Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast,
where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
In this podcast series, we're going to be looking into biblical
words that have great significance to our faith.
The name of this series is called the Word of the Week, where
once a week we will dive deeper into these words that we are
familiar with in Scripture.
So come along with me.
Let's study the Word of the Week.
Pastor Josh here.
For the next few weeks, we're going to be looking at the names
of God in accordance to Scripture.
The studies of the names of God is a very important study because
it tells us about the character of God.
And as we get to know God, as we grow in our understanding of him,
it's important for us to grow in who he is and his character.
And so the first name that we're going to be looking at here
this week is the name Jehovah Jireh.
So we're gonna look at what Jehovah Jireh means and where we
can find that name in Scripture.
Jehovah Jireh means the Lord will provide or the Lord who provides.
And so the idea for that would be that God is the great provider.
He's perfect in his provision.
He provides all that we need.
And the story of the name Jehovah Jireh can be found in Genesis,
chapter 22.
It begins with the command from God to sacrifice Isaac.
Abraham is there.
And Abraham is a man of obedience, though he failed in many
ways leading up to the birth of his son, Isaac.
Isaac is the son of promise.
He is the son of faith.
And prior to Isaac being born, God had promised a great seed to
Abraham and it would be found in a son.
But Abraham tried to follow in his own way to get God to bless his
actions instead of obeying God and being patient in God's provisions.
And so we see that he reached out and had a child with his wife's
handmaid, Hagar.
And through that, we see that there was great pain and sin on both
sides with Abraham and Sarah.
But nonetheless, later on in time, Abraham is commanded by God
to sacrifice his son Isaac, which doesn't make a lot of sense.
It doesn't make any sense.
But Abraham obeys.
He packs up all the things that he needs for the sacrifice.
The wood, the knife.
And In Genesis, chapter 22, they're.
They're traveling.
And Isaac recognizes that they have everything that they need except
for the.
The sacrificial animal, right?
The lamb.
And.
And so in.
In that idea, Isaac is asking Abraham, well, what Are we going
to sacrifice?
Probably a difficult answer for Abraham to give to his son.
But at that very moment, Abraham essentially said, well, you
know what God is going to provide.
And, and that takes a lot of faith.
And so in the, in the case of Abraham and Isaac, we see that God
provides the sacrifice.
Later on in the story, we know that Abraham follows through all
the way up to the moment where he is going to sacrifice his son
and God stops him.
And then right after that, we know that God provides the sacrifice
in the thicket there next to him.
But I think it's so important to see in, in Genesis chapter 22,
I believe it's verse number eight, Abraham said, My son, God
will provide himself a lamb for the burnt offering.
And so faith took action, faith took obedience, right?
God understood that Abraham had said a lot of things in his life
and God knew Abraham's heart, but Abraham didn't know what the
outcome would be.
And so for God, he knew the story, but for Abraham there, there
wasn't clarity at the beginning, but he knew that God would
in some way provide a sacrifice.
And then if you look even further into the thought process
of Abraham, we see in Hebrews chapter 11, which is a place called
the hall of faith, Hebrews chapter 11, verse 19, it says in
verse, verse 19, accounting that God was able to raise him up
even from the dead, meaning he, he understood that even if he
went through with the sacrifice that God would, would bring
it back to life.
That's, that's a, an amazing type of faith.
And so through that process we know that Abraham trusted God and
God provided a sacrifice for him.
And so the account of Abraham on Mount Moriah is, is a amazing
illustration of faith that was proven by obedience.
It was, it was, it was shown through his obedience.
It was faith that acted.
And so through that we see God's grace see through that we see
God's provision.
And so Jehovah, Jehovah Jireh is, is not looking back on what God
has done necessarily like the Lord, he, he provided for us in the
past, but it's the Lord will provide.
And so another way to look at it would be like, I'm trusting in
God to keep his word.
And what he has said, just because he's kept his word in the
past, that means he'll keep his word in the here and now and
he will keep his word forever.
But there's a bigger picture of the Lord's provision and it's
not just in the material, but we, we know that as God provided
a Sacrifice for Abraham.
There he also provided a sacrifice for us.
Up on the hill of Mount Moriah, God provided a substitute
for Isaac.
And on another hill called Calvary, God provided another sacrifice
for us.
The perfect sacrifice.
And I think it could be summarized in, in many passages of
scripture, but the best one that I can think of is Romans, chapter
8, verse 32.
It says that he, he spared not his own son, but delivered him up
for us all.
How shall he not with him also freely give us all things meaning
God is a provider.
But he proved that he is the provider through providing for us
the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
I mean, that's his proven love.
Romans, chapter 5, verse 8.
But God commended or demonstrated his love towards us
in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
And so yes, the story of Abraham and Isaac and the provision
there of the sacrifice is a beautiful story of a father and son
and substitution and God's righteous provision.
But the greatest story of provision would be the provision
that was given to us in Jesus Christ.
And so, just as Abraham said in faith that God would provide himself
a lamb, maybe not even knowing the complete understanding of that,
as John the Baptist says in John, chapter 1, verse 28, Jesus
comes down unto him and John says something amazing.
He says, behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sin of
the world.
And so the recognition there would be that, that Jesus is that
once for all sacrifice.
Jesus is the one who came to pay the price for our sins.
And so we could offer animals, and the Bible speaks in the book
of Hebrews that the blood of animals doesn't completely give us
that once for all sacrifice, but the one that was perfect, the
one who knew no sin, he was the one that came and gave us the
perfect sacrifice so that we could have life.
And so that's the greatest provision of all.
And so Jehovah Jireh, the God who will provide, he provided a sacrifice
to save Isaac.
And that was just a way, a symbolic foreshadowing of the provision
that he would send in his Son for salvation to all the world.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
So we look back at our lives and one might ask, what does that
mean for me?
How, how can I claim that promise of God's provision in my
life?
Well, first and foremost, have you trusted in Jesus Christ as your
Savior?
If you have, he's provided for you life, he's provided for you forgiveness.
He's provided for you an eternal destination to spend with
him one day.
So with his provision comes his presence and with his presence
comes his power.
Because when we are saved in Christ, we have the Holy Spirit living
within us.
And so we have the same power that rose Jesus from the dead.
Because by the way, there was the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, but
the sacrifice was complete on the cross, as Jesus says, it is finished,
but it was followed through with life when it came in the resurrection.
And, and so the same power that rose Jesus from the dead, the
Bible says, is the same power living with us.
And so we have God's provision in salvation.
But, but on top of that provision comes the power of God
in our lives.
And the only reason that we can have that power of God in our
lives is because of the presence of God in us through the
Holy Spirit indwelling us.
So it's a beautiful thing to see God's provision through the power
and through the presence.
And, and so I think about the, the provisions of God and so many
times in our Christian walk we think of the provisions only being
the material.
And in many ways God does provide for us materially.
He provides for us finances, he provides for us our needs, our,
our clothing, our vehicles, our homes, our food, our health.
But those can fail us.
You know, our, you know, God can give us finances, but yet, you
know, finances will fail us, our health will fail us.
Now I'm not saying that these aren't great gifts.
The Bible says in James 1:17, all, all these gifts are beautiful
gifts and they come from God.
So everything good that we have in our life comes from God.
But it's an income, complete understanding of God's provision
if we only think about the material.
Because the deeper blessings would be the blessings of, of the
spiritual nature, the blessing of peace, peace that passeth all
understanding.
The joy of the Lord is our strength.
If you look at the fruit of the Spirit, I mean, all of those
things are gifts, all of those elements of the transformation in
our life is a gift.
And so yes, our family is a gift.
Maybe your job, if you have one, your career is a gift, your,
your, your friends are a gift, your church is a gift.
Whatever you have in your life that's good, we know that's from
God.
And so yes, God is the one who pours out abundant blessings on us.
But we must go back to think about the greatest provision and
that is the provision of salvation.
Because if we had nothing else, if we had no finances, our
health was terrible.
You know, maybe our friends and family had turned their backs
against us.
The Bible says that we have someone who is greater than all.
We have a father to the fatherless.
We have the one who has extended grace to those that don't
deserve it.
And so we look at it.
The greatest provision is salvation.
Everything else is a blessing on top of that.
And so when we think about Jehovah Jireh, many times it's, you
know, I, I need to pay a bill today and I don't have it.
And God provides us the finances and, and that is certainly
an element of Jehovah Jireh, God provided.
But if you look at it from the bigger picture, God has provided
all that we need and he is sufficient and he is wonderful and
he is perfect in every way.
And so one of the character elements of God would be his provisions.
He always provides for his children.
A good parent knows what to bring to his children.
A good parent knows what his child needs.
A good parent understands that if they have the resources, they
will give it.
But I will understand this, and I hope that you can understand
it too.
Though I try to be a loving father and provide everything I can
for my children, I'm limited in my resources.
But God, who, who is, the Bible says, who is rich in mercy
has, has no limit to his resources.
He has no limit to his love.
He has no limit to his provisions.
And so God does the impossible by providing for us everything that
we've ever need.
Philippians, chapter 4.
My God shall supply all your needs.
What an amazing thing that is, that God will provide everything
that we've ever needed.
Not always what we want, though he does give us things that
we want.
He gives us those blessings, maybe even when we don't even expect
it.
And so we go full circle and go back to, go back to Abraham Faith,
right?
Believing not only that God did provide.
That's easy to see.
It's easy to go back and say, yep, he did this, he did this, he
did this.
Wonderful.
Remember that and use that as fuel for your belief in the future.
The Lord will provide Jehovah Jireh.
Right.
So whatever you're facing tomorrow, whatever you're facing
today, whatever you're facing next week, God will provide.
He will give you the grace needed.
He will give you the forgiveness needed.
He will give you the strength in, in his presence.
And that's an exciting thing.
Jehovah Jireh.
So if I, I, I can challenge you with something here this week.
Meditate upon what it means for God to be Jehovah Jireh in you.
First and foremost, salvation.
Secondly, the spiritual blessings.
Then of course, God providing your needs in every way.
And so I hope that that's something that can encourage you
here this week.
Next week we'll come back and look at another Name of God.
I think it'll be an amazing study as we look at the different
elements of his character, the different elements of his love for
us, the different elements He.
He's so grand, infinitely amazing that we can't mind the depths
of his goodness, we can't mind the depths of his power.
But we can do our best by looking at these names given to us
in scripture.
So Genesis chapter 22, if you want to reference this name, it's
a Genesis chapter 22.
And you can go back and look at how God is Jehovah Jireh to Abraham
and he's Jehovah Jireh to you as well.
Genesis chapter 22, verse 14.
The Lord will provide.
And that is true.
He will provide for us.
And so I hope that you have a wonderful rest of your week.
We will talk to you next week when we come back with another Word
of the Week.
And we look forward to hearing from you.
If you have any feedback, please let us know.
And make sure you share this podcast with someone that you love.
All right, God bless.
Take care.
Hey, I really appreciate that you listen to the Word of the Week
podcast.
If you have any questions about the podcast or about our church,
Middletown Baptist Church, you can find more information about us
on Facebook or YouTube or you can find the podcast on NBCPodcast.org
you can contact me directly at Josh Massaro at middletownbaptistchurch.org
stay stay tuned for future Word of the Week episodes where we
dive deeper into words that impact our life according to scripture.
Thank you so much.
God bless.
We'll talk to you soon.