Jehovah-jireh

Edward Griffin (1770—1837)
 

Genesis 22:14
"And Abraham called the name of that place, Jehovah-Jireh."

The father of the faithful, in obedience to the divine command, had separated himself from all his kindred and moved into a land of strangers. For a long time he had but one intimate friend to sooth his solitary hours. The happiness of being a parent was denied him until he had worn out a hundred years. Imagine then his joy when the little Isaac was given him, with a promise that from this child the Messiah would proceed. For full twenty years the eyes and hearts of the fond parents were fixed on this precious gift of Heaven, and with tearful tenderness watched his opening virtues.

One day Abraham hears the well known voice of his heavenly Father. Expecting some fresh expression of paternal love, or perhaps some new blessing on his beloved Isaac, he readily answers, Here am I! But conceive his astonishment when the dreadful command proceeded, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell you of." Must then all his earthly comforts be dashed at once?

In spite of the affections of a father's heart, must he imbrue his hands in the blood of his own son?

How can he endure the ravings of the deranged mother?

And how then can the Messiah be born?

But none of these things move him. Without hesitation or delay he sets off for the place, concealing the overwhelming cares in his own bosom. For more than sixty miles he carried his unwavering purpose, until he came to the spot where the temple was afterwards built and near which Mount Calvary stood. While on his way, the father was awakened in his heart by this moving question from Isaac, "My father, behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" But he suppressed the rising tumult and went forward to the place. Here he built an altar, and bound Isaac, and laid him upon the altar, and took the knife to open the palpitating heart. His arm was stretched out to give the fatal thrust, when the angel of the Lord called suddenly to him out of Heaven and stopped the father's hand.

Then Abraham lifted up his eyes and beheld a ram caught in a thicket by his horns, which God had sent as a substitute for Isaac. At this he could no longer refrain, but broke forth into thanksgiving and called the name of the place Jehovah-Jireh which signifies, The Lord will provide. He wished never to forget this great deliverance. He knew he never would forget it, and he wished the whole world might remember it too. He named the place The Lord will provide, that it might be a standing monument to all generations that God, not only would provide a Savior for his people, but would often deliver them from straits and difficulties the most pressing and seemingly unavoidable.

From these words I deduce the following Doctrine: The Lord will provide all needful relief for his people, and will often bring them sudden and unexpected deliverance from the most perplexing straits.

Let us range the ages for proofs of this. At the moment when our first parents, all dissolved in contrite grief, were bending over a ruined world, with nothing in prospect but the blackness of darkness forever—the joyful news came that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. That spot in Eden might well have been called Jehovah-Jireh!

In subsequent years, when the Church, reduced to a single family, was on the point of being buried under the corruptions of an unbelieving world, God saved it by a flood: and while the wicked lay buried under the waters of the deluge, the Church rode the unruffled wave, and sung from the top of Ararat, The Lord will provide!

At a later period, when the Church was in danger of being lost in a second general apostasy, God separated Abraham from the rest of the world to be the father of the holy seed. The Lord will provide!

When the destruction of Sodom was determined on, and the fiery storm was gathering over the valley of Siddim, messengers from Heaven were sent to bring out Lot: and when he entered the protecting Zoar, he might well have sung, so loud that all Heaven would have heard, The Lord will provide.

When Esau came against his brother with an armed host, Jacob, encumbered with his wives and children, could neither flee nor resist. In that extremity he applied to the God who had been a shield to his father Abraham, and found such a deliverance as affects his heart to this day. The plain of Peniel, which was wet with the tears of relenting Esau, instead of Jacob's blood, might have been inscribed all over with Jehovah-Jireh.

When Joseph was cast into the cave, with no hand to deliver, no heart to pity, no tongue to plead for him, what relief could he expect? Yet the Lord did provide. And when he was cast into prison, with no witness to repel the foul charge, an obscure, unbefriended youth, in a strange land, in a dismal dungeon, crushed under the arm of power—what possible way could be seen for his escape? Yet by a wonderful interposition he was taken from the dungeon to be the lord of Egypt. The Lord will provide!

When the most powerful monarch on earth, bent on retaining Israel in bondage, commanded the midwives to destroy all the male children, by this very means God introduced an infant into Pharaoh's court, to be there trained up to deliver his people and to illumine the world with the records of salvation. When Israel lay bleeding and bound under the oppressive power of Egypt, with no armies to assert their rights, and no ally this side of Heaven, God found out a way to break their chains and to bring them out. And when the armies of Egypt pursued and overtook them by the Red Sea, there seemed no possible way of escape. The sea before, the enemy behind, impassable mountains on either side, and no weapons in their hands! In that moment of distress the cloud in which Jehovah dwelt, rolled between the two armies, filling the enemy's camp with darkness, while the sea opened a passage for his people to the other shore. There they sat and sung, as with an angel's voice: The Lord will provide!

Jehovah-Jireh may be set for the subject of almost every chapter in the book of Judges:
the deliverance of Israel from the eight years' oppression of the king of Mesopotamia, by the hand of Othniel;
and from the eighteen years of Moabitish oppression, by the hand of Ehud;
and from the twenty years' domination of the potent Jabin, by Deborah and Barak;
and from the seven years' ravages of the Midianites, by the hand of Gideon;
and from the twenty years' tyranny of the Ammonites, by the hand of Jephthah;
and from the long oppression of the Philistines, by the hand of Sampson.

All proclaimed, in language not to be misunderstood, The Lord will provide!

When the Philistines fell upon the Hebrews as they were praying at Mizpah, God wrought a great deliverance for his people; at which Samuel was deeply affected, and erected a monument and called it Ebenezer, saying "Hitherto has the Lord helped us."

O how many Jehovah-Jirehs and Ebenezers may be found in the history of the Church. How many may be traced in the history of David. Often was he reduced to the greatest straits under the persecutions of Saul, and sometimes there appeared but a step between him and death; yet God delivered him. Sometimes Saul, with his men, came to the mouth of the cave where David lay concealed; and once they went in and lodged in the cave where he was; but God hid his servant. At one time the army of Saul had surrounded the fugitive, and were on the point of seizing their prey, when a horseman arrived in full foam, crying, "Hasten and come, for the Philistines have invaded the land:" and so the bird once more escaped from the fowler.

In subsequent years, when Absalom and most of the kingdom had risen against him; when he was driven out with a little band and pursued by the thousands of Israel; nothing but inevitable destruction appeared before him: yet by a sudden change of circumstances the rebels were scattered, and in a short time the tribes were contending for the honor of bringing the king back.

Before Saul came to the throne, the Philistines had reduced Israel almost to a state of slavery. God began their deliverance by the surprising victory granted to Jonathan and his armor-bearer over a whole Philistine garrison. He carried forward the work on that memorable day when a stripling, with a sling and a stone, prevailed over the mighty Goliath, in the name of the God of the armies of Israel. And in the reign of that same confiding youth, he put down every enemy of his people.

In the days of Asa, a million of Ethiopians invaded the land; but in answer to prayer God gave a little band a glorious victory over them all.

In the days of Jehoshaphat, three nations burst into Judea; but the people of God prayed, and all those thousands fell upon their own swords.

When Sennacherib, after subduing the greater part of Judea, laid siege to Jerusalem, Hezekiah and Isaiah betook themselves to prayer, on the very mount where Isaac was delivered; and God sent his angel, who destroyed in one night a hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians.

By the wonderful deliverance wrought for the three Hebrew children in the furnace of Babylon, and for Daniel in the lion's den, God showed that he was determined to protect his children let their enemies do their worst; that if this could be accomplished and nature hold its course, well; but if not, that fire should become tame and lions become lambs when the safety of his children required it.

When Jerusalem and the temple lay in ashes, and the whole nation were scattered in the countries of the east, what mortal eye could see a way to restore the Church and to reorganize the state? Yet God, by transferring the empire to the Persians, and by influencing the minds of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, found out a way; and Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah successively sang, The Lord will provide!

When Haman had enlisted all the power of the Persian empire against the Jews, and by a decree which Ahasuerus himself could not reverse, had fixed the day for the utter destruction of the Church, no human wisdom could conceive a way to ward off the blow. A gallows is erected for the execution of the only man whose instrumentality can save the Church. The next morning he is to die. But mark the providence of God. That night the king could not sleep. A strange anxiety banished his slumbers. He tossed upon a restless bed. Nothing will do but he must arise and examine the records of the kingdom; and there he finds it written that Mordecai has saved his life. Early in the morning Haman comes into the court to obtain sentence against Mordecai. The king commands him—to do what? to conduct the noble Jew in triumph through the streets of the city. That day Haman hangs on the gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai, and Mordecai succeeds to Haman's honors. And thus the Church is suddenly snatched from a ruin which appears instant and inevitable. The Lord will provide!

When Antiochus had partly burnt and demolished Jerusalem, and had driven all the Jews from the city, and consecrated the temple to a heathen idol, and decreed the utter annihilation of the true religion, and had put to torture and death as many as he could seize that would not renounce their God, and had burnt all the copies of the law that he could find; then it seemed as if the Church would be exterminated at once; yet in a short time, by the instrumentality of the Maccabeean brethren, she arose to independence and power. The Lord will provide!

When the Church lay buried under the rubbish of self-righteousness and hypocrisy, and the dogmas of the Pharisees had usurped the place of the Holy Scriptures, and the religion of Heaven seemed on the point of leaving the world, the Son of God appeared on earth to set up a new dispensation and to transfer his kingdom from the Jews to the Gentiles. The Lord will provide!

When Herod had cast Peter into prison and loaded him with chains, and stationed a guard to keep him, intending the next day to put him to death; that night the angel of the Lord struck off his chains and brought him out. The Lord will provide!

When Paul and Silas had been publicly beaten at Philippi, and cast into the inner prison, and loaded with irons, at midnight, while they were singing praise to God, an earthquake burst open the prison and loosed their chains; and in the morning the magistrates were courteously entreating them to depart. The Lord will provide!

When the enraged Jews had seized Paul in the inner court of the temple and dragged him into the court of the Gentiles, crying out, "Away with such a fellow from the earth;" God interposed, and sent Lysias, who commanded the castle of Antonia that stood upon the walls, to rescue him. Two days after, when forty men had bound themselves by a curse not to eat or drink until they had slain Paul, and lay in wait in the outer court to assassinate him as he would be brought from the castle to the temple to appear before the Sanhedrin; the plot was discovered, and Lysias sent him off by night to Caesarea. The Lord will provide!

Numberless interpositions of a similar nature occurred during the persecutions of pagan and papal Rome. Indeed the continued existence of the little tempest-beaten Church through so many storms, is a continued miracle, declaring to all the world that the Lord will provide. Before the Reformation by Luther, the Church was as deeply covered with ignorance and hypocrisy, and as much warped by the traditions of men, as before the advent of Christ. And who would have thought that an obscure monk, with all the thunders of the Vatican pointed at his heart, could have effected so extensive a reformation in the Christian world? The Lord will provide!

The voice of ancient prophecy announced that before the millennium the Church will witness the greatest distress ever known on earth, and that in the most trying moment God will appear for her salvation. And at the close of the millennium, when Gog and Magog shall have encompassed the holy city, just about to seize the trembling prey; when they shall be scaling the walls and just ready to leap into the city, the sign of the Son of man will appear in Heaven. And then his people shall be taken up to meet their Lord in the air, while their persecutors shall be petrified with horror to see the banners of Immanuel displayed in the troubled skies. Then will Jehovah-Jireh be the general song. The Lord will provide!

Then should Abraham pass through the blessed assembly and ask his children one by one, whether he falsely encouraged their hopes when on Moriah he declared that God would provide, they would all with glowing lips deny, and testify to the faithfulness of God.

And now, my dear brethren, permit me to call for your testimony.

Have you ever been shut up in distressing straits, and seen no way of escape, and in your perplexity cried to the Lord, and found sudden and surprising deliverance?

Have you ever been bowed down under a view of your guilt and the strength of your corruptions, or been terrified with strong temptations, and while sinking in deep waters, cried like Peter, "Lord, save me or I perish!" and found an arm extended for your relief?

Cast down under spiritual darkness, have you ever searched in vain for a Savior on the right hand and on the left, and almost despaired of ever seeing his face again, and in your anguish looked away to Calvary, and heard him say, "Why do you weep? Let me wipe the tears from your cheek and lay you upon my heart." Do you not remember how your released soul could sit all day and sing, "You have considered my trouble; you have known my soul in adversity—you have set my feet in a large room?" Before you ever saw the light of life, when you were sinking in the horrible pit, and nothing appeared but perpetual darkness, you suddenly found yourselves snatched from death, as Isaac was on Moriah; and arising from your despair, could have called the name of that place, Jehovah-Jireh!

Have you never been crushed under the pressure of outward affliction, and in your extremity sent your cries to Him who appeared on Moriah, and found deliverance as sweet as unexpected.

Perhaps you have been brought to the brink of death, or have seen some dear friend struggling in the crisis of a fever; and when all hope had vanished, have been suddenly and delightfully relieved by Abraham's God. The Lord will provide!

Perhaps you have been cast into perplexing circumstances, and seriously apprehended the loss of property or character, or at best to be harassed by a long train of cares; when all at once you have found the cloud dispersed, and with all your heart have subscribed to the old Abrahamic creed, The Lord will provide!

Sometimes perhaps you have been over anxious about your future support, and distrusted the providence of God; when, to shame your unbelief, he has suddenly supplied all your needs in a manner wholly unthought of. Perhaps some of you have been in real want, and have seen nothing before you but poverty and distress; when He who supplied his suffering people with manna, and hears the young ravens when they cry, brought relief in a manner which filled you with gratitude and wonder. The Lord will provide!

God frequently brings his people into straits on purpose to show them what is in their hearts and to teach them their dependence, and to manifest his faithfulness by coming to their relief. He allows them to look perplexing circumstances in the face, that they may feel the value of that love which delivers from them all.

But let it never be forgotten that this relief is to be expected only when they practice the two great duties of obedience and trust. Abraham found this deliverance while resolutely obeying God and trusting in him to fulfill his promise respecting Isaac. Not looking at the darkness of the prospect, but leaving the ways and means to a faithful God, he proceeded in the course of duty: and while doing this, he not only was relieved from his trial, but received a new charter of all the blessings before promised.

While Christians neglect their duty, or while, with eyes intent on difficulties, they trouble themselves about the ways and means by which the promises are to be fulfilled, they will meet with nothing but perplexity. But if they will confide in God, and if need be, "hope against hope," and firmly pursue the prescribed course whatever darkness may hang around it, they shall find what a faithful God can do. The Lord will provide!

And now, my dear brethren, let us lose ourselves in delightful reflections on the faithfulness of God. How was Abraham affected with this attribute on Moriah. "O," says he, "I never shall forget this scene to eternity; and let all who in future ages are tempted to distrust God, come up to this mount and never doubt again. Let a wondering world turn their eyes this way and forever record the faithfulness of Jehovah." What a solid ground did God then appear on which to build everlasting confidence.

Our subject encourages us to place unwavering confidence in God in the darkest times.

What evils can to us appear more unavoidable, than to Abraham appeared the death of his son? Yet God did provide. Though we should be so shut up as to see no way of escape, let us not despond. The darker the prospect, the more opportunity for faith to act and to acquire vigor by exercise. Let faith not be weakened by the very means intended for its invigoration.

Ah how does the faith of Abraham and other ancient saints shame our unbelief. When did relief ever appear to us less probable than it did to them? And if they could hope against hope, under what possible circumstances can we justify our distrusts of God? He who relieved Abraham on Moriah, what can he not do?

Finally, what strong inducements have we to choose such a God for our friend and protector in such a world as this. Had there been no being in Heaven to feel for Abraham, what could he have done in that distressing hour? It is an unspeakable privilege to enjoy the friendship of such a God while passing through this valley of tears: and they who are wise will not venture further into life withour securing this blessing. There is no other protection against the ills of life, than the Lord will provide!

"Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about." Great is their safety and peace who confide in God; but disappointment, perplexity, and ruin await those who reject this offered shield. O make the Lord your trust. Put yourselves under the protection of his throne: then rise earth, rise Hell. Give me a wilderness, without a shred of carnal comfort: if I have him I possess all. Take his presence away, and Heaven itself is a dungeon, "Acquaint now yourself with him and be at peace; thereby good shall come unto you." Amen.