Jehovah-Jireh

 •  3 min. read  •  grade level: 10
This combination is found in Gen. 22:1-141And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. 2And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. 3And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. 4Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. 5And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. 6And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. 7And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? 8And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. 9And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. 10And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. 11And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. 12And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. 13And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. 14And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. (Genesis 22:1‑14). There we read that God tested Abraham, commanding him to take Isaac, the child of promise, whose very name meant laughter, his only son, miraculously born, to offer him up for a burnt offering. We remember that Abel offered an offering of the firstlings of his flock; that Noah when he came out of the ark, took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings to the LORD. But this was the first occasion when it was most solemnly indicated that there should be a human sacrifice, surely an offering prophetic of the sacrificial death of our Lord, the only begotten Son of the Father.
Just at the critical moment, when Abraham was about to slay his son at the bidding of God, his hand was restrained, and Isaac was spared. At this point of the story we read, "Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place JEHOVAH-JIREH [The LORD will provide]: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen." (Gen. 22:13, 1413And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. 14And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. (Genesis 22:13‑14)). It was on the Mount of Moriah that this scene took place. Centuries rolled by, and we find Jesus, the Jehovah of the Old Testament, dying on the cross of shame at Jerusalem in sight of Mount Moriah in fulfillment of this prophecy uttered by Abraham.
Earlier in the Chapter we read that Isaac asked a question, which must have wrung his father's heart with deepest anguish. There was the wood and the fire, but where was the lamb for a burnt offering? Abraham's prophetic answer was that God (Elohim) Himself would provide a lamb for a burnt offering. How gloriously was that seen when John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, beheld Jesus coming to him, and exclaimed, "Behold THE LAMB OF GOD, which taketh away the sin of the world." (John 1:2929The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)). And still more wondrously was it seen when our blessed adorable Savior died on Calvary's cross for God's glory, and the procuring of salvation for all, who put their trust in Him. Thus is seen how the word, JIREH, added to the word JEHOVAH, presents to us what is wrapped up in the mind of God for the blessing of poor fallen man, even the whole story of how a covenant-making God would implement His approach to men at the cost of the death of His only begotten Son.
Never shall we be allowed to forget this. In the vision of the holy city come down from Heaven, a symbolic presentation of the church in relation to the future millennial age, we are reminded that the Lord God Almighty and THE LAMB are the Temple of it; that the glory of God and THE LAMB are the light of it; that the church itself is THE LAMB'S wife.