the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Discovering Christ Day by Day
Today’s Reading: Genesis 20-23
“Jehovah-jireh”
Genesis 22:14
What marvelous things we have seen today! Our great God in his infinite sovereignty withholds the wickedness of men when it pleases him to do so, as he kept Abimelech from defiling Sarah. What wickedness he allows, he overrules for the good of his people and the praise of his name (Psalms 76:10). He always fulfills his word and promise. Nothing hinders him. What men call “laws of nature” are his laws. When it pleases him, he can easily make the barren womb of an old woman fruitful. When sinners, like Hagar in the wilderness are in utter despair, God almighty comes in grace, opens their eyes, and brings them to drink from Christ, the Well of Living Water. And when God sends his saints through great trials, he does so to make himself known in great goodness.
The Lord God revealed himself to Abraham in many ways; but no revelation given to that man who was the friend of God was more delightful or instructive than the name by which God revealed himself to Abraham at Mt. Moriah — Jehovah-jireh.
Jehovah-jireh might be translated by three expressions: “the Lord will see”, “the Lord will provide,” and “the Lord will be seen.” However the name is translated, it expresses the idea of God seeing and being seen. For God, to see is to provide. By this name, Jehovah-jireh, God our Father would have us to know that he sees our need and faithfully provides for our need, and that he will be seen in the provision he makes. Without question, this encourages our hearts to trust his daily providence. But the thing which inspired Abraham to raise up this memorial to God’s honor was the substitution of the ram to die in the place of his son, Isaac, and Isaac’s deliverance from death. Jehovah-jireh is a name of our God which describes his saving grace in Christ Jesus.
The Lord will see.
Jehovah-jireh means “the Lord will see.” Our Father, from eternity, saw the need into which we would fall by the sin of Adam in the garden and by our own iniquity, transgression and sin in time. And with the foresight of divine love, he provided his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to be our Substitute in the covenant of grace. When the fulness of time was come, God met our need by sending Christ to die at Calvary. And when God, by his Spirit, created a need in our hearts for Christ, causing us to seek him, he gave his Son to us. Today, by his free grace, God gives his Son to all who need him.
The Lord will provide.
Jehovah-jireh means “the Lord will provide.” Jehovah-Jireh was Abraham’s testimony to the goodness and grace of God in providing a ram to die in Isaac’s place. And it is our testimony of praise to God for providing Christ to be our Substitute. But this name also implies that our God, who gave us his Son, will also freely give us all things in his Son (Romans 8:32).
The Lord will be seen.
Jehovah-jireh means “the Lord will be seen.” — “In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.” God is seen in the sacrifice of his Son at Mt. Calvary. And God shall be seen in the face of his Provision, Christ Jesus, upon Mt. Zion in heaven. All this was included in Abraham’s prophecy. All who see God in Christ, the crucified Substitute, who died in our place upon Mt. Calvary, shall see God face to face in Christ Jesus, who is himself Jehovah-jireh!
