Jehovah Jireh
Jehovah Jireh
Genesis 1:26-31
Theme: God provides life.
Purpose: To experience the rest of living in the Good News of God’s providing.
Need: We need Good News of God’s providing in a broken world of people taking.
Key Phrase: Jehovah Jireh, the Lord provides
Image: A garden
Introduction: The Garden
A. Grandparents’ Garden
1. It was right on the right angle turn of South Burdick Avenue in Kalamazoo, Michigan
a. A two story yellow boxlike house
b. The indoor bathroom had been added to the back
c. Behind that was a small one stall garage with a tool shed in the back
d. The tools were for the garden
2. I was probably only 7 years old when my Grandparents moved from this family home, but I remember it and its garden
a. The garden probably had numerous vegetables in it, but I remember the green beans, the strawberries, and the raspberries
b. I remember as a young child going into the garden and eating the raspberries right from the bushes
c. This was one of my grandparents gifts to me
d. I never learned the passion for gardening, but I still love raspberries
3. Some of you may love to garden or also have good memories of a garden
a. Some of you know farming far more than I
b. There is a difference between a garden and a farm
(1) A farm is work
(2) A garden should be pleasure
B. The Good News
1. Today I want to talk about the good news of the garden
2. I need good news, and you probably do too
a. We all struggle with frustrations in this life
b. We feel like there are too many things we need to do
c. We see bad news every day
d. I hope the next few minutes will be a refreshing respite of good news
3. Hear is the good news—Jehovah Jireh
a. To some of you that may sound very strange
b. A few of you might recognize it from a praise song
c. By the time we are done I hope it will mean more to you and become a theme song of good news
d. Jehovah Jireh means “The Lord provides”
4. Our beginning text will be from the presentation of God’s first provision in Genesis 1—Read 1:26-31
I. God Provides for Life
A. Creation Structures
1. All of creation is structured to provide for life
a. God gives his creation the fundamental structures of time and space
b. God gives order to his world and populates it
2. He creates a magnificent palace with riches and treasures and then gives it to his human creatures
a. They are to be his representatives
b. They are to be his agents directing and developing the world
c. We will talk more of that task next week
d. What I want to focus on today is the gift
B. Creation Blessing
1. The key word is “God blessed them”
2. We used to talk about this as the cultural mandate
a. A mandate is a command
b. In good Protestant work ethic we jumped immediately to what we have to do
c. But it is not a command. It is a blessing
3. What is a blessing?
a. This is hard for us because we do not live in a blessing culture
b. It does show up a little in significant rituals
(1) A the end of this service I will speak a blessing
(2) At a wedding a parental blessing may be given
(3) Some parents may still bless their children at a stage of transition
c. A blessing is more than a wish or even permission
d. A blessing is to give the power, the rights, responsibilities, and resources
(1) It is to say the words and give gifts
(2) It is to give over the future to the others care
4. God gives humanity his blessing
a. He gives us the power to create life
b. He gives us the responsibility to care for his creation
c. He gives us the resources we need for life
II. God Provides Life
A. The Desert
1. But let us be honest. We do not live in this garden
a. Even a Rock song, I think, by Crosby, Stills, and Nash, sung of wanting to get back to the garden
b. The Fall has made the gift work, painful work, work that does not seem to work
c. This is why we are tired and need rest, but our world tells us to work harder
2. The garden is gone now
a. My grandparents moved away from that house and a few years later died
b. A later the house was knocked down and the garden bulldozed
c. That garden is only a fleeting memory
3. Life is no longer like a young child eating raspberries in the garden
a. I must work now
b. And I still can hardly afford the raspberries
4. Life seems more like a desert than a garden
B. The Declaration
1. But even in the midst of this desert one declared Jehovah Jireh
a. In the midst of famine, threats on his life, and war
b. Even though he had made some bad choices, had wrestled with trusting God, and suffered family conflict
c. Even when challenge in a way he could not understand
d. He said, “God will provide”
2. We turn to Genesis 22, the great test of Abraham
a. Isaac asks—verse 7
b. Abraham answers—verse 8
c. The writer tells us—verses 13-14
3. When David sinned by trusting his own military might more than God’s provision, he repented and bought this same piece of land and offer a sacrifice
4. On that same spot Solomon build the Temple—Genesis 22:14b
C. The Deliverance
1. Another came to the desert—“A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord.’”
a. Isaiah
b. And John the Baptist
c. The Gardener was coming
2. On the same spot of land were Abraham, David, Solomon, and Israel had declared “Jehovah Jireh” God provided
a. God provided deliverance from the desert of sin
b. And God provided life again
c. How ironic that when Mary saw that life, she mistook him for the gardener
d. And John summarizes it all when he says, “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
3. God provides life anew
III. God provides Living
A. Faith
1. Those who believe live in faith and victory
2. God provides us a living now and forever
3. We begin to taste the fruit of the garden again
a. The fruit is God’s blessing, his empowering Spirit
b. The fruit is life which will never end
c. The fruit is that we begin to function again in God’s world as his image-bearers
4. Paul celebrates this life of faith in Romans 8
a. Yes, we await and long with all of creation for the new creation
b. But even now nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord
5. Those in God’s provision will not lose
a. We may not get every thing we want now
b. This is no health and wealth gospel of God providing us anything we ask for
c. This is God providing us with faith and life so we can never lose
B. Hope
1. In this faith we have hope
2. Revelation 22:1-2
3. We look for the new creation in assurance and hope
4. Jehovah Jireh—The Lord will provide
Conclusion: Blessing
A. Receive the blessing—2 Corinthians 9:10-11
B. Be a blessing—Isaiah 61:1-3
C. Jehovah Jireh