How God gets His names

There are many names for God in the Hebrew of the Old Testament, and each one says something about who He is.

Elohim is God in the general sense — the Creator. The surrounding nations would speak of their elohim too; Israel meant not just any elohim, but the supreme God. The living God.

Then Moses asks the question at the bush: who shall I say sent me? He wants a name. And the name he is given was in time treated as too sacred to speak or write — we have the consonants, YHWH, Yahweh. That is His personal name, and it means something like Being, Life: I am that I am.

We can only say “I am” because of Him. We are dependent; God is independent. And that is worth holding next to the bush itself — why was the bush not consumed? Because He is life. He is never the I was. He IS. You cannot get around Him: the unchanging God, the un-begun, the un-ending, the eternal.

But the Hebrews did not understand what that meant until He began to live and walk in their lives. As He walked among them they came to know Him, and each time they learned something new of Him they would raise an altar and give Him a name according to that revelation.

Moriah  Genesis 22

Abraham is about a hundred and twenty-five years old, and God is putting his faith to the test. Take now your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and offer him. Get the impact of that sentence before moving on.

Isaac was the beginning of everything — the channel of every promise made to Abraham. His name means laughter: there had been joy between God and men over this boy. To kill Isaac is to kill the promise.

And Abraham does not doubt or ask questions. He had before — this is not a man who was always like this; he grew into it. He apparently went to bed and slept. He rises early in the morning, in faith and obedience. Faith in Abraham has come to maturity: it responds to God’s word regardless of the circumstances.

What he takes, and what he says

He takes the fire, the sacrificial knife and the wood, and travels three days into the rugged high country of Moriah, passing Salem on the way. And to the men with him he says something remarkable: we will go and worship, and we will return.

What was going through his mind is told us plainly in Hebrews 11:17–19. In Isaac was all the promise. If God says kill him, I will kill him — and God will raise him up. We will return.

Isaac was about twenty-five years old

“Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” And Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.

Genesis 22:7–8  ·  Legacy Standard Bible

This is not a small boy overpowered by his father. A man of a hundred and twenty-five is not going to hold a young man down and bind him on an altar. At this point Isaac comes to faith himself and yields, in trusting obedience to the promises of God. There are two men on that mountain doing this, not one.

The name

Then Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, there was a ram after it had been caught in the thicket by its horns… And Abraham called the name of that place Yahweh Will Provide, as it is said this day, “In the mount of Yahweh it will be provided.”

Genesis 22:13–14  ·  Legacy Standard Bible

Abraham sees God in a new way, and names Him for it.

Jireh means to see — and therefore to provide. We have the same expression: I’ll see to that. It is a looking upon another with care. He sees us, and He cares — a seeing that comes from the depths of the heart, with pleasure and with pain. Seeing all and knowing all, He provides for us ahead of time. Our needs do not take Him by surprise.

And verse 14 became a proverb: in the mount of Yahweh it will be provided. God takes care of it in the nick of time.

Why God asked for a human sacrifice

This is the part of the chapter that troubles people, and it should not be hurried past. God asks for a human sacrifice — just like the heathen gods. That is so unusual. They had been using animal sacrifices. Why?

Because an animal, unwillingly sacrificed, cannot cover a willful sinful act. You are willful creatures; you can choose. So some human must choose to cover the sin which you chose. God is acting prophetically here, saying: this is where we are going.

But Isaac could not be that person. He was not perfect, and he was worth only one human life. So God took Isaac back. A human sacrifice must be — but not this one.

Where this points

Isaac was the first descendant of Abraham. Jesus was the last. From Abraham came the one Descendant who was the promise — which is why Matthew opens with a genealogy, and why Genesis 49:10 matters. He was man, and went freely. He was God, and so was worth all men. He is the one who fits the bill.

Abraham got up early in the morning to set Isaac apart for sacrifice. The Father, very early — before the foundations of the world — set His Son apart for sacrifice. Before Isaac was ever born, the last Descendant was already set aside. So Isaac becomes a picture both of what was already done and of what was still to come.

Mount Moriah and Calvary are probably the same spot. The father pointed at that hill and said to his son: that is where we are going.

• Only Abraham and Isaac saw what took place on that mountain — and only the Father and the Son really know what took place in that transaction.
• God stopped Abraham from going that far. He did not stop Himself. The crowds said to Jesus, save yourself.
• Abraham carried the fire, which speaks of judgment. Jesus came under the fiery wrath of God’s judgment — He received the wrath our sins deserved, so there is no wrath waiting for me.

What judgment do we receive, then? The Bema judgment — based on how we have done, and concerned with reward. It speaks to us even now: do not fear the voice of that Judge. He is only helping you reach the end in record time. As we begin the race, Jesus tells us we have already won it, because He won it for us.

We could not provide for our sin. Yahweh Jireh could. He saw, and He provided, and it was done. We are birthed out of His death and resurrection.