'And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh;
(that is, The Lord will provide).'-GENESIS xxii. 14.
As these two, Abraham and Isaac, were travelling up the hill, the son
bearing the wood, and the father with the sad burden of the fire and
the knife, the boy said: 'Where is the lamb?' and Abraham, thrusting
down his emotion and steadying his voice, said: 'My son, God will
provide Himself a lamb.' When the wonderful issue of the trial was
plain before him, and he looked back upon it, the one thought that rose
in his mind was of how, beyond his meaning, his words had been true. So
he named that place by a name that spoke nothing of his trial, but
everything of God's provision--'The Lord will see,' or 'The Lord will
provide.'
1. The words have become proverbial and threadbare as a commonplace of
Christian feeling. But it may be worth our while to ask for a moment
what it was exactly that Abraham expected the Lord to provide. We
generally use the expression in reference to outward things, and see in
it the assurance that we shall not be left without the supply of the
necessities for which, because God has made us to feel them, He has
bound Himself to make provision. And most blessedly true is that
application of them, and many a Christian heart in days of famine has
been satisfied with the promise, when the bread that was given has been
scant.
But there is a meaning deeper than that in the words. It is true, thank
God! that we may cast all our anxiety about all outward things upon
Him, in the assurance that He who feeds the ravens will feed us, and
that if lilies can blossom into beauty without care, we shall be held
by our Father of more value than these. But there is a deeper meaning
in the provision spoken of here. What was it that God provided for
Abraham? What is it that God provides for us? A way to discharge the
arduous duties which, when they are commanded, seem all but impossible
for us, and which, the nearer we come to them, look the more dreadful
and seem the more impossible. And yet, when the heart has yielded
itself in obedience, and we are ready to do the thing that is enjoined,
there opens up before us a possibility provided by God, and strength
comes to us equal to our day, and some unexpected gift is put into our
hand, which enables us to do the thing of which Nature said: 'My heart
will break before I can do it'; and in regard to which even Grace
doubted whether it was possible for us to carry it through. If our
hearts are set in obedience to the command, the farther we go on the
path of obedience, the easier the command will appear, and to try to do
it is to ensure that God will help us to do it.
This is the main provision that God makes, and it is the highest
provision that He can make. For there is nothing in this life that we
need so much as to do the will of our Father in heaven. All outward
wants are poor compared with that. The one thing worth living for, the
one thing which being secured we are blessed, and being missed we are
miserable, is compliance in heart with the commandment of our Father;
and that compliance wrought out in life. So, of all gifts that He
bestows upon us, and of all the abundant provision out of His rich
storehouses, is not this the best, that we are made ready for any
required service? When we get to the place we shall find some lamb
'caught in the thicket by its horns'; and heaven itself will supply
what is needful for our burnt offering.
And then there is another thought here which, though we cannot
certainly say it was in the speaker's mind, is distinctly in the
historian's intention, 'The Lord will provide.' Provide what? The lamb
for the burnt offering which He has commanded. It seems probable that
that bare mountain-top which Abraham saw from afar, and named
Jehovah-jireh, was the mountain-top on which afterwards the Temple was
built. And perhaps the wood was piled for the altar, on which Abraham
was called to lay his only son, on that very piece of primitive rock
which still stands visible, though Temple and altar have long since
gone; and which for many a day was the place of the altar on which the
sacrifices of Israel were offered. It is no mere forcing of Christian
meanings on to old stories, but the discerning of that prophetic and
spiritual element which God has impressed upon these histories of the
past, especially in all their climaxes and crises, when we see in the
fact that God provided the ram which became the appointed sacrifice,
through which Isaac's life was preserved, a dim adumbration of the
great truth that the only Sacrifice which God accepts for the world's
sin is the Sacrifice which He Himself has provided.
This is the deepest meaning of all the sacrificial worship, as of
Israel so of heathen nations--God Himself will provide a Lamb. The
world had built altars, and Israel, by divine appointment, had its
altar too. All these express the want which none of them can satisfy.
They show that man needed a Sacrifice; and that Sacrifice God has
provided. He asked from Abraham less than He gives to us. Abraham's
devotion was sealed and certified because he did not withhold his son,
his only son, from God. And God's love is sealed because He hath not
withheld His only-begotten Son from us.
So this name that came from Abraham's grateful and wondering lips
contains a truth which holds true in all regions of our wants. On the
lowest level, the outward supply of outward needs; on a higher, the
means of discharging hard duties and a path through sharp trials; and,
on the highest of all, the spotless sacrifice which alone avails for
the world's sins--these are the things which God provides.