The Lord Will Provide

In this modern world, we’ve become (especially in more richly blessed countries like the United States) hyper self–reliant. We see ourselves as providing for our own needs, our families’ needs, our community’s needs, and perhaps even contributing members in providing the world’s needs. Technology, modern medicine, and regular access to food and water have drastically decreased our belief in an all-providing God. We can solve our own problems. We look to ourselves to make those provisions and then face mounting psychological stress and anxiety when we are not able to provide for ourselves or our families in the exact way we want. We look in all kinds of places for help. In reality, the first and last place we need to look is God. Do we truly believe we serve a God that provides all our needs? While the modern world has created even further obstacles for that sincere belief, we aren’t the only ones who have looked to ourselves over God for provisions and answers.

We are introduced to Abram, the patriarch of faithfulness, in Genesis 12. Abram was 75 years old when God promised to make a great nation from his family. Yet, Abram and Sarai, his wife, were older (even by Old Testament standards) and had yet to conceive their own child. But God promised He would do this for Abram because of his faithfulness. They waited for around 10 years for this promised son and nothing happened. You can imagine their confusion and frustration. They grew so frustrated and impatient that Sarai with the consent of her husband concocted a plan to create an heir. Sarai convinced Abram to take Hagar, her handmaid, as his concubine to conceive a child. Their plan worked and Hagar become pregnant which just enraged Sarai. Sarai treated Hagar cruelly (with the approval of Abram) and eventually, Hagar fled. It is in this moment that we are introduced to Jehovah El Roi – The God who Sees. Hagar cries out for help and God heard her cries. God promised He would take care of her and her child if Hagar returned. So, she did and gave birth to Ishmael. So, Abraham was 86, and still, he and Sarai had yet to conceive their promised son.

Ten or so more years go by and finally, the Lord returns to Abraham to confirm His promise to him. By this time, Sarah is 90 years old and Abraham is 99. Abraham laughs when God confirmed Sarah would have a son and even asked him, “Shall a child be born to a man who is 100 years old? And, shall Sarah, who is 90 years old, beat a child (Genesis 17:17)?” God immediately set Abraham straight and told him yes – Sarah will have a child. Later, Sarah overheard a similar conversation between Abraham and Angels of the Lord (Genesis 18). Like her husband, Sarah also laughed to herself and asked “After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord being old also (Genesis 18:13)?” And just like with Abraham, God immediately addressed Sarah by asking Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh?… Is anything too hard for the Lord (Genesis 18:14)?” Within the year, Sarah conceived and bore Abraham their first and only child – their promised son – Isaac (Genesis 21).

After years of waiting – and at times impatiently and even interferingly waiting – Abraham and Sarah finally had their promised son. Isaac was born miraculously to the very elderly couple which once again proved to both Abraham and Sarah that they were following and serving the one true God. A God that ultimately kept His promises. A God that protected His followers. A God that worked miracles. Now, after several years, Isaac grew and became a young boy. Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac had all remained faithful to God. Yet, God decided to test Abraham and Sarah one more time (Genesis 22). God instructed Abraham to take Isaac to the land of Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice to God on the mountain of God’s choosing. The text indicates no pushback from Abraham and Sarah. It just says, “So, Abraham rose early the next morning… (Genesis 22:3).” I’m not a parent – I have not been blessed with children – so I can only begin to imagine what it would have felt like to have been Abraham and Sarah. But I can tell you this, Sarah, who was barren, had waited her entire life for a child. Now, I can imagine that. I can imagine what the feelings were – the immense happiness – to finally be blessed with a one and only child only but then to be asked to sacrifice my child. Confusion, fear, anger, and utter sadness probably don’t even begin to span the gambit of emotions for Abraham and Sarah. Yet, we read nothing of them pushing back against God’s request.  Perhaps they did feel all those things but they clearly trusted God enough to do what he said. So, Abraham rose and took their son to Moriah.

After three days, Abraham and Isaac arrived. Moses’ telling of this story in Genesis indicates that Abraham had complete confidence both he and Isaac would return from their trip to worship God atop the mountain. He told his servants, “Stay here…I will go younger and worship, we will come back to you (Genesis 22:5). In his mind, Isaac had already died and been resurrected. He had already given Isaac to God and he knew God would give him back because Isaac was his promised son. Abraham believed in God’s promises and that God would take care of him – no matter what. So, Abraham and Isaac ascended the mountain alone. Eventually, Isaac realizing they had not brought a sacrifice for the Lord, asked his father, “Where is the lamb?” to which Abraham simply responded, “My son, God will provide (Genesis 22:7 -8 ).” So, they reached the top of the mountain. Then, Abraham prepared Isaac atop the altar. And yet, still, nothing seems to indicate Abraham was not willing to do what God asked him. Abraham stretched the knife over his son and was about to slay Isaac – his promised son – for the Lord. In fact, like Moses implied earlier, the Hebrew writer directly tells us in Hebrews 11:17 – 18  that Abraham has in his mind already offered Isaac to God.

“By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,” concluding that God was able to raise him up even from the dead

As the knife heads toward Isaac, all of the sudden, an Angel of the Lord called out to Abraham from heaven, “Abraham, Do not lay your hand on your son…now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me (Genesis 22:11 – 12).” Abraham then looked and saw a ram caught in the thicket. He released his son and offered the ram to Jehovah and named the alter atop the mountain, “JEHOVAH JIREH, – THE LORD WILL PROVIDE.”

The Scriptures are full of examples and lessons about the Lord’s provision:

• My God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Jesus Christ – Philippians 4:19
• Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us – Ephesians 3:20
• Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these… – Matthew 6: 24 – 35
• He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? – Romans 8: 32
• If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! – Matthew 7:11
• The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. – Psalm 34: 10
• No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. – 1 Corinthians 10:13
• And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. – 2 Corinthians 9:8
• The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing. – Psalm 145: 15 – 16
• For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. – Psalm 84:11
• For God so loved the world, He gave his only begotten son – John 3:16

But Genesis 22 – this is the only time God is directly called, JEHOVAH – JIREH –THE LORD WILL PROVIDE. In Hebrew, Jireh means “to see, to inspect, to perceive, to provide, to consider. By putting the two words together, Jehovah (which means the continuous, existing one true God) and Jireh, Abraham really called God, “THE GOD WHO ALWAYS SEES EVERY SITUATION AND PROVIDES THE BEST ANSWER FOR EVERYTHING.”

There are a lot of lessons we can take from this story with Abraham. There is a lot of foreshadowing here. God asked Abraham, the father of the faithful, to do something that God Himself would later do for the entire world. Sacrifice His only son. The provision of Jesus is the answer to our most serious problem. Sin requires each and every one of our deaths because the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). But God provided the ultimate and best solution. He sent Jesus – The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world! (John 1:29) The best solution to the worst problem. It is an amazing lesson (a lesson we will return to later) but, I’d like to focus our attention on Abraham and Sarah.

It had taken Abraham (and Sarah) decades to learn the most important lesson about God. It was the crux of Abraham’s greatest test. He had finally learned what God had wanted him to learn and believe all these years. God provides. Abraham and Sarah had tried to fix their own problems through the years. They lied to Pharaoh and Abimelech to protect themselves. They used Hagar to try to answer God’s promises in their own way and time. They laughed when God told them He could do hard things they couldn’t even imagine. Yet, they continued to wait, learn, and trust. By the time their ultimate test came, the sacrifice of their only son – their promised son – they finally had accepted that God would provide the answer to whatever situation they faced.

I reflect on my life and realize I am Sarah and Abraham before the mountain. Constantly trying to figure out the problems of my life without God. And like with Abraham and Sarah, God asks me “Is anything too hard for Me?” Am I impatient like Abraham and Sarah? Do I want God to provide how He knows is best or how I think is best? They are two very different answers. Like Abraham and Sarah, I need to come to a place in my life where I completely trust that whatever situation I find myself in or whatever God requires me to do for Him, He will provide the best solution – the best path forward. I just have to trust Him to do it. I must be willing, like Abraham, to pick up the knife and slay whatever I love most in this world in order to achieve the things God truly has in store for me. To leave behind my preconceived notions or pre-laid life plans. To trust that whatever happens next God will provide the solution. He will not leave me atop the mountain alone.

So, if you find yourself wandering through life and wondering why things haven’t worked out the way you thought or wanted. You aren’t alone. Abraham and Sarah had those questions. Perhaps, like Sarah and Abraham, God is telling you to wait and grow a little longer. To trust Him in a little more. Eventually, God, like He did with Abraham, will send us all to the top of the mountain and require us to be willing to sacrifice the thing or person we love most in this world for Him. He will test our trust in Him. And like with Sarah and Abraham, until that moment comes, God is helping us prepare, learn and grow. So, when those moments come we can say proclaim like Abraham, we serve Jehovah Jireh – The Lord Who Will Provide.