Hendersonhome Chronicles

One of the easiest of the Hebrew names for God for me to remember is “Jehovah Jireh,” which translates into “The Lord Will Provide.” One of our closest friends pointed us to the passage in Genesis 22:1-19, where this name is used. I was meditating on this passage on Monday morning, and recorded the following thoughts. Nothing groundbreaking, but then again, this is not the place to come for groundbreaking. But I hope that you can see the parallels to our own situation.

God called Abraham to do this. He doesn’t initiate plans without knowing the outcome, the details or the reason. he doesn’t always reveal these right away (I would venture that he rarely reveals these), so that we may learn to trust him.

Verse 2 – “…Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love…” God knows Ian by name. Not only does God love Ian infinitely more than Deb or I ever could, He also knows how much we love Ian. God doesn’t consider this insignificant, since we are doing our best to model God’s love for His son, and God’s love for us. If anyone’s heart is breaking in this situation, it is our Lord’s.

Verse 3 – It must have been killing Abraham as he made those preparations. Satan was pummeling him with doubt and fear. Abraham probably cut a little bit more wood than he needed, or walked a little more slowly, just to see if God would change His mind. Every step of the process–saddling the donkey, getting the servants, getting Isaac, all the way to Moriah. In each stage, he hoped God would stop him and call it off. Thousands of times, Abraham must have thought something like, “See God? I’m trusting you. Lesson learned. Now let me take my son and go home.” I do that now, and I’m sure that I will keep doing it, wanting in my humanness for the nightmare to be over, instead of wanting God’s designs to be fulfilled.