This is one of God's most common names.
Hebrews 11:17 By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,
What did God Himself suffered when Jesuschrist was crucified?
Genesis 22 will give us a real illustration of what God went. Three times in the Bible is Abraham called the friend of God. There was no one else depicted with such a bond with God as the one Abraham had with Him. How great is to study this relationship and find that we have a God that is pleased when we have fellowship with Him, that He desires us to have fellowship with Him. My heart yearns to know of that intimacy between Abraham and God.
Genesis 22:1-3 And it came to pass after these things, that God tested Abraham and said unto him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Behold, here I am.” And He said, “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” And Abraham rose up early in the morning and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he cleaved the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up and went unto the place of which God had told him.
Now remember that Abraham was 75 when he received the promise of a child. He had that boy until he was 100 years old. And now the test is to give Him that son for whom he waited so long.
Can God test you? Can He test me? Is He the center of our lives? Can we say we are His friends?
John 15:14-16 Ye are My friends if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of My Father, I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it to you.
What a tremendous possibility to have this intimacy of fellowship with God.
Let us remember all that Abraham had left for God. He left his country, his kindred, his father house, he left Lot, he left Ishmael. But he still had Isaac. And now God was asking for Isaac too!
Genesis 22:7-8 And Isaac spoke unto Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here am I, my son.” And he said, “Behold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering.” So they went both of them together.
Look at the trust and fellowship, love and intimacy between God and Abraham.
Again what a beautiful illustration at what must have happened at Calvary. God providing a lamb for the redemption of our sins!
1 John 4:9-10 In this was manifested the love of God toward us: that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Notice also the obedience in this terrible test.
Matthew 16:21 From that time forth began Jesus to show unto His disciples that He must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
Matthew 26:2, 37-38, 42 “Ye know that after two days is the Feast of the Passover, and the Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified.” And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then He said unto them, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; tarry ye here and watch with Me.” He went away again the second time and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup may not pass away from Me, unless I drink it, Thy will be done.”
Think only Jesus Who is God can obey like that? Let us look at Abraham. But Abraham was convinced God was going to do something, even if he burned Isaac on that altar, God was going to bring him back.
In all the announcements of His death, Jesus always added that He would be raised again from the dead the third day. God is going to allow Abraham and Isaac to go through something similar that He himself would go 2000 years later.
Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord will provide or "in the mountain it shall be seen." Can you imagine Isaac asking Abraham were is the lamb? That painful picture were Abraham knows Isaac is the offering?
Imagine time before creation. The Father and the Son were together.
Genesis 11:7 Come, let Us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” Down to the centuries they were together. And when our Lord was made into the flesh of men, they were together. And when they nailed Jesus to the Cross, they were together.
And when Abraham was about to slain Isaac, God stopped him. He did not allow Abraham to go to the full extent of pain He would experience 2000 years later.
Genesis 22:12, 14 And He said, “Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him; for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me.” And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh that is, The Lord will provide; as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.”
He has made provision for you to be clear of sin, to be freed from judgment, from the wrath of God, from the path to hell, from the bonds of death. He has made provision for you to go to glory and have eternal life, to become a child of God, and to enjoy intimacy with you.
Why do you think God has made provision for your salvation?
He loved us and He wants intimacy with us.
The provision has been made and seen in the Cross.
1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit,
2 Corinthians 5:21 For He hath made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
I am the one who should have been crucified, and God made the provision through His Son. Had God not given His Son no one would get into Heaven, and we would experience the condemnation our sin was due. If man could save himself, Jesus needed not to die in the Cross. But it was the only provision. God gave a lamb for the offering. It is not the work of Christ in me that saves me; it is the work of Christ for me.
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