Chapter 8 Jehovah-jireh, The Lord Will Provide - on Love, Worship, Obey

Notes by Jen K

Genesis 22:1-19


this is a story that i'm well familiar with. but it wasn't until last week when i took the time to study this passage myself and then with the women that i saw the richness of it. we focused on 3 words: love, obeyed, worship,.



kay arthur said in the book "In Genesis 22 you see the first mention of these three words in the Bible. God has written twenty-one chapters, and until now these words have not been used. When a significant word is mentioned for the first time in the Word of God, the principles connected with that word at that point hold true throughout the Scripture. This is called the principle of first mention"



love- used to describe the relationship between the father and his son- very sacred, passionate, like no other..

worship- Abraham's obedience to God's word- even to the point of sacrificing his one and only son, whom he loved. worship is not just singing praises on sunday morning. we are to worship God all the time. we do this by obeying his Word.

obeyed- because of Abraham's obedience it effected all generations right down to us! when we choose to obey God's words there is so much blessing that comes from it. Abraham's obedience showed that he feared God and he did not withhold anything from him.



Abraham was a man of such great faith! God promised him that his offsprings will be as numerous as the stars. yet when God told Abraham to go sacrifice his one and only son, he obeyed with no hesitation. no questions asked! he completely trusted God that he would provide. it's as if he knew that even if he killed his son, God had to power to raise him from the dead! he knew as God was Jehovah, a covenant keeping God.

you can also see Issac's obedience in this. i'm sure Issac knew what was going on. he could've easily prevented his old frail dad from tying him to the wood to be sacrificed, but he didn't. his faith in God was just as evident. this had to be taught by his dad.



one cool thing i found out was that in this passage, God stops Abraham from killing his son and then provides a ram to be sacrificed.

i looked up what the significance of a ram was because i was curious as to why of all animals God would choose a ram.

a ram represents protection. it is a male sheep that protects the herd.

this lead me to think of Jesus! as a protector, he was sacrificed for his sheep and we reap the blessings from it.



the order that these 3 words came up in this passage is love, worship, and then obeyed. the reason for this may be to show us how God desires our relationship with him. He wants our love first. we must love him above all else. without love, everything we do is meaningless. the love and adoration we have for Him will lead to worship. when we worship God we obey his Word.



This passage then ties in to John 3:16. See for yourself where love, worship, and obedience ties into it. It makes you look at the passage differently!

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

THE SELF-EXISTENT ONE CHAPTER 7

JEHOVAH is the self-existent One- “ I AM WHO I AM.” EXODUS 3:13-15

Jehovah speaks to God’s being or essence.   Nathan Stone says “Thus when we read the name Jehovah, or LORD in capital letters, in our Bible, we think in terms of being or existence and life, and we must think of Jehovah as the Being who is absolutely self existent, the ONE who in Himself possesses essential life, permanent existence.” 

God is the SUPREME being.  He exists not by any other thing.  He relies on NOTHING to exist.   “I AM WHO I AM”   Can you just imagine how significant that fact alone is?  It is powerful.

A sister, Jessica Hong, shared with me that when God reached out to Moses via the Burning Bush.  That burning bush alone is so amazing.  In order to build a fire, we need heat and something combustible to make fire.  But God made fire without anything, the wood in the bush  did not burn!  There was just fire. 

So we must rest here… God is “ I AM WHO I AM!”  God being self-existent shows God’s superiority of all things and His power!  AMEN?

John Piper shared this in a sermon that I thought was very thought provoking:

Suppose the president of the United States invited you and a few of your friends to the White House for a reception. As you enter the cozy green room, the president is sitting by the fire place and you walk right by him without a glance or a greeting. For the whole evening you neither look at him nor speak to him nor thank him nor inquire why he called you together. But every time the one reporter asks you if you believe in the existence of the president, you say, "Of course." You even agree that this is his house and that all this food came from his kitchen. But you pay him no regard. Practically speaking you act as if you do not believe he exists. You ignore him. He has no place in the affections of your heart. His gifts, not himself, are the center of your attention.

The vast majority of people who say they believe in God treat him this way. He is like hydrogen. You learned once in school that it is in the air you breathe, but after that your belief in it has made no difference in your life. Every time someone takes a poll, you say, "Of course, hydrogen exists." Then you return to things that matter.

Put yourself forward a few years to the day when every human being will give an account of himself before the living God. God will say to millions of people, "Now it is my understanding that you said often during your life that you believed in me. You affirmed my existence. Is that right?" "Yes." "And is it not true that in your life the more honor and importance and virtue and power and beauty a person had, the more regard he was paid and the more respect he was shown and the more admiration he received? Is that not the case?" "Yes." "Then why is it that I had such an insignificant place in your life since you say you believed in me? Why didn't you feel more admiration for me and seek my wisdom more often and spend time in fellowship with me and strive to know the way I wanted you to make all your everyday decisions? Why did you treat me as though I were like hydrogen?"

What, I ask you, what is the world going to answer? What are thousands of so-called Christians going to answer, whose faith in God is virtually the same as their faith in hydrogen?

·      How should the fact that God is self-existent impact your life?  Do you give him the reverence and awe that He deserves?

The one  other important point  because He is supreme, self-existent unaffected by anything, He never changes.  What He says stands He never changes His mind!  He never changes!!!  HE NEVER CHANGES!  He is a covenant keeping God.  His promises never change.  He doesn’t promise one thing and take it back later. 

Pg 56: “ When you need assurance that God is there, that He will keep His promises without changing- even though you have wavered in your promises to Him- run to Jehovah.  Trust in His name.  It can’t change because He can’t change.  He is Jehovah- the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

This is a HUGE truth!  I personally shared that many times I put my trust in people and the world.  But people and the world  changes… they can love  you one moment but then can hate you the next.  One thing can seem safe but become so dangerous.  Everything in this world is  like sand.. always shifting… and there is nothing that can hold us steady like a rock but ….. GOD… our JEHOVAH… which means self-existent one ( never changes).   So why do we run from Him?  Why don’t we believe it?   Why don’t we trust it? 

Every attribute in the bible is TRUTH.  And it will stand because He can’t change.  The bible is TRUTH.  We must hold fast.

I had the girls share a bible verse that comforted them or had a great significance in their life.  And it was amazing to see and hear God’s truth anchoring them.  Keeping them safe and witnessing God’s amazing love for each one of them.  He’s alive and active in our lives.  I then asked,” DO YOU BELIEVE THIS TO BE TRUE?” yes  “WILL GOD EVER CHANGE HIS MIND AND TAKE THOSE WORDS BACK?”    no

HOW AMAZING IT IS THAT WE CAN PUT OUR TRUST IN GOD?  AND HE REVEALS HIMSELF TO US PLAINLY IN THE BIBLE OF WHO HE IS. AND HOW COMFORTING IT IS TO KNOW THAT WE CAN BE SECURE IN THAT BECAUSE HE NEVER CHANGES.

EXODUS 35: 5-7

The LORD, the LORD God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindess for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and  on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”

WE CAN BELIEVE IT BECAUSE GOD IS SELF-EXISTENT!!

Pastor John PIPER said it well:

O how easy it is going to be for God to condemn the world at the judgment! Sometimes in our self-asserting pride we actually think that God is going to have trouble finding enough evidence to be just in sentencing people to hell. But if you allow yourself to think clearly for a moment about the overwhelming implications of the statement, "God exists," you will see that it is going to be very easy for the Judge on that day. The defendants will be utterly speechless because of the manifest inconsistency of their lives. The portfolio of the prosecuting attorney will not have to be opened beyond page 1 where it says, "Defendant affirmed that God exists; personal life lived as though God made no difference."

Contained in the name “Jehovah” is the first and most important truth about God: he exists. And for those who will stop pursuing their own glory and their own private pleasure long enough to consider it, that makes all the difference in the world.