What does it mean that God provides?
God's provision has a name in Scripture, and Abraham gave it on a mountain where he had just been asked to give up everything. The story ties two things together that we usually keep apart: God meeting our daily needs, and God meeting the one need we could never meet ourselves.
A Name Born at the Point of Need
The name Abraham gave the place is one word in Hebrew, Jehovah-jireh, and it works like a blank left open for faith to fill in. One writer traces how the divine name keeps taking on whatever the situation requires:
The Bible TreasurySo it is found that "on the mount of the LORD it shall be provided," and so the place is named JEHOVAH-JIREH. The name Jehovah was taken by God to show the relationship He would maintain by faith. It means I AM, and whatever is needed can be added by faith to that "I am —". It is like a signed cheque left for the holder to fill in the amount as he needs. So we find the word Jehovah linked with qualifying terms several times, and each time the qualifying term grows out of the circumstances and suits them. In the passage before us there is a position of extreme need — Where is…? — and so we find JEHOVAH-JIREH, I am your provider.
This is why the name is not an abstract truth about God's generosity. It was given by a man standing over an altar with a knife in his hand.
The Deepest Need Is a Sacrifice
God's provision covers ordinary needs, but the passage puts one need first. Abraham's answer to his son's question about the missing lamb pointed past the moment:
Truth & TestimonyGod takes care of man. He provides for all our needs, but in particular He provides for the most fundamental need man has known since the fall: the need for a sacrifice. Abraham must have understood this when he said to his son, whom he was to offer, "God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." God was the only One who could provide the sacrificial lamb, and it was primarily meant for God Himself.
The same writer traces the pattern back further still, to the very first pages of the Bible:
Truth & TestimonyHow great is our God, that He Himself provided this sacrificial lamb! Adam and Eve experienced this when they were clothed with garments of skin in the garden of Eden. Not man but God was the first One to bring a sacrifice, and He clothed the first human couple with the skins of these animals to cover their nakedness — and also, symbolically, their spiritual nakedness, that is, their sinful state before God.
No Ram in the Thicket for Him
Isaac walked down the mountain alive because a ram was caught in a thicket nearby. When the true sacrifice came, no such rescue was offered:
A J Pollock"Jehovah-jireh" means the Lord will provide. Yes, blessed be God, He provided His Son; and when the moment came for Him to die there was no ram caught in the thicket by its horns, there was no escape for Him. His death under the judgment of God against sin was a necessity if God was to satisfy His heart of infinite love on the one hand, and bless the believing sinner righteously on the other.
That double necessity — love and righteousness together — is what one writer sees settled at that mountain:
H. L. RossierAt Moriah grace met righteousness, and there God found the means (He alone could do so) to make these two seemingly irreconcilable attributes of His Being kiss each other. So triumphant grace reigns through righteousness; so God's counsels are fulfilled!
Daily Needs — Without Shrinking the Name
It is right to trust God for rent and food. But one writer cautions against reducing this name to that, and points to a promise given for exactly that purpose:
A J PollockAnd yet hundreds buy the text JEHOVAH-JIREH, hang it on their parlour wall, and think it means the Lord will provide for their needs — the rent, food, clothing, and so on. How selfish our hearts are, and how we naturally drag things down to suit our small horizon. We have plenty of scripture to assure us on that line. For instance, "And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus."
Another writer breaks that promise into its three parts, and draws out how to use it:
C. H. MackintoshSeek to live nearer to God in your daily walk. Lean more upon Him. Use Him more. Go to Him in all your need, and you will never have to tell your need to a poor fellow creature. What a source! — "God." What a standard! — "His riches in glory." What a channel! — "Christ Jesus." It is your sweet privilege to set all your need over against His riches, and lose sight of the former in the presence of the latter.
What the Mountain Will Yet See
Abraham's name for the place also looked forward. The provision made there is not finished working:
A J PollockBy His death He has laid the foundations of His triumph, and the mount of the Lord shall yet see His glory, and streams of blessing shall flow from it till all nations of the earth are blessed, and Abraham's eager eye shall be more than satisfied.
Summary
- The need names Him. Abraham met God as provider at the point of extreme need — the name is a signed cheque, filled in by faith for whatever the situation requires.
- The gift is a lamb. God provides for all our needs, but first for the deepest one since the fall: a sacrifice. He provided for Himself, and He began doing it in Eden.
- The cost was His Son. A ram was caught in the thicket for Isaac; there was no escape for Christ. At that mountain grace met righteousness.
- The reach is daily. Every need of yours, measured by His riches in glory — but don't shrink the name down to rent and food.
- The result is coming. The mountain that saw His sorrow will yet see His glory, with blessing flowing from it to all nations.