Yahweh-Jireh or Jehovah Jireh is a name that is often used for our God. It mean God Provides. Jireh is also a term meaning seeing or one who sees. It is similar to the term El Roi, The God Who Sees. God sees us in our need and our distress and works to make all things right. Sometimes He gets us out of the storm and other times He helps us through the storm to make us stronger.
Abraham used the name Yahweh Jireh to describe His faithfulness and provision. God provided Him a son in His old age, and then He tested him for His faith. I believe more than that God had a lesson to teach each of us and show His faithfulness to us.
Genesis 22:1-2
Now it came to pass after these things that God [Elohim] tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
This is the second time Abraham followed God and went on a journey without knowing exactly where. He was a man of faith and he knew the Lord always keeps His promises and will provide. Not only did He provide Abraham a son and many descendants to be a great nation through which all nations would be blessed.
Genesis 22:9-14
Then they came to the place of which God [Elohim] had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
But the Angel of the LORD [malak Yahweh] called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God [Elohim], since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”
Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place, The-LORD-Will-Provide [Yahweh Jirah]; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the LORD [Yahweh] it shall be provided.”
Yahweh Jirah, or Jehovah Jirah, is a name of God that is heard a lot, but this is the only place I could find it used in the Bible. But, regardless, we are reminded throughout the Old and New Testament that God is the Provider in our lives, not only for our daily needs but also for our salvation.
Romans 5:1-11
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
Just as God provided a ram on the mountain of God to Abraham as a sacrifice, and as Abrahm was about to sacrifice his son for God, He also provided His one and only Son as a sacrifice for our sins so that we may be reconciled to Him and have eternal life. That is what God meant when He told Abraham that all the nations would be blessed through him and his descendants.
John 3:16-17
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
It seems that the word Jireh is often used to mean “to see.” This also applies to God giving us eyes to see. He reveals His loving kindness and His greatness to us. He gives us the faith to believe.
John 20:24-29
Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
He is the God who sees our needs and accomplishes it. Sometimes we don’t see Him working in our lives, sometimes we don’t understand His ways or why He allows things to happen, but we know that He loves us. He gave His only Son so that we may be saved, so that we can be declared righteous and enter into His kingdom and live forever with Him. Nothing on this earth can be compared to the glory we will have in heaven if we believe. And nothing comes close to the love that God has for us.
Romans 8:31-39
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE KILLED ALL DAY LONG; WE ARE ACCOUNTED AS SHEEP FOR THE SLAUGHTER.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God provides us with what we need. And there is nothing we need more than Jesus Christ, our salvation. But he also sees our earthly needs and He knows what we need and He sees what lies in our future. And He has a plan for each of us. He is the God Who sees, as Hagar called him when she was in need and He was there for her. She called Him “El Roi.”
Genesis 16:9-14
The Angel of the LORD [malak Yahweh] said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand.” Then the Angel of the LORD [malak Yahweh] said to her, “I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude.”
And the Angel of the LORD [malak Yahweh] said to her: “Behold, you are with child, and you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the LORD [Yahweh] has heard your affliction. He shall be a wild man; his hand shall be against every man, and every man’s hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.” Then she called the name of the LORD [Yahweh] who spoke to her, You-Are- the-God-Who-Sees [El Roi]; for she said, “Have I also here seen Him who sees me?” Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai Roi [the well of him that lives and sees me]; observe, it is between Kadesh and Bered.
The Lord sees us and hears our cries. He knows what we need and He knows what is best for us. Sometimes we don’t understand His ways, but He is always looking out for us.
Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
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