Calvary Pointers Morning Showers 11 August 2023 Devotional by Reverend Ajisafe Opeyemi - Jehovah-Jireh - “God Will Provide”
Jehovah-Jireh - “God Will Provide”
Genesis 22:2, 7-8 AMP - God said, “Take now your son, your only son [of promise], whom you love, Isaac, and go to the region of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” And Isaac said to Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” Isaac said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself a lamb for the burnt offering.” So the two walked on together.
Abraham’s knowledge of God as Jehovah-Jireh comes in the midst of God testing Abraham.
Isaac was the child of promise that both Abraham and Sarah had waited so long to bear, and his death would also signal the death of God’s covenant with Abraham that He would make him a great nation (Genesis 12:2). Why would God ask Abraham to do this?
The essence of this test is a question that Abraham and all of us must answer. When faced with a choice between the blessing (in this case Isaac) and the One who blesses (God), which will we choose?
All of us can fall so deeply in love with the blessing that we have or that we yearn for, that God becomes a means to an end. The blessing becomes an idol and thus an object of worship, when God alone is to be the object of our desire and reverence.
Deuteronomy 6:4-5 -“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might”
What in your life would you be conflicted to give up if God commanded you to? Abraham responds to a test by acting in obedience to God’s command.
Abraham’s obedience, however, consisted of more than just preparations and a journey to the place: when he arrives at Mount Moriah he builds the altar, binds Isaac to it, and stretches out his hand with the knife to slay his son (Genesis 22:10).
Abraham’s action implies he was not going through the motions and hoping that God will provide an exit plan; he is prepared to obey God completely, regardless of the costs and the outcomes.
Beloved, steps of obedience are not a means by which he can control God and insure his holding on to Isaac, but rather obedience to God and worship of Him is the end goal. Abraham loves and thus obeys the One who blesses more than he loves the blessing.
Has God called you to sacrifice something for Him? If so, are you ready to make that sacrifice or are you still struggling with holding on to it?
Abrahams’s obedient response to the test was rooted in his faith in God. Isaac question was enough to put his father off, but he simply responded with “God will provide”.
Abraham’s obedient response arises out of his faith in the character of the God he has come to know. Abraham knows, through the eyes of faith, that Jehovah is a covenant-keeping God, and even if his actions mean the end of the blessing, he will still obey God. Abraham stakes out the same position that Job did in the midst of his losses:
“The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).
The end result is that this covenant-keeping God that Abraham has faith in and obeys completely, reveals Himself as Jehovah-Jireh as He provides, in the place of Isaac, a ram for the sacrifice (Genesis 22:13-14).
Abraham has passed this test and it is clear that he loves the One who blesses even if he loses the blessing. May God give us the grace to pass our test as well in Jesus name. Genesis 22:12 -“Now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me”
All of us have our own Isaacs in our lives, and we must learn, as Abraham did, that we cannot hold on to Isaac and still get God as Jehovah-Jireh.
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As we learn to relinquish our Isaacs through an obedience rooted in faith, we will come to desire and worship the God who is alone our Provider. In so doing, we will come to know that His name is Jehovah-Jireh.
Good morning and do have a glorious day at work.
You Can Also Read: Calvary Pointers 2023 Annual Prayer And Fasting Programme
MORNING SHOWERS Today, 11 August 2023 was written by Reverend Ajisafe Opeyemi; is the founder and Senior Pastor of Calvary Pointers Covenant Church situated at Block C, Road A, Unity Estate, Gbaga Bus Stop, by Ijede Rd, Ikorodu Lagos,Nigeria