part 1 of "Jireh"
A couple of months ago, I was faced with a new journey. A few days after I entered this new journey, a song came out by Elevation Worship and Maverick City Music called “Jireh”. As I listened to the song a few times throughout the morning it was released, I started thinking about the song title and word “Jireh”.
Now, the song title is not just a word; it is a shortened version of a name of God. The full name is Jehovah-Jireh. So what does this mean? Jehovah (Yahweh is also used) means “Lord” or “God”. Jireh means roughly “provides” or “will provide”. So in a basic definition Jehovah-Jireh means “God provides” or in a long way “the Lord will provide”.
This leads me to a story that I want to look at in the book Genesis. The story is about a man named Abraham. Abraham’s story starts in Genesis 11, but we are going to pick it up in Genesis 12 where Abraham receives a promise from God. God tells Abraham that he was going to make him into a great nation, that his name would be great, and he would bless all people of Earth through him. [1]
But Abraham begins to struggle with this promise as he does not have any children. Abraham even suggests to God that a servant of his inherit his wealth. God tells Abraham that he will indeed have a son and that he would have more descendants than the stars in the sky. [1]
But Abraham still struggled with all of this and goes into business for himself. Abraham’s wife Sarah tells him to go and sleep with her servant Hagar so that he would have a child to inherit his wealth. Ishmael was born of this action and God told Abraham that Sarah would have a son for him, his name would be Isaac, and that His promise would be carried out through Isaac - not Ishmael. Isaac was born to Abraham and Sarah just as God said he would be. [1] The next part of the story is interesting.
Abraham finally had the son that God would bless him and keep His promise through. But God then told Abraham this:
“‘Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.’”- Genesis 22:2 NLT
The next verse says that Abraham did what God wanted to do. Abraham saddled up his donkey and chopped wood for the fire. But I bet this didn’t come with some confusion. God had just blessed Abraham with a son in his old age. But this wasn’t just a son, this was the son that God was going to keep His promise to Abraham through. I bet Abraham was very confused because how could have descendants that outnumber the stars in the sky if he had to sacrifice his son to God. But despite all of this, Abraham takes Isaac to the mountain that God shows him and just as he is about to sacrifice Isaac, God sends an angel to intervene:
“‘Don’t lay a hand on the boy!’ the angel said. ‘Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son.’” - Genesis 22:12 NLT
Abraham stops and looks over and sees a ram caught in the bushes. Abraham sacrifices the ram instead of Isaac. Abraham then called the place “the Lord will provide”. [1]
We all face situations and circumstances that test our faith. God was testing Abraham. God was testing Abraham’s faith. God had tested Abraham’s faith before when He promised a son. Abraham failed that test by trying to help God out. But then God came through for Abraham by giving him, Isaac. God was testing Abraham’s faith and trust in Him. Abraham passed the test. Even though it didn’t make sense because God had promised Abraham that his descendants would come through Isaac. But Abraham knew that God gave him Isaac in the first place and that God kept His promise of having a son and He could do it again [2].
As I said, we all face circumstances that test our faith. Job loss. Divorce. Loss of a loved one. Medical diagnosis. Illness. Whatever circumstances can be put on this list. We all face circumstances. But we have to have faith through the circumstances as Abraham did. We may not understand our circumstances, but neither did Abraham. We may not know why we are facing the circumstance, but neither did Abraham. But Abraham did know something and we can sometimes miss it or forget it - Abraham knew what God had done for him in the past. Abraham looked back at what God had done for him and how God had come through for him in the past.
This is how we can have faith in our circumstances when we don’t understand and when we don’t get it. We need to focus on what God has done in the past for us, not the circumstance. If we focus on the circumstance, we can get lost in it and not see how God has helped us in the past.
My encouragement for you and me, focus on God in your circumstance. Focus on what He has done for you in the past and what He can and will do for you again in the future. God isn’t going anywhere. Have faith in Him. He will get us through.
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[1] The Story of Abraham can be found in Genesis 11:26 - Genesis 25:8. Sections of his story referenced in this post are from Genesis 12, 15, 16, 17, and 22.
[2] Hebrews 11:17, NLT
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