Compound Names with Jehovah
Jehovah-Jireh (יְהוָה יִרְאֶה)
The LORD Will Provide
Description
The compound name יְהוָה יִרְאֶה (Jehovah-Jireh), meaning 'the LORD will provide' or 'the LORD will see to it,' emerged from the most harrowing test of Abraham's faith—God's command to offer Isaac, the son of promise, as a burnt offering on Mount Moriah. This trial, recorded in Genesis 22, represents the apex of patriarchal testing: would Abraham trust God's promise of innumerable descendants through Isaac even while obeying God's command to sacrifice that very son? The narrative tension is unbearable; the theological paradox seemingly insoluble. Yet Abraham's faith, forged through decades of divine dealings, held firm.
As father and son ascended the mountain, Isaac asked the piercing question: 'Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?' (Genesis 22:7). Abraham's response revealed prophetic faith: 'My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering' (Genesis 22:8). Whether Abraham anticipated angelic intervention, believed God would raise Isaac from the dead (Hebrews 11:19), or simply trusted without understanding, his words proved true. At the critical moment—Isaac bound on the altar, Abraham's hand grasping the knife—the angel of the LORD called from heaven, 'Lay not thine hand upon the lad' (Genesis 22:12). Abraham lifted his eyes and saw a ram caught in a thicket by his horns, provided by God as a substitute sacrifice.The Hebrew verb רָאָה (ra'ah) means 'to see,' and in various stems carries nuances of 'provide,' 'see to,' or 'appear.' Jireh (יִרְאֶה) is the imperfect form, meaning 'he will see' or 'he will provide.' The name combines YHWH's covenant faithfulness with His providential seeing and supplying. The saying preserved—'In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen' (or 'provided')—became proverbial. Mount Moriah, tradition holds, is the site where Solomon later built the Temple (2 Chronicles 3:1), the place of continual sacrifice and substitutionary atonement, ultimately fulfilled in Christ's sacrifice on nearby Golgotha.
Abraham named that place Jehovah-Jireh—'the LORD will provide.' The name commemorates not merely timely provision but substitutionary provision: a ram in Isaac's place, a sacrifice instead of the son, God's provision of atonement when human resources utterly failed. This substitutionary theme runs throughout redemptive history: the Passover lamb's blood protecting Israel's firstborn, the Levitical sacrifices providing atonement for sin, and supremely, 'the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world' (John 1:29)—Jesus Christ, God's ultimate provision of Himself as substitutionary sacrifice.
The name assures believers that God sees their need before they ask, provides according to His perfect wisdom and timing, and supplies not merely material necessities but spiritual redemption. Just as Abraham's declaration 'God will provide himself a lamb' found fulfillment in both the ram and ultimately in Christ, so Jehovah-Jireh declares that the covenant-keeping God who sees all need will faithfully provide all that His purposes require and His love desires. 'He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?' (Romans 8:32). The provision of Christ guarantees all lesser provisions.
As father and son ascended the mountain, Isaac asked the piercing question: 'Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?' (Genesis 22:7). Abraham's response revealed prophetic faith: 'My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering' (Genesis 22:8). Whether Abraham anticipated angelic intervention, believed God would raise Isaac from the dead (Hebrews 11:19), or simply trusted without understanding, his words proved true. At the critical moment—Isaac bound on the altar, Abraham's hand grasping the knife—the angel of the LORD called from heaven, 'Lay not thine hand upon the lad' (Genesis 22:12). Abraham lifted his eyes and saw a ram caught in a thicket by his horns, provided by God as a substitute sacrifice.The Hebrew verb רָאָה (ra'ah) means 'to see,' and in various stems carries nuances of 'provide,' 'see to,' or 'appear.' Jireh (יִרְאֶה) is the imperfect form, meaning 'he will see' or 'he will provide.' The name combines YHWH's covenant faithfulness with His providential seeing and supplying. The saying preserved—'In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen' (or 'provided')—became proverbial. Mount Moriah, tradition holds, is the site where Solomon later built the Temple (2 Chronicles 3:1), the place of continual sacrifice and substitutionary atonement, ultimately fulfilled in Christ's sacrifice on nearby Golgotha.
Abraham named that place Jehovah-Jireh—'the LORD will provide.' The name commemorates not merely timely provision but substitutionary provision: a ram in Isaac's place, a sacrifice instead of the son, God's provision of atonement when human resources utterly failed. This substitutionary theme runs throughout redemptive history: the Passover lamb's blood protecting Israel's firstborn, the Levitical sacrifices providing atonement for sin, and supremely, 'the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world' (John 1:29)—Jesus Christ, God's ultimate provision of Himself as substitutionary sacrifice.
The name assures believers that God sees their need before they ask, provides according to His perfect wisdom and timing, and supplies not merely material necessities but spiritual redemption. Just as Abraham's declaration 'God will provide himself a lamb' found fulfillment in both the ram and ultimately in Christ, so Jehovah-Jireh declares that the covenant-keeping God who sees all need will faithfully provide all that His purposes require and His love desires. 'He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?' (Romans 8:32). The provision of Christ guarantees all lesser provisions.
Key Verses
And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.
And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.