told Isaac earlier,
  2. that the Lord will provide for Himself an animal for a burnt offering.
    1. Therefore, he named the place, Jehovah-Jireh, The-LORD-will-provide.
    2. The children of Israel learned such a great lesson from this story
      1. that they came up with a saying,
      2. “In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
4. Brethren, over and over again,
  1. the narrative of the Bible shows
  2. that the Lord provides whatever we need.
    1. He provides for our bodies.
    2. He provides for our spirits.
      1. Even as He provided a ram as a substitute for Isaac,
      2. so the Lord has provided a Lamb as a substitute for us.
5. Since Abraham had unquestioning faith in God,
  1. leading to obedience, for
    1. what is faith
    2. if it does not obey the one in whom it trusts,
  2. God reiterated His promise to Abraham, and
    1. expanded upon it.
    2. Imagine God making the following promise to you.
VII.Genesis 22.15–19 | Unlimited Blessing

15 Then the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, 16 and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son— 17 blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” 19 So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.
1. God kept that promise and
2. He keeps fulfilling the promise.
3. Let me show you how.

Exhortation:

In Romans 4,
1. Paul referenced Abraham as the father of us all,
2. if we have the faith of Abraham.
In Galatians 3, Paul showed how we are of Abraham:

6 Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” 7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham (Galatians 3.6–7).

9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham (Galatians 3.9).

29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3.29).
To be accounted righteous by God as Abraham was,
1. to be blessed as Abraham was, and
2. to be an heir of God as Abraham was,
  1. we have to have the faith of Abraham.
  2. We have to be willing to go as far as he did to show it.
3. Let me add this: I have been praying for a long time
  1. that I would be a blessing like Abraham.
  2. You know that I frequently remind you that Genesis 12.3
    1. is a promise from God to Abraham
    2. upon which the entire biblical message has been built:
      
      3 “I will bless those who bless you,
      And I will curse him who curses you;
      And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
      (Genesis 12.3)
    3. However, the promise began with these words in verse 2:
      
      2 “I will make you a great nation;
      I will bless you
      And make your name great;
      And you shall be a blessing.”
      (Genesis 12.2)
      1. I have said, “God, I want to be a blessing like Abraham.”
      2. It is not just that God blessed Abraham, but
        Abraham himself was a blessing to the world,
        like Joseph in Egypt, or
        like the man of Psalm 84:
        
        5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in You,
        Whose heart is set on pilgrimage.
        6 As they pass through the Valley of Baca [or weeping],
        They make it a spring;
        The rain also covers it with pools.
        7 They go from strength to strength;
        Each one appears before God in Zion.
        (Psalm 84.5–7)
        
        In my mind, here is the way that I picture this passage.
        The blessed man goes through valleys of weeping, and
        this valley was waterless, but
        because he is a blessed man
        by his presence and his life,
        springs appear, bringing precious water,
        so that places get stronger and better.
        See before him a drought-stricken land, but
        behind him water and greenery.
        He does not just receive blessings, he gives them.
        Like the man who had a new car.
        A boy asked where he got it.
        The man said from his brother.
        Most of us would say, I wish I had a brother like that.
        The boy said, I wish I could be a brother like that.
  3. Don’t you want that to be true of you?
  4. I have been praying for that for myself, as I said, for a long time.
4. Then for my sermon today,
  1. I remembered that I had started a class on the names of God.
  2. I decided that sermons would serve my purpose better.
    1. So I taught other subjects in my class, but
    2. have preached a couple of sermons on God and some on His names.
      1. For this Lord’s Day, I picked, “Jehovah-Jireh,”
      2. not knowing where it would lead me.
5. Abraham named the place where he attempted to offer Isaac,
  1. Jehovah-Jireh, The-Lord-Will-Provide, because
  2. of what he told Isaac as they went to the sacrifice and because
  3. of what the Lord did, provided a sacrifice.
    1. If I want to be a blessing like Abraham,
    2. if I want to make sure that God provides for me in all things,
      1. I have to have the faith of Abraham, and
        this part I was not expecting,
      2. I have to be willing to sacrifice what or whom I cherish the most.
        What would He ask me to offer?
        Then I remembered the words of the Lord Jesus:
        
        37 “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 10.37–39).
        
        Am I ready?
        I got nervous, but then
        I realized I already made that decision
        when I became a Christian and
        when I was baptized.
6. Then again, the Lord asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac
  1. decades after Abraham had already started obeying the Lord.
  2. Does God still want to see my faith in action,
    1. even showing a willingness to sacrifice everything in the process?
    2. Why would He do it with Abraham but not with me?
7. What is baptism?
  1. Most people are converted from denominational beliefs about baptism
  2. to what the Bible says about baptism,
    1. especially on the mode and the purpose, but
    2. they miss that they are dead,
      1. dead to the world and
      2. dead to everything connected with them, including themselves.
        They should have sacrificed
        everything and everyone to the Lord.
What about you: What do you cherish more than anything?
1. If God asked for it, as He did Abraham, would you give it to God?
2. Note that like Abraham, it may not be an “it,” but a person.
3. Do you believe that God compensates or rewards us for what we sacrifice?
  1. In other words, do you believe that He is, The-LORD-Who-Provides?
  2. Do you believe Abraham named God appropriately? Jehovah-Jireh?
    1. He wants to see your faith in action!
    2. Are you ready right now show it, dying to yourself and everything?

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