“The Lord will provide.”—GENESIS xxii. 14.
THE patriarch Abraham was one of the brightest stars in the firmament of the Church under the Old Dispensation, and was particularly distinguished for the eminent faith which he manifested in the God of his salvation. He is described in the New Testament as “the father of the faithful.” But if the Lord gave Abraham a strong and lively faith, He also gave him trials for its exercise. The most remarkable of these trials was the call to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac. The Lord commanded him to take his son to the land of Moriah, and to offer him for a burnt offering upon a mountain there. Abraham implicitly obeyed the voice, and took his son to the place the Lord had appointed—a journey of about three days. As they ascended the mountain together, carrying the instruments of sacrifice with them, Isaac, unconscious of his own pathetic part in the matter, said to his father: “Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” This was a sore and searching question for Abraham to answer, but he answered it in words that were evidently divinely guided, and that expressed a faith in divine provision, which was realised in a more wonderful way than he expected. “My son,” he said, “God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering.”
Abraham proceeded to build an altar and to lay the wood in order. He then “bound Isaac, his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.” This done, “Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son,” when suddenly a voice called unto him from heaven, “Abraham, Abraham, lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him.” This was the voice of the Angel of Jehovah, who further declared that He was now satisfied that Abraham feared God, since he had not withheld his son, his only son, from Him. A sacrifice, however, was needed, and Abraham “looked, and beheld behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns,” and he took this ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. This striking deliverance led Abraham to call the name of the place “Jehovah-jireh,” which means “The Lord will see,” or “provide.”
Abraham had just received a signal proof of the Lord’s providing mercy, and these words of his are recorded for the benefit of the children of Abraham in subsequent ages, that they may be encouraged to put their confidence in the Lord Jehovah for the supply of all their need, whether spiritual or temporal.
1. “The Lord will provide” for the spiritual needs of His children.
He has made that provision already in His Son, Jesus Christ. It pleased the Father that in Him all fulness should dwell, and out of his fulness all His children receive “and grace for grace.” Abraham had to look forward by faith, through the medium of promises, types and sacrifices, to the coming of the blessed Messiah. He saw Christ’s day afar off and was glad. But, in the present time, we are called upon to look backward and see a Christ that has already come and finished the work that the Father gave Him to do, and has ascended on high to the right hand of God, whence He dispenses by His Word and Spirit all the blessings of the new covenant to poor sinners on earth.
The Lord provided a sacrifice—a burnt offering—instead of Isaac. And every Isaac of the new economy is taught by the Holy Spirit of truth that he needs a sacrifice, an atonement for his sins. Isaac saw himself exposed to the deadly knife in the hand of his father, and was no doubt sure that he was at the point of death. And the Lord teaches His Isaacs still, in a day of power, that they are exposed to the sword of justice for sin; and thus they are made to feel, with more or less degree of anguish, that they are in danger of eternal death. But He also provides for their need, and when in their soul’s experience they think that there is only a step between them and destruction, He interposes and says, “Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom.” He reveals Christ, in “the thicket” of His estate of humiliation, and on “the altar” of the Cross, as the divine and all-sufficient sacrifice for sin, and thus they obtain peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost. And this is the permanent and perpetual provision to meet their sense of sin and guilt during all their wilderness journey here below. As they have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so they are called to walk in Him. It is theirs constantly to seek new apprehensions of “Christ and him crucified” as a perfect atonement for their sins, and to call for fresh applications of pardoning mercy to their souls, and “the Lord will provide.” He shall say, “Thy sins which are many, be forgiven thee; go in peace.”
The Lord has made provision to meet all other spiritual needs of His people. In themselves they are dark and ignorant, and they need spiritual light to direct them in the paths of righteousness. Christ is given as the light of the world—a light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. They frequently complain of being dead and lifeless in their soul’s desires and affections. Jesus is the resurrection and the life, and He has power to quicken them from depths of earth below. They require strength to overcome sin, to resist the devil, and to endure affliction, and are deeply sensible of their own utter weakness and helplessness for the tasks set before them. But it has pleased the Lord to treasure up in His Son an inexhaustible fulness of strength, and the voice of Christ is, “My grace is sufficient for thee, and my strength is made perfect weakness.” The Lord knew even from eternity every spiritual want, great or small, of His children, and He has made complete provision in the covenant of grace for all these wants. He may permit them to fall very low at times in their feelings, but He will not allow them to perish. “None perish that him trust.” He will give “grace and glory.”
2. “The Lord will provide” for the temporal needs of His people.
All the temporal good in the world comes from God, whether men acknowledge it to be so or not. “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein.” (Ps. xxiv. 1.) He is the absolute proprietor of the universe and all the treasures it contains. It is very clear, then, that He is the provider of every material good His people enjoy, be it little or much. If their own hands or the hands of others have been in any way employed in connection with the obtaining of this good, these are only secondary and instrumental causes, which derive all their power from the omnipotent Jehovah. Indebtedness to creature instruments is to be acknowledged with gratitude; but the crown of every good and perfect gift must be put upon the head of Him who sitteth on the throne, and liveth for ever and ever.
It is to be observed, however, that, while the Lord has an inexhaustible storehouse of temporal good at His disposal, it has not pleased Him to give much of this good in hand to many of His children. The greater number of them are to be found among the poor of this world, and He has no doubt infinitely wise reasons for this appointment. It is His design to teach them to seek above all things the treasure that is in heaven, and to make them realise their dependence upon Himself from day to day as the God of providence as well as the God of grace. In this manner they learn to value their temporal mercies in their proper place, and to glorify God in connection with the enjoyment of them.
But we must further note that this condition of daily dependence upon the Lord for temporal supplies often proves a great trial even to those who trust in His name. In His mysterious providence, they may be sometimes brought into great straits and difficulties, and find themselves reduced very low as to their temporal subsistence from day to day. The devil and unbelief may combine to make them think that the Lord has forgotten them, and that He intends to allow them to sink into utter and irretrievable misery. It generally happens, however, that when they are at the last extremity He appears for their deliverance. When the disciples were tossed in their ship on the Lake of Galilee, and they were afraid they were about to perish in the raging waters, Jesus came in the fourth watch of the night, walking on the sea, and commanded a great calm. “The Lord will provide.” He exhorted His disciples, in His sermon on the mount, to take no thought what they would eat, what they would drink, or wherewithal they would be clothed, and assured them that their heavenly Father, who fed the fowls of the air and clothed the grass of the field, knew their “need of all these things,” and would take care to supply them. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”
3. The followers of the Lord are particularly warranted to expect that He “will provide” when they are in the right path of obedience to His Word.
Abraham was acting in obedience to the divine command when the Lord appeared for his deliverance. The command was of the most trying description. Everything in the way of obedience to it seemed to point to the death of Isaac, and thus to the death of Abraham’s dearest hopes, and what was still more serious, to the death of the cause of God in the world, for the Lord had promised that through Isaac all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Still Abraham obeyed the voice. He had such implicit confidence in the wisdom and faithfulness of Jehovah, that, though he himself could not reconcile the promise and the command, he believed the Lord could do so. Thus he went forward in submissive faith to perform the sacrifice, and the Lord commanded deliverance just at the point of death. Not only so, but He gave a renewal of all the precious promises of future blessing and prosperity that He had given before, including the promise of the Messiah through whom all nations would be blessed, as a gracious reward of Abraham’s obedience—”because thou hast obeyed my voice.” Abraham lost nothing but gained everything by his faith and loyalty to the word of the Lord.
Thus shall it be still. Let those who profess faith in Christ make sure that they are in the path of obedience to the divine will, and they need not fear but the Lord will provide for all their need, both spiritual and temporal. But on the other hand, if they are out of the path of duty, they have not the same warrant to expect that He will supply their necessities. He may make them suffer in soul and body for their disobedience. Better is this chastisement, perhaps, than to be outwardly prospered while in a wrong course. This might only mean: “Ephraim is joined to his idols; let him alone.”
In conclusion, we remark that this word “Jehovah-jireh” is a strong staff for the poor of the flock of Christ to lean upon in view of a coming year with all its concerns and anxieties. “He will not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax,” but will “lead forth judgment into victory.” “Trust ye in the Lord for ever; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.” But what shall be said to those who have no promise to lean upon, who are still trusting in themselves and their own righteousness for eternity? Their false confidence will not always stand. Let them now awake out of sleep and flee for their life to the Son of God, the Saviour of “that which was lost,” otherwise their house shall fall in the day of the storm and the tempest, and they shall perish in its ruins.