Jehovah-Jireh - One Year Devotions for Women

Abraham named the place “The LORD Will Provide.” This name has now become a proverb: “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.” - Genesis 22:14

The name Jehovah speaks of God’s involvement in people’s lives. Many patriarchs recognized God’s hand of mercy and blessing in their circumstances. There are eight compound names of Jehovah that explain God in a fuller sense. We come across the first here in Genesis 22; it is Jehovah-Jireh.

God tested Abraham’s faith by asking him to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, as a burnt offering. Incredibly, Abraham set out to do so. Taking Isaac with him to Mount Moriah, he said to the young men who accompanied them, “Stay here with the donkey. . . . The boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there, and then we will come right back” (Genesis 22:5). Notice he said, “we will come back.” He had faith to believe that even if he did kill his son, God would raise him from the dead. After all, God had told Abraham that Isaac was a very important part of his plan of redemption for the whole world.

As Abraham raised his knife to kill Isaac, the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and stopped him. “Now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld even your beloved son from me” (Genesis 22:12). Abraham saw a ram caught in a thicket and sacrificed the animal instead of Isaac.

Because God had provided a sacrifice in place of Isaac, Abraham called that place Jehovah-Jireh meaning “The Lord Will Provide.” Little did Abraham know that God would one day provide the ultimate sacrifice—his Son—to die in our place as punishment for our sins.

For Further Study: Genesis 22:1-18

Excerpted from The One Year Devotions for Women, Copyright ©2000 by Jill Briscoe. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.

For more from Jill Briscoe, please visit TellingtheTruth.org.

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