The first name of God that we
have in our Bibles is the name Elohim. Genesis one and verse
one, in the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth. Then his name Jehovah is found
for the first time in Genesis chapter two. And we know that
in our translation of the scripture, The name Jehovah is always capitalized. Each letter in the name Lord
is capitalized. It's found 6,823 times in the
Old Testament. Then his name Adonai first appears
in Genesis chapter 15 and verse 2. It also is translated Lord
but only the first letter is in capitals, capital L, and then
the smaller case letters, O, R, D. These names, along with
a few others, all tell us something about God. This is one way God
has revealed himself unto man by his various names. They reveal something about his
character, Sometimes two of those names, Elohim, Jehovah, Adonai,
are compounded and we have such names as God Almighty or the
Lord of Hosts. I want you to hold your place
here but look over a few pages into Deuteronomy chapter 10. Verse 17, Deuteronomy chapter
10 and verse 17. For the Lord your God is God
of gods and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty and a terrible,
which regardeth not persons nor taketh reward. Literally, this
would be for Jehovah, your Elohim, That is to the nation of Israel
and to God's children. Jehovah, your God, Jehovah, your
Elohim, is Elohim of Elohims. In other words, our God is the
God above all gods. There are many gods, many lords
of pagans. They have their gods and they
have their lords. Our Lord is Lord, is God of all
gods. And our Adonai is Adonai of all
Adonais. And then His name here, L-E-L,
God, which speaks of Him, as we see here, as a mighty God,
a great God. A terrible God. And that word
terrible, of course, is used in the way that old English used
to speak of He's special. There's an awesomeness about
Him. There's a reverence when we talk
about our God. He's a terrible God. Awesome. Separate from all other gods. And if you turn back to Genesis
22, his name Jehovah especially reveals to us the truth that
he is self-existent. His self-existence. He's the
ever-living one who in himself possesses essential life. In Psalm 102 and verse 27 we
read, but thou art the same and thy years shall have no end.
Thou art the one who always exists, eternal, unchangeable. Remember
when The Lord appeared unto Moses in that bush that burned and
sent him into Egypt to bring Israel out of Egyptian bondage. Moses said, well, they surely
will ask your name. What shall I tell them? And God
said, I am that I am. The eternal, self-existent, unchangeable
one. His name Jehovah reveals also
not only that He is eternal, but that He is the God of revelation. He is the God who reveals Himself
unto man. And He is the God of moral attributes,
which means He is the God of redemption. Now in the Old Testament, there
are eight There are eight compound names of Jehovah. And most of these names arise
out of some historical event, as we will read about here in
Genesis chapter 22. The compound name is Jehovah-Jireh,
if you look in verse 14. And Abraham called the name of
that place Jehovah-Jireh. Jehovah-Jireh. And in the margin,
you see, the Lord will see or provide. Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord will see, the Lord will
provide. Now, I want us to see the setting,
first of all, for the giving of this name, the revelation
of this name. Let's begin reading in verse
one. And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt
or test Abraham and said unto him, Abraham. And he said, behold,
here I am. And he said, take now thy son,
thine only son, 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 ass, and took two of his
young men with him. And Isaac, his son, and claimed
the wood for the burnt offering, rose up and went unto the place
of which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abraham
lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said
unto his young men, abide ye here, with the ass, and I and
the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you. And Abraham
took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son,
and he took the fire in his hand and a knife, and they went both
of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham
his father and said, my father. And he said, here am I, my son. And he said, behold the fire
and the wood. but where's the lamb for a 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 him of. And Abraham built an altar there
and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid
him on the altar. upon the wood. And Abraham stretched
forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son. The angel of
the Lord called unto him out of heaven and said, Abraham,
Abraham. And he said, here am I. And he
said, lay not thine hand upon the lad. Neither do thou anything
unto him, for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou
hast not withheld thy son, thine only, from me.' And Abraham lifted
up his eyes and looked And behold, behind him a ram caught in a
thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the
ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son. And Abraham called the name of
that place Jehovah-Jireh. As it is said to this day in
the Mount of the Lord, it shall be seen. I want you to remember with me
tonight that Abraham was now an old man by any standard, because
he was 100 years old when their son Isaac was born. When we think of his life to
this point, we're reminded of the many changes that he had
experienced. First, when God appeared to him
and told him to get out of his country, to leave his kinsmen. He went down into Egypt two times
because, or once, and to another place because of a drought. His nephew Lot chose the best
land, and Abraham let him take that. He rescued, he took his
servants, his household servants, and went and rescued Lot when
he was taken captive. He watched the smoke rise from
Sodom and Gomorrah, and God destroyed the cities of the plain. The
birth of his son Ishmael, when he was, what, 12 years old, I
believe it was, God said, put him out. The bondwoman and her
son put him out. They will not be heir with your
son Isaac. Think of all the changes, all the changes that this man,
like you and like me, as we look back over our lives, the joys,
the many times of joys, times of sorrow, times of trial, times
of difficulties. You know, Paul tells us this
about Abraham and his faith when he was waiting for this son to
be born, Paul said he staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God. Can you
imagine what he now must have felt? And he knew it was God. He knew it was God speaking. And I thought about this this
afternoon. One of the reasons, no doubt,
that God had tried him over the years like he had is that when
this last trial, no doubt the greatest trial of his life, when
it came, he would know for sure that is God speaking. I can't
question that. That's God who's telling me now
to take my son, the son that I love, Isaac, and offer him
up as a burnt offering. What he must have experienced,
what he must have felt. And we see him up early the next
morning. This has always amazed me. I think I would have slept in. I would have slept in. Not Abraham. Not Abraham. He's up chopping
wood. He's up getting his ass saddled,
getting the servants ready, getting a knife sharp, fire to take,
and wood for the burnt offering. That's amazing, isn't it? You
know, This was, I believe, the last trial that we have recorded
about Abraham. I remember reading years ago
about John Knox, the great reformer of Scotland. On his, what turned out to be
his deathbed, he went into some kind of a a coma or asleep and
they thought he was, he would never come back. And, and he
came back and set up and he said, I've just experienced the greatest
trial in my life. He'd gone through many trials
there, leading the reformation in Scotland. But he said, I've
just experienced the greatest trial of my life because Satan
has tempted me to look to my work, to look to what you've
done. What a testing, rather than to
look to Christ and only to Christ. When I thought about Abraham
here, this had to be the trial of his life, the last trial of
his life. Maybe you and I will experience
something like that. We've gone through some difficulties
and some trials already, but maybe there's one yet that will
be the greatest. And remember this, the faith
that Abraham was faith that God gave him, and that's the faith
that will carry you through. Whatever trial, the same faith
that John Knox had, the same faith that is the gift of God
will carry you through the trial, if God ordains you pass through
one. Abraham and Isaac go to the place,
and as they're going up the mountain, and God specifically tells Abraham
where to offer this burnt offering, one of the mountains of Moriah.
And they go up the mountain there, And Isaac, now he, Isaac wasn't
a young boy. He was an older teenager, maybe,
and a young adult. He wasn't some four or five,
12 year old boy. And he knew, because Abraham
taught his family. Abraham was the head of the home,
as men are supposed to be. And he taught his family. And
Isaac knew that you don't go worship God without a sacrifice. Father, here's the wood, here's
the fire, where's the lamb? And look at Abraham's words.
They have to be the words of great faith. My son, And before this, he had
also said to those servants, abide you here, and I and the
lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you. Did he in that statement acknowledge
that if the Lord allowed him to offer up his son as a burnt
offering, as he had been commanded to do, that God would raise that
son up that he was coming back, both of them were coming back
to meet these servants. The scriptures in Hebrew speak
about him offering him, and it's been three days on this journey,
it's a picture also of the resurrection. In Abraham's heart, he sacrificed
his son, he offered him up. My son, God will provide himself
a lamb for a burnt offering." Well, they came to the place,
built an altar, bound Isaac upon the altar, and Abraham took that
knife and raised it, raised it to slay his son and to offer
him as God had commanded him. And the angel of Jehovah cried,
Lay not thy hand upon the lad. And Abraham saw there was a ram
caught in the thickets. And he took him and offered him
in the stead of his son. You think this is maybe what
our Lord meant when he said, Abraham saw my day. Abraham rejoiced to see my day. You know, in this history, it's
not a story. I think we need to be careful
about telling small children this is a Bible story. It's a
Bible history. We can call it a story, but let's
emphasize the fact this is a true story. This isn't like Cinderella. This isn't like any of those
other stories that little children love to read and hear. This is
a true story. We see in this, we see Abraham's
obedience and his faith. That just stands out. You can't
read it and not see that. And what a challenge that is
to you and I, isn't it? To believe God. He's called the
father of the faithful. We're all children of Abraham
tonight if we are saved. We're all justified just as Abraham
was justified by faith. believed in the promised one,
the one to come, we believe in the one who has come. So we can't
read this without seeing his obedience and his faith. And
then we see Isaac's willingness. We see his submission. That stands
out to us, doesn't it? I mean, Abraham's over 100 years
old, and this is just a young man. He could have withheld himself
from this. But he willingly submitted himself. What a picture of Christ, right? What a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ. No man taketh my life from me. I lay it down of myself. This commandment have I received
from my Father, both to lay it down and to take it again. What? Don't you realize I could
call the Father right now and he would send 12 legions of angels
to take me down, to rescue me from the cross. The willingness
of Isaac, what a picture of our Savior. And then we see, and this is
the most important, Jehovah's gracious provision. He provided
a substitute. He provided one to die in the
stead and in the place of Isaac. So that's the setting for the
giving of this name. Now the word, secondly, the word
Jireh, Jehovah Jireh. The word Jireh is a transliteration
of a Hebrew word, which if you look it up in your concordance,
you will find it's translated by by these two English words,
see and appear. See or appear. You might say,
well, if it's translated by those two words, see or appear, then
how did they get provide? Because if you notice in the
margin, it could be that is the Lord will see or the Lord will
provide. How did we come up with either
one of these being so? Well, from what I've read, another
word for seen is vision. Vision, that's just another word
for seen, isn't it? Thus God, who has pre-vision,
God who sees the end from the beginning, God who sees all things,
then he makes provision for the needs of his people. He makes provision. The word
provide is a verb form and provision the noun of seen beforehand. Seen beforehand, the verb form
of that is to provide and the noun form is provision. Now, Abraham calling this place
the Lord shall provide, there's two things about this tonight.
First of all, when he called it Jehovah-Jireh, the place,
Jehovah-Jireh, he made it a memorial. That place was a memorial. And
over on Cotton Road, close to where I live, There's a memorial
for veterans, fallen war heroes. It's a memorial. There's a Veterans
Cemetery right over here on Stubner Airline, not far from here. Memorial. This table tonight, what is it?
It's a memorial service. We do this in memory of Christ,
in memory of the fact that he gave his body to be broken. He shed his blood to redeem his
people. That's what Abraham made this
place a memorial place. But more than that, more than
that, it's not only a memorial, it is a prophecy. It is a prophecy
of what God would do for sinners in this place. Now I mentioned
that God specified the place, Mount Moriah, that's where the
temple was built. But Moriah was not just one mountain,
evidently, it was a collection of mountains. And no doubt, for
sure, the temple in Jerusalem was built on Mount Moriah and
Mount Calvary, Mount Calvary. The place where the Lord Jesus
Christ was crucified was part of that mountain range of Moriah. He would see, God would. He would
see my need, your need. You say, well, I need this or
I need that. No, no, no. I'm talking about
your most, the greatest need that you could ever have, that
you have. A need of a Savior, a need of
a substitute to dine your stead in your place. Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord will
see, and He'll see to it. You know, we use that term sometimes. We say, well, see to it, see
to it. And there's something that needs
to be done, and maybe you tell your children, well, see to that.
Or you say, I'll see to it. Someone tells you there's something
that needs to be fixed in the house. Your wife may tell you
that, man, there's something there that needs to be fixed.
I'll see to it. Isn't that what God said? Jehovah
Jireh. I'll see to it. And he did see
to it. He gave his son for his chosen
people. I want you to look in the New
Testament, just a verse in Matthew chapter one. The angel speak, the angel's
announcement rather, verse 21, and she shall bring forth a son,
and thou shalt call his name, Now, you notice that every letter
in that name is capitalized? Why is that? Because this is
Jehovah, Jehovah Savior. Jehovah Savior. For he shall
save his people from their sins. The Lord did see and the Lord
did provide. He provided the Savior for his
people. And this is something I want
to bring out in closing. They didn't both die. You say,
what do you mean? I mean, the ram died, Isaac didn't
die. Who would have thought it'd be
right if after slaying the ram, then Isaac died also? The gospel we believe, the gospel
from the word of God. assures us, teaches us, that
everyone for whom Christ died will be saved. Because he has
experienced the wrath of God, the judgment of God in our stead,
just like that ram died in the stead of Isaac. Isaac's not going
to die. Isaac's going home. He's going to rejoice all the
way home. You're not going to die, why?
Because the ram died in his stead. And the same thing is true of
those for whom Christ died. We're going to rejoice on the
way home. You say, where's our home? Heaven
is our home. And we rejoice on the way, at
least we should. We should have, you know, some
people get the idea that Christianity is a, is a Not a joyful thing. Being saved
is joyful, isn't it? I mean, the gospel is good tidings. It's not bad news, it's good
news. Like Scott Richardson used to
say, once you've heard the good news, you'll never hear any more
bad news. Think about that a while. Once
you hear the good news, The good news, the gospel that Christ
died and instead in the place of his people. You'll never hear
any more bad news. No, not hardly. Well, I pray the Lord would bless
this word to us tonight and we will remember this name, Jehovah
Jireh. The Lord will see, the Lord will
provide. Going to ask the men if they
will now to come to the table to the front.