Jehovah Jireh means The Lord Will Provide.
This name of God can be traced to Genesis 22 when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac and Abraham obeyed and took him to the place where it would be done.
While they were going there Isaac asked his father Abraham, "Look, we have fire and wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" (Genesis 22:7)
Abraham replied by saying, "My son, God will provide." (Genesis 22:8)
When they reached the place, Abraham built an altar, placed the wood on it, bound Isaac and laid him on the wood on the altar.
Abraham then stretched out his hand with his knife to slay Isaac BUT an Angel called him from heaven and told him not to lay a hand on Isaac. (Genesis 22:12)
Abraham lifted his eyes, looked behind him and saw a ram caught in the thicket. He took it and offered it as a burnt offering instead on Isaac. (Genesis 22:13)
Abraham then called the place Jehovah Jireh which means The Lord Will Provide. (Genesis 22:14)
This Bible story has been preached many times from the perspective of Abraham but I would like us to look at it today from the perspective of Isaac.
Put yourself in Isaac's shoes. We know that he knew they are going to offer a burnt sacrifice to God because of the question he asked. He also saw the fire and the wood that would be used but he could not see the lamb that was to be sacrificed.
When he asked his father about the situation, he was told, "My son, God will provide." (Genesis 22:8)
Then as he is waiting for God to provide, his father ties him up and places him on the altar on the wood as the sacrifice to be burned.
What do you think Isaac was thinking at that moment?
Had his father Abraham lied to him by telling him, "My son, God will provide." (Genesis 22:8) or had God stopped providing?
No Abraham had not lied to Isaac and God had not stopped providing.
Therefore if you are in a similar situation like Isaac and you are wondering
"Look, I have the fridge and the plate but where is the food?"
OR
"Look, I have the house and the furniture but where is the rent?"
Continue believing that God will provide even if landlord has bound you up and given you an eviction notice. Combine your belief in God's provision by praying as you address your prayers to Jehovah Jireh and wait for Him to act.
As you wait on God know that He sometimes like to act on the 11th hour. We can see from this scenario that Isaac begun wondering where they would get the lamb way back in verse 7.
And he continued on the journey with his father until the place where God had told Abraham. Abraham then built an altar and place him on it before the answer from God came.
Therefore just present your case to God and leave it to Him to answer you when He wants because He is God and His methods of operating are way above ours for He tells us, "For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are My ways higher than yours" (Isaiah 55:8-9)
We can also see that God tends to move in the 11th hour. This is the hour that it seems that all hope is lost. Isaac's 11th hour was after he had been bound by his father, picked up and placed on the wood on the altar and his father raised his hand with the sharp knife to kill him.
That 11th hour and in your situation it may be when:
Your spouse has told you they want a divorce and they have packed and moved out of your marital home.
OR
Your child could be very sick and lying in an ICU (Intensive Care Unit) and not improving despite the best treatment
OR
Your boss could have given you a letter and told you to look for another job and yet you have many bills to pay
OR
Your landlord could have told given you an eviction notice.
OR
Any other terrible life situation.
If you find yourself in an Isaac-like 11th hour, do the following:
1. Pray to Jehovah Jireh
Just as God opened Abraham's eyes and showed him the ram that solved Isaac's problem, ask Him to show you the solution for your problem.
For example you can pray, "Jehovah Jireh I ask You in the name of Jesus to show me the solution to this 11th hour problem."
2. Meditate on God's Provision
Instead of meditating on the knife that is about to be plunged into your marriage, family, job or any other aspect of your life, meditate on Bible verses that assure you of God's provision.
Bible verses that you can fill your mind with instead of depressing yourself by focusing your problems include:
A sparrow does not fall without God's consent. (Matthew 10:29)
Therefore even if you are lying on the altar with the knife aiming at your heart, know that you will not fall until God's consents.
So you do not have to fear the person holding the knife. Commit yourself to God and wait on Him to act on your behalf since there is nothing you can do as you have been bound.
Keep in mind that this binding is not just physical. It can also be spiritual binding where you can see problems in your health, finances, marriage and other aspects of your life but you cannot do anything about them.
We know this from when Jesus asked, How can one enter a strong man's house and plunder their goods unless their first bind that strong man and then plunder his house? (Matthew 12:29)
Therefore the person who may have bound your health, finances, marriage or any other aspect of your life may be someone who stronger spiritually than you and you cannot untie yourself the way Isaac was weaker than his father Abraham and could not untie himself.
In those situations, continue meditating on "God will provide" (Genesis 22:8) and wait for God to send a message from Heaven for them to untie you since even if Isaac had told Abraham to untie him, he would not have listened but he had to listen to God.
So do not despair, just lie there waiting for God to act from Heaven.
With God all things are possible. (Matthew 19:26)
Believing that all things are possible if you have God on your side is very important and you can strengthen your faith by asking "Where did the ram come from?"
The Bible tells us that after the Angel of God spoke to him, Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked behind him and saw a ram caught in the thicket with its thorns. (Genesis 22:13)
God strategically placed the ram there and it was only after God spoke that Abraham saw it.
So do not waste you time calling people and asking them to help you. Use that time to pray because God is the only one who can remind the people who are about to slaughter you something in their past and help them see the "ram in the thicket".
This ram caught in the thicket may not have been visible because it was not in an open place. It was in a thicket. And sometimes animals that have been caught in a thicket even stop moving because they have used up all their energy. They can also stop making noise to save their lives as this ram was behind Abraham meaning it could see what he was doing. The point is trapped animals can be very still and you might even miss to see them.
Therefore it takes special intervention to notice them. The point here is that the solution to your problem may not be visible without God's intervention.
So, once again use your 11th hour to pray for God's intervention in your situation.
Be still and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10)
Being still in an 11th hour situation is very important because Abraham thought he was doing the right thing for God had asked him to sacrifice his son Isaac.
Therefore, once again arguing with those people will not help your situation because they are doing the right thing.
Therefore, just like Isaac, your intervention must come from God because He was the only one who could speak to Abraham and make him change his plan of action.
This also leads us to another point which is you should not be annoyed with these people for Isaac could not be annoyed because his father was obeying God's instructions.
So just present your case to God, Jehovah Jireh in prayer and lie on the altar as still as Isaac as you wait for God to speak from Heaven.
Click on the link to learn about other Names and Characteristics of God
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