The Lord Will Provide...Yahweh Yireh

Genesis 22:1-19

Provision...Abraham...great man of faith, facing a crisis of belief the magnitude of which I have never experienced, ever. I can't even begin to imagine my response to the Lord had I been asked to sacrifice one of my children. I am sure it made absolutely no sense to him, especially after being promised that his seed would come through Isaac (Genesis 17:19; 21:12), the very son God was asking him to slay. It certainly made no sense to Isaac to be climbing the mountain, equipped to offer a sacrifice and worship, with no animal (lamb) for the sacrifice. Thus the question he ventured to ask his father, "The fire and the wood are here, "Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" (v. 7b). Abraham's response? "God himself will provide the lamb..." (v. 8). Here is great faith. Nothing logical about this request from God, but Abraham gathered up a couple of servants, cut the needed wood, secured fire, loaded the donkey, traveled for 3 days, in obedience, because he believed in God's provision. Sometime during that time of travel or maybe right away, as soon as God spoke, he concluded, "God himself will provide the lamb...".

Knowing me, it would have taken the entire 3 days of travel to come to this conclusion, and even then, it probably would have been a half-hearted one. But Abraham believed it because as he told the servants in verse 5, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you." (Emphasis mine). "...I and the boy...we..." Not only did Abraham have faith, it would seem he also had all the details of how things would unfold all worked out.

In Hebrews 11:17-19, the great "Roll Call or Hall of Faith", a few more details surrounding the mind set of Abraham are revealed. Verse 19 states that, "Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead." While I am sure many other things were going through Abraham's mind, there are two things Scripture reveals to us, two conclusions, two concepts that Abraham wholeheartedly embraced and believed about His God...

The first was that God would provide (Gen. 22:8)
The second was that God could raise the dead if He had to (Heb. 11:19)

Either way, both he and Isaac would return...alive...and God's promise to him would stand. Hmmm...maybe there is a third concept here that Abraham believed...

God keeps His promises.

So, what happened? God provided...a ram...!?! (Gen. 22:13) Not a lamb...a ram. How interesting! Abraham was raising the knife to slay his most precious possession and looks up to see provision literally caught up right in front of him. Obviously this is not exactly the way Abraham thought things were going to work out. He was wrong about the process and the details, but he was right in concept. God honored Abraham's faith even in the midst of Abraham's erroneous ideas about how it would happen. Ultimately, Abraham believed God to be a God of provision...and God came through.

Currently, I find myself going through a time when I really have no idea how things are going to turn out. Scripting out my life and in particular my future is something I have to be aware of (or should I say beware of), especially right now. I waste and have wasted in the past, entirely too much time fantisizing and scripting out different scenarios when I am clueless about the direction of my life. God has so often shown Himself in the most unexpected ways during these times. In fact, so much so that I like to refer to Him as the God of the unexpected. I just love that about Him!!! I think Abraham would agree! Maybe we should list that as one of God's attributes...well, it is probably just that we are so dense about His ways, or just dense where He is concerned period, that He works in "unexpected" details.

So, I am moving ahead in faith, believing that God provides!

Lord, give me the faith of Abraham, who might have had the details
wrong, but recognized and had You as his Jehovah-Jireh, Yahweh Yireh,
and that was so perfectly...
right.