What Jehovah Jireh really means

You may be familiar with the name Jehovah Jireh (The Lord Will Provide).

God is our provider, I have heard many times. What does He provide? Pretty much every time I heard it, it was in the context of material provision. Money. Stuff. A better life.

Without looking it up, can you recall the only time the Bible mentions Jehovah Jireh?

Some of you may already know it’s when God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac: “And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide” (Genesis 22:14a).

In researching how that name is applied, I quickly came across a teaching that is typical of what I have heard before: You are Abraham; as God provided for Abraham, He will provide for you if you are obedient.

But that page has no mention of the real point of the story.

What did God provide for Abraham? A ram to offer in the place of his son.

God provided a substitutionary sacrifice.

The point is not that we are Abraham; it’s that the ram is Jesus Christ.

If we’re anyone in that story, we’re Isaac. We deserve to be bound on the altar and slain.

But God provided a Lamb to take our place.

The second half of Genesis 22:14 says, “as it is said to this day, ‘In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.’”

On the “mount” of Calvary, He would provide a Savior, a substitute, the propitiation for our sins, a bearer of His wrath, the Way of reconciliation and eternal life.

He does this for no other reason than to be glorified in His great love, mercy and grace.

That is why God is Jehovah Jireh.