Sep 17
1
“Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh.”
Genesis 22:14
“Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh,” because he knew Jehovah-jireh for himself and knew by experience his provision. The ram caught in the thicket had been provided as a substitute for Isaac. Not only had the Lord seen, but according to the promise made to Abraham’s faith, the Lord had provided. Even before he knew how this trial would end, Abraham confidently believed God, trusting him to provide what was needed (Romans 4:20). Isaac said, “Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham answered with confident faith, “My son, God will provide!”
In due time, God did just that. As these words were spoken prophetically by Abraham concerning Isaac and his substitute, they were also a direct prophecy of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Substitute God has provided for sinners. Abraham was, by the Spirit of prophecy, saying to us, as God provided a substitute for Isaac, so he will provide a Substitute for all his covenant people in whom the Lord will be seen. That Substitute is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. He was also telling us that, as God provided for him in his time of extremity, so he will provide for all who trust him.
The God of Abraham lives today! He is the same today as he was in Abraham’s day. In the hour of Abraham’s great need, when there seemed to be no possible way of escape, the Lord appeared for him and was seen in the mount. So it shall be with all the children of Abraham. We shall be tried and tested, but in the hour of our utmost need our God will see us. Seeing our need, he will provide for us. And he will be seen in the provision he makes. The name of our God is Jehovah-jireh. He is worthy of absolute trust and confidence. The Lord Jehovah, is our Preserver and our Provider.
Let this truth be firmly fixed in your heart. — God’s provision for Abraham and Isaac typified the far greater provision of his grace, by which all believing sinners are delivered from sin and death. And God’s provision for us in Christ, by his death at Mt. Calvary, has given us the sure guarantee that all our necessities, both carnal and spiritual, shall be provided by him for both time and eternity. The richest person in the world is the one who is content. If a person is content, he can never be made richer or poorer. And those who have Christ ought to be perfectly content, because Christ is contentment! He who is Jehovah-jireh has promised, “I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord” (Jeremiah 31:14). What blessed, heavenly logic Paul was inspired of God to use in Romans 8:32, when he asked, “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?” That is more than a promise; it is a conglomeration of promises. It is a mass of precious jewels, of rubies, and emeralds, and diamonds, with a nugget of gold for their setting. What can the Lord God deny us after giving us his own dear Son? If we need all things in heaven and earth, he will grant them to us. If there could be a limit anywhere, surely he would have kept back his own Son!
Don Fortner
Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow.
These are the words of David in his last days before departing this life. What a comfortable, enjoyable way to face God and eternity! Friends, do you have what David had? Are you prepared to meet holy God? How can we have the good hope and the peace David had?
First, notice it was not something David did. He said, “He hath made with me.” God says through the prophet Isaiah to every sinner who is thirsty for this peace which David had, “Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.” God gives us nothing to do. Salvation comes through hearing and believing God. No doubt, if you can do so you will surely find that it was God who made you willing, drew you to Christ and gave you the ears to hear. But sinner it still your responsibility to heed these three simple but necessary precepts of God. Today, without delay, incline your ear, come unto God and hear. God promises to all who do that God will feed our souls with life forever and that he will make with us an everlasting covenant, even these same sure mercies which David had.
Next, notice this covenant was not dependent upon David’s doing to keep it ongoing. God’s covenant is an everlasting covenant. It is an eternal, unchangeable, everlasting covenant because it was made between the triune God in eternity before the world was made. This everlasting covenant is new in the hearts of all those to whom God makes it but it is as old as eternity. How is it everlasting? The three persons in the Godhead—God who cannot lie, God who cannot fail, God who changes not—agreed in unbreakable covenant with each other to fulfill every stipulation. That is one reason this covenant is an everlasting covenant. God left nothing for his people to do. This covenant shall last as long as God lasts—forever. What good news! Our own sins, nor the sins of our house, nor the sins of this whole world can ever alter this everlasting covenant. David was far from perfect. He was a great sinner. His house was full of rebels. The nation in which he lived was full of rebels. Yet, God made with David an everlasting covenant. Sinner, if you can leave every false hope behind and come to God believing Christ, God promises this same everlasting covenant shall be yours.
Thirdly, notice there was nothing for David to perform. This covenant was ordered in all things and sure. God ordered all things in this covenant and all things became sure—every stipulation required to glorify God, every stipulation to give Christ all preeminence, every stipulation to save whom he would—when the triune God agreed to fulfill those stipulations in eternity and did so in time. That is the good news of the gospel—tis done! Justification from all our sins is free to all who believe on Christ because God justified every one for whom Christ died through the death of his Son. (Rom 8: 33) God remembers the believers sins no more because Christ purged our sins before he sat down at the right hand of God. (Heb 1: 3) The whole law is established in perfect righteousness and Christ’s righteousness imputed to all who believe because Christ established the law for his people by his doing and dying. (Rom 3: 31: 4: 1-8) This covenant is truly the Lord Jesus himself. (Is 42: 6; 49: 8) It is written in his blood. (Mt 26: 28) And Christ is the Mediator of it. (Heb 8: 6; 9: 15; 12: 24) Sinner, incline your ear, come to Christ and hear because “all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” (2 Cor 1: 20)
Lastly, notice this most important testimony of David. He said, “for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow.” If this everlasting covenant is to be all our salvation then we must depend only upon Christ, looking nowhere else; if this everlasting covenant be all our desire then nothing else can compete for our affections, it must be Christ and him alone; if this everlasting covenant be all our hope then we must believe God in spite of the way things appear to the carnal eye. When David says “though he make it not to grow” he is saying though with the carnal eye it appears otherwise, though by looking at my sins and my house it may appear otherwise, though by the fact that the promised Messiah had not yet come and accomplished the work, still David believed God. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Heb 11: 1) Friend, is Christ all your salvation? Is Christ all your desire? Do you believe God regardless of how things appear to the carnal eye? When a sinner can depend entirely upon God to save him, according to God’s covenant promise, and this be all his salvation and all his desire, despite the way things appear, then he has a good hope and the peace of God that passes all understanding. Sinner there is no other joyful way to meet God and face eternity! Come to God believing Christ, giving God all the glory for making you do so. God promises you shall have the sure hope today!
Clay Curtis.
Law and Grace
There are no two things in the Bible more different than LAW and GRACE, which is nothing more than salvation by our works or salvation by free grace through the obedience and death of our Lord Jesus. The first assignment in learning the gospel is to learn the difference between law and grace. He who learns the lesson well can call himself a theologian.
Paul calls the story of Sarah and Hagar an allegory (Gal. 4:24). An allegory is a story in which the characters are used to picture other real characters and real actions.
God promised Abraham a son by his true wife, Sarah. Time passed and no son was born; so Sarah gave her servant, Hagar, to Abraham to bear him a son. Ishmael was born to Hagar by Abraham. In due time the promised son, Isaac, was born to Sarah. The son of the servant, Hagar, mocked Isaac and proved that the two could not live together; so Hagar and Ishmael had to be put out of the household. Isaac reigned alone as the heir of Abraham.
1. Paul said that these two women represent the two covenants.
Hagar, the servant, represents the covenant of law, works, and ceremonies from Mt. Sinai. In the covenant of law and works God says, “Do this and live.”
Sarah, the true wife of Abraham, represents God’s eternal covenant of grace in Christ Jesus. This covenant was first, was from all eternity, was not made between God and men but between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Heb. 7:22; Heb. 13:20; John 17:2-3). The covenant of grace says, “Do this, O Christ, and men shall live.” God gives eternal life without works from men (Rom. 3:19-24).
2. Though Hagar bore the first son, as the covenant of works gave us fallen Adam and a depraved race, yet sarah was the original and first wife of Abraham, as the covenant of grace was the first covenant. The covenant of works was REVEALED first: but before there was ever a sinner, there was a covenant of grace and its surety, Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8; Rev. 17:8; I Peter 1:18-21). We were chosen in Christ before the world began (Eph. 1:3-4: II Thess. 2:13).
3. Hagar was never intended to be the wife of Abraham, nor was Ishmael THAT SEED which was promised. Hagar was the handmaid of Sarah. So the law was never given nor intended to save anyone. It was only a handmaid to grace to point men to Christ, the seed (Gal. 3:21-29; Gal. 3:16). The law properly used is a blessing. It shows our sins, our inability; it shuts men up to Christ. If the law is the servant to grace, that’s well and good; but when the law tries to be the master or on equal footing with grace, it must go! (Gal. 4:30-31.)
4. Hagar was never free and Sarah was never in bondage. The covenant of works and none of her children are free. All who live by the law are under the curse (Gal. 3:10-13). But the seed of Abraham by faith are free: “for if the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”
5. Hagar must be cast out as well as her son (Heb. 10:1-10). The covenant of works has ceased, being fulfilled by Christ. It cannot have a place in the redemption and reign of Christ Jesus. Nor is he a son of Abraham who is one by flesh or natural birth. He is a son of Abraham who is one by faith in Jesus Christ (Rom. 2:28-29: Gal. 3:7-9, 16, 29).
6. As the two women are types of the two covenants, so the two sons are types of those who live under each covenant.
Ishmael is the man who trusts his works and seeks a righteousness before God bv his deeds. Isaac is the man born supernaturally of God (John 1:13), brought to faith in Christ, and walks in the Spirit, not the flesh, whose wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption is Christ (I Cor. 1:30;. Col. 2:9-10).
Ishmael is the older, as the old man is older than the new man created in Christ Jesus. We are all born flesh first, then born again with that new nature which lives forever.
Ishmael is the son of the flesh; Isaac is the son by Divine power. We are all born sons of men, then sons of God.
Ishmael’s attitude toward Isaac (Gal. 3:29) is the same attitude the legalist displays toward sons of grace today. You will never find a free-will legalist to be tolerant toward the gospel of grace. The gospel of grace destroys his very foundation, which is MERIT, not MERCY!
Henry Mahan.