Jehovah-Jireh
Genesis 22:14
The name by which
God revealed himself to Abraham may be translated by a number of expressions.
You might read it "Jehovah will see"
or “Jehovah will provide", or
"Jehovah will be seen". However you translate it Jehovah-Jireh
expresses the idea of seeing and being seen. You know how we sometimes say,
"I will see to the matter", we mean by that, "I will make
provision for this or that". In fact, our English word "provide"
is derived from a Latin word which means "to see", Now this is the
Blessed truth of our text - Our heavenly Father sees our need; and, with the
foresight of divine love, he provides us with what we need in Christ. And in
that provision, God himself is seen. The ram which God provided as a
substitute for Isaac was typical of God's far greater provision of his Son as
the Substitute for sinners.
Jehovah-Jireh
means, The Lord will See. God graciously beheld our need as sinners. Seeing
the ruin of our race, by the fall of Adam, and our great need because of that
fall, God pitied us. God beheld our great need as transgressors of his holy
law. By nature we were sinners, children of wrath, perishing under the sentence
of divine justice, and God saw our great need. There is hope in that. The very
fact that God sees our need gives hope that he will provide.
Jehovah-Jireh The
Provide. God provided his Son to be the Substitute for us:
graciously and freely, simply because he loved us. It was a provision that was
gloriously effective. The ram was slain in Isaac's place; so Isaac must go
free. Behold, Christ was slain in the place of his people; and the very justice
of God demands that they go free: And Christ is the provision that exactly
suits our needs as poor sinners, We need righteousness, pardon, redemption,
justification, and life - Christ is All. Just when we were ready to perish, God
said to his law, "Lay not thy hand upon the lad". He had provided a
substitute, even his own Son, Jesus Christ.
Jehovah-Jireh means, The Lord Will Be
Seen. Go to Mt. Calvary, and there
you see Abraham's prophecy fulfilled. There is God's glorious, display of
himself in justice and grace, in
holiness and mercy, in wrath and love. Behold, the revelation of God!
Don Fortner