Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide, is the central theme explored through Abraham's near-sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis 22. The sermon traces the progression of God's provision from Abraham's test to the ultimate sacrifice of Christ, highlighting key terms like 'only begotten son,' 'love,' 'lamb,' and 'worship' that are introduced for the first time in this chapter. The core lesson is that God's provision, both for salvation and for daily needs, is foreseen and guaranteed by His omniscience and love. The message concludes with personal testimonies and the example of missionaries like Hudson Taylor, emphasizing trust in God's foresight and provision throughout life's challenges.
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But God, during these morning sessions, is going to speak of some of the names of God. God reveals himself in full ways in Scripture. First of all, God is revealed in creation. When we approach people who have never heard the gospel in Africa, we always start with that. God's creatorial power. I have never met an African. We've met hundreds of thousands of them. over our lifetime, and I have never met an apparition that was denied the fact of God. Father said, all you need to do is look upon you, and look upon you, and look at ourselves.
Where did we come from? They said, this God who created us, God reveals himself in creation, and then sent him to hear the field himself in his word. And the third way he reveals himself is in the names that we find in Holy Scripture. There are quite a number of them. And it's this that I want to concentrate on. And then, of course, the final, on the greatest way that God reveals himself is in his beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there are four great names in the book of Genesis of God. The first one is Elohim, in the beginning God, the triune God, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Elohim. That title occurs about two, twenty-seven hundred times in the Old Testament scripture. Elohim. And then the second name we find is Jehovah. And that name occurs about seven thousand times in the scriptures. Jehovah. That is because of relationship. And then a third lovely term that's used up in the book of Genesis is Shadiah, El Shadiah. And then the fourth one is Adame. Now, it would be interesting to look at the meaning of these words. I'm not going to do it.
But all I want to say is, this morning, I want to take that name Jehovah. And there are seven lovely titles associated with that name. The name of Jehovah. And the one I want to look at this morning is Jehovah Jireh. The Lord saw and the Lord provided. Now, with that in mind, I want to read the passage in Genesis chapter twenty-two, that well-known passage. Genesis chapter twenty-two. And it came to pass after these things that God did test Abraham and said unto him, Abraham and he said, Behold, here am I.
And he said, Take now thy son, find only some 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. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, saddled his act, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son. and cut the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up and went on to the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the plate afar off. And Abraham said unto the young men, Abide ye here with the ass, And I and the land will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.
And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and lived on Isaac's son, and he took the fireless hand and a knife, and they were both of them together. And Isaac spoke unto Abraham his father and said, My father, and he said, Here am I myself. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood. But where is the lamb for the burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together. And they came to the place which God had told them of.
And Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order. And band eyes like a son. And laid him on the altar, on the wood. And Abram stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord called unto him, out of heaven, said, Abraham, Abraham, and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hands upon the land. Neither do thou anything unto him. For now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horn. And Abram went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abram called the name of that place Jehovah Jireh, as it is said to this day in the month of the Lord that shall be seen. The angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time and said, By myself have I sworn, said the Lord, for behold, thou hast done this thing. I was not withheld thy son, thine only son, but in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed of the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore, and thy seed shall possess the kit of his enemies.
Let me go about this blessing through the reading of this word. I suppose all of us here, this morning have heard again and again, this wonderful passage expanded. It'd be interesting to look at some of the outstanding points in the chapter, but what I want to do, I want to concentrate on that title that was given to the place where it happened on Mount Moriah, Jehovah Jireh, the Lord saw and the Lord provided. I've been thinking that in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, There are five great outstanding chapters that speak of the atoning dead of the Savior.
And there is a progression there, a progression of teaching, a progression of revelation connected with the death of Christ. Now, in the book of Genesis, it is chapter twenty-two. And there we get the purpose of God. It's a transaction that takes place between a father and a son. And it's the great foundational chapter. in the book of Genesis concerning the atonement, precarious day of the Savior on Calvary's cross. When we render the book of Exodus, it is chapter twelve, the Passover, and there the blood is mentioned again and again. You may have noticed that in the book of Genesis, it is the fact that's mentioned, but in the book of Exodus, it is the blood.
It is emphasized there. In the book of Genesis we don't find the blood mentioned, but we do get it in the great book of redemption, the book of Exodus, the blood, the blood, the precious blood of the Lamb. And chapter twelve, it speaks of the price of redemption, the precious blood of the Savior. When we go into the book of Leviticus, it's chapter sixteen, the day of atonement, and the great outstanding truth. is the truth of propitiation. The day of atonement, Yom Kippur. It's a tremendous volume of teaching in Leviticus concerning the atoning death of the Savior.
We go on into the book of Numbers, and in chapter nineteen, there it is purification. There we get the ashes of the red heifer. Purification, verse said. And then in the book of Deuteronomy chapter twenty-one, There it is the man who is hanged upon a tree on the curse of God upon him. Now, taking these five chapters together, there is a progress of teaching concerning the death of Christ upon Calvary's cross. If it would be interesting to go into some detail of the five chapters and link them together on the progression and the development we find there concerning the doctrine of the atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now what I want to do this morning is to look particularly at this lovely, lovely title of Jehovah that we find in relation to the death of Christ, Jehovah Jireh. The Lord So, and the Lord Provide. There are seven of these titles. During these morning sessions I want to take four of them, and this is the first one. We'll read off Jehovah Rovika. We also read off Jehovah Nisai, and we also read of Jehovah Shalom, the Lord give peace. And there are seven of them all together.
And I want to just take four of them each morning in a very simple way, just pass on a few thoughts concerning them. The one that we get here is concerning the death of Christ. That great picture, that preview of the death of Christ upon Calvary's cross. Did you ever notice in Genesis chapter twenty-two, we get four words that are mentioned for the first time, and they are most important. The first word that's used for the first time in Scripture is the monogenes, the only begotten Son. Take thou thy son, thine only son, Isaac.
You know, that is the title that's used in the New Testament concerning our Blessed Lord Himself. It's only used by John, the only begotten Son, the monogenes. And then there's a two-agent version of the Old Testament, that is the Greek version. It's the same word that's used here. Take now thy Son, thy only Son. It's only used of two individuals in the Bible. And one is Isaac. And the other is the Lord himself, the only begotten one. And you find it in the chapter that's mentioned several times. Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac.
Now the second word that is used for the first time is the word love. Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest. The first mention of love in the Bible is the love of a father for a son. The second time it's used, the word is used, is in connection with the bridegroom and his bride in chapter twenty-four. Will he dare that Isaac, when he had a bride, will he that he took her into his mother, Sarah's tent, and he loved her. The first word, first time that love is used, the love of a father for a son. On the second time it's used, is the love of a bridegroom for his bride.
That is the second word. Now the third word that's used for the first time here is the word lamb, a term that's used many, many times in Holy Scripture for the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. You remember that conversation between the Father and the Son? Isaac, he said, where is the lamb for the Mordaffrin? The first time the word lamb is used in Scripture in the connection with Abel, read by the first names of the flock, but we don't actually get the word lamb. Here we get the question, where is the lamb for the Bermdaffering? And of course the New Testament is the answer to that question.
Now the fourth word that's used for the first time is the word worship. To go there to the mountain, to Mount Mariah, and worship, and come again to you. So these are four outstanding words. And one could easily spend all our time this morning in considering them. When we look at the passage, we find first of all a command. And then after that we get communion. They went both of them together. That term is used three times in the passage. They went both of them together, the Father and the Son. The communion between God the Father and God the Son here below.
is beautifully exemplified here in the passage. So we get communion. And then we get that conversation. As we're going along, Isaac says to his father, behold, the fire and the wood put where does the lamb with the burnt offering. And the reply is, my son, God will provide for himself a lamb for the burnt offering. So we get the communion and we get the conversation. but then four times over in the passage where he's about the place. The place. The place. The place. I believe that that place was deliberately chosen. Mark Mariah.
It was there that the Lord Jesus was going to lay down his life. And I believe that the place where the altar was built is the place of Calvary. It speaks of Calvary. And then after that wonderful transaction... where Isaac is bound and placed upon the altar. You get their submission. We know that Abraham at this time was a hundred years old, and it has been reckoned by Josephus that Isaac must have been about twenty years of age, the full bloom of health and strength that he was bound. Complete submission to his father. He bound Isaac's son, and he laid him upon the altar.
And then the night was lifted. And then God intervenes, Lay not thine hand upon the land. And God recognized the complete obedience of faith in his dear service, Abraham, and behind the stage. And then when he looks behind him, he finds a ram caught by a thicket in its horns in the thicket. Did you ever notice the difference between the lamb and the ram? You know, I think that that is important. Abraham said, God himself will provide a lamb for a burnt offering, but instead of a lamb, it was a ram. Now, if you look at the Old Testament sacrifices, you'll find the ram is mentioned in two different contexts.
First of all, the trespass offering, and then secondly, the consecration of the priest, the ram, the leader of the flock, the animal was born. on a stand of a lamb that was offered upon the altar. It was a ram. It speaks of the trespass offer. All of it, of course, that brings before us different aspects of the work of Christ above Calvary's cross. One would love to pause here and go into more detail concerning these lovely details we find in this wonderful chapter. But here, after this transaction takes place, Abram, he calls it that place. Jehovah Jireh, the Lord saw and the Lord provided.
Prevision and Provision. You know, that title is a beautiful title. And I just want to apply it, first of all, to the death of Christ upon Calvary Strauss. Prevision, Omniscience, Provision, Omnibetus. God saw and God provided. Now that takes our mind right back an eternity past. I have been very interested recently in looking at the different places in the New Testament where we find the term before the foundation of the world. It would be interesting to look at those, the context where you find that term before the foundation of the world.
My beloved friend here this morning, God saw and God provided. Right away back in eternity past, Calvary was not an afterthought. God saw, on any eternity past, the provision was made for your salvation and mine. You know, my heart rejoices this morning when I think that Almighty God was able to look into the future. That great omniscience that characterized God, he could see what was going to happen in the world and he made provision for it. It would be interesting to look at how that has developed right through the New Testament, the Old Testament, and then finally in the New Testament.
And when Christ died upon Calvary's cross, it was Jehovah Jireh, the Lord saw, and the Lord for life. Not only that, but I think we can apply it to ourselves. And just for a moment or two, I want to take it in that aspect of it. the Lord sees and the Lord provides. You know, God, He can look forwards into the future. He knows all about the past and the present and the future. The Lord's solemn and the Lord provides. I've been reading the life of Hudson Taylor recently in the magazine of the China Inman Mission.
that was founded by Hudson Taylor, they had two words as the slogan of the mission. The one word was, Ebenezer, and the other is Jehovah Jire. Ebenezer and Jehovah Jire. And I understand that from the headquarters of the mission in London, in England, on the door of the portal, going into that building to have those two words inscribed. Ebenezer, The Lord saw and the Lord provided. You know, Hudson Taylor in his early life had been in contact with George Mueller of Bristol. And he learned some lesson from him, I believe, that influenced the man's life from beginning to end.
George Mueller, for over fifty years, he took care of orphans there in Bristol and England. And he never asked anybody for a penny. He tried to demonstrate to the church simple faith and trust in God for daily supplies. And the history of his life, written by Dr. A.P. Pearson, I believe every one of us should read that today. It's a wonderful, wonderful story, George Mueller's life. But Hudson Taylor was a young man, and he contacted George Mueller, and it influenced his life. What that man did. and the lesson that he taught the Church of God, Jehovah-Jireh.
Not only Ebenezer, but Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord saw, and the Lord provided. Before I went to Africa, I was something of an idealist. I had been reading the life of George Mueller and asked the life of Hudson Taylor, especially that first father. And by the way, If you have never read the life of Hudson Taylor, I believe you should read it. It's called The Growth of a Soul. And that young man, how God spoke to him and developed, and how he was developed, and the truth that he put into practice in China in those early days, it made a tremendous influence in my life.
The Lord brought me to himself when I was sixteen years of age, and almost immediately afterwards, I felt that I wanted to devote my life to the Lord and to His service. I would have been ashamed to tell that to anybody. I never told my parents. I never told anybody. But I had that secret lie in my heart to devote myself to the Lord's service. And I had been reading those two books. Not only the Bible, of course that has set that as primary, and it's important. But I believe that this literature that has been left to us, I believe we should read it, and I believe it could influence our life, and especially our young people today.
The life of George Miller, of Bristol, and the life of Hudson Taylor. And I thought I'd like to put that into practice. I left home when I was twenty-one. I had two documents in my pocket. One was a letter of commendation from an assembly. And the other was a diploma from a shipbuilding firm, Harlan Wolf. It was the largest shipbuilding firm in the world. It was they who built the Titanic and the Olympic and some other of those ships. And from the time I was sixteen until I was twenty-one, I served in the apprenticeship in the shipyards of Harlan Wolf in Belfast.
And when I left, I had a diploma. that I was a journeyman shipwright, and those were the two documents I had in my pocket when I left to go to Africa. I had a commendation of an assembly and also a diploma that I had earned my living since I was a boy. I had earned what it was to punch a clock and what it was to work from six in the morning till half past five at night, three nights in the work, three nights in the week, work overtime till half past eight, And then on Saturday from work to six in the morning to four in the afternoon, go home for an hour and a half and come back at half past five and work right through the night at six o'clock on Sunday morning.
And I was sixteen years of age when I did that. Standing on a scaffold, ninety feet in the air, handling cold steel in the wintertime. And there was no picnic. You know, I believe that God was putting me through a discipline. And I believe that anyone who goes into the Lord's work should know what it is to earn the living. I believe that thoroughly. I don't believe that a person should step out of school and win full time for the Lord's work until they have that discipline of knowing what it is to earn their living and to obey orders and to have that discipline of not only that but of how to spend, how to earn money and to spend it wisely.
Well, that was a discipline the Lord put me through for five years, and I stepped out of simple faith and trusted God. I'm not going to go any more into that. But just after I arrived in Africa, I was in a place called Rwanda. I was alone there. The Mishmese who had the mayor had gone home in furlough. And here I, just a kid, twenty-one years of age, left in a place absolutely alone. and to have to assume responsibilities that I'd never anticipated. But I had a little room there and all that I had on the world was in that room.
I had some pegs in the wall and all the clothes I had except what I was wearing were hanging in those pegs. I had a bed there. The mattress was composed of corn husks. just a bag, a kellible bag filled with hot corn husk, that was my bed and a couple of blankets and so on. And then the little desk in the corner where my passport and whatever money I had was in that desk. And when I was out at the prayer meeting an African came along and he broke into the room and he lifted the money from the desk and he put it on the bed and then he lifted the clothes that were on the wall and he put that on the bed And then he gathered up the whole thing and went, oh.
And when I came home from the prayer meeting, I was left in the middle of Africa with the clothes I was standing up in. I didn't feel too happy about that. But you know, just about two weeks afterwards, there was a man turned up at the door with a big bundle on his head. It was sewn up on canvas. And he said he had seen this at the post. I was at railhead, and he brought it along. I took it in and opened it, and when I opened it I found a couple of blankets, sheets, pillowcases, and everything that had been taken out of the room, I found it all there. And right in the center of the parcel, I found a letter.
And in the parcel, there was some money there that corresponded with the money that had taken out of the desk, and everything duplicated and brand new. And when I looked at the dates, And that parcel was sent off by a group of sisters in the sister's meeting. And I do thank God from the depth of my heart for the work that the sisters do. And when I opened it, it was a letter from them that said, We were thinking about you and we're just, we're hoping that this meets your need. You know, that was sent off about three months before the robbery happened. The Lord saw the Lord provided. The Lord with bread and ancestors here this morning.
This beautiful, beautiful title, Jehovah Jireh, that not only refers to the atoning work of our blessed Savior upon Calvary Scotland. He shall, in the future, he shall of the Lord provide. That we can apply it to the simple life of faith that's out here. I know that each one of us have had our problems. We've gone through difficulties. People who are senior citizens today, I don't need to tell you that life does through old problems. But we have proved to the health, and I could repeat it again and again and again, things that have happened in our life.
By the way, at sixty-one years this year, since I stepped out in simple faith of God, I have never, at any time, ever mentioned need to any human being. George Mueller taught me that. just looking to God for every need. And we can say from the depths of our heart, Jehovah Jireh, the Lord sees, and the Lord provides. May God bless his heart. A little word of prayer. Our blessed God and our Father, we do thank thee again for thy word. We thank thee for the promises of thy word.
We thank you for that great provision that was made for our salvation about Calvary's cross. We thank thee, our Father, that he was the Lamb of God, pre-ordained before the foundation of the world. Our Father, we thank thee this morning that we have that peace and joy in our hearts, knowing that he is our Savior, and he is the one who took our place in death. Our Father, we thank thee, too, as we look back over our little lives down here. For all that thou hast come for us. We thank thee that our word has been fulfilled. Our Father, we thank thee that again and again we have realized thy good hand upon us.
Bless thy dear people here this morning, we pray, as we ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus.