Genesis 76 – Jehovah Jireh (3) – Now I Know

God's word is from Genesis 22:11-14.

 

"Then the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, 'Abraham, Abraham!' And he said, 'Here I am.' He said, 'Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.' And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide; as it is said to this day, 'On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.'" Amen.

 

Abraham's Test and the Proclamation of 'Jehovah Jireh'

Last week, we examined the three solemn commands and tests God laid upon Abraham. First, it was to bring his beloved only son, Isaac. Second, it was to take him to Mount Moriah. And third, it was the stern command to offer him as a burnt offering. Abraham's response to this test was concise yet profound: "The Lord will see, understand, and provide for all our needs." That is, Jehovah Jireh. This phrase carries the deep meaning of 'the Lord sees and provides'. How God responded to Abraham's confession is the core of the passage we read together today.

 

The Deep Meaning of 'Now I Know'

The passage begins in verse 11 with the voice of the angel of the Lord and concludes with the last part of verse 12, "for now I know that you fear God." When encountering this phrase, we often misunderstand it as God not fully knowing Abraham's faith or His love until He saw Abraham's act of offering Isaac. The word 'now' often strongly suggests such a temporal meaning.

 

However, the Hebrew translated as 'now' consists of two words: 'ki (כִּי)' ('because') and 'attah (עַתָּה)' ('now'). This is closer to 'for now' in English. It does not imply a temporal meaning like 'till now' or 'from now' at all. Instead, it expresses a clear present state: "because now I know how much you fear Me."

 

To be more precise, 'now' in this context signifies more than just a point in time; it means 'it is clearly revealed.' It can be interpreted as, "Now I will display what is here, so see how clear it is." In other words, Abraham did not suddenly begin to fear God at the event of Isaac's sacrifice, after not fearing Him before. We have already seen that Abraham possessed unwavering faith from the beginning. When God called him, he promptly responded, "Here I am." This response starkly contrasts with Adam's reaction. Abraham continually demonstrated the essence of faith and what the response of a believer should be before God. Ultimately, through the Isaac incident, he clearly revealed what his entire life, in which God had accompanied him, truly meant. It was an act that, as if something long suppressed had exploded, showed, "This is what my faith in God is." God, seeing such faith, expressed it as "now (clearly) I have come to know." That is, God confirmed Abraham's faith through Isaac and what he intended to reveal.

 

The True Meaning of Fearing God

The core of what he intended to reveal was fearing God. At first glance, this expression might seem somewhat unfamiliar. Phrases like 'believing in God', 'keeping God's promises', or 'I know how obedient you are to My word' might seem more intuitive. However, the phrase 'fearing God' appears for the first time in Genesis, and indeed, in the entire Bible, making it profoundly significant. The fact that many terms used for the first time in the whole Bible appear in the Isaac event clearly shows its theological importance.

 

The 'fearing God' mentioned here is not simply a concept that can be understood as we might recite from Proverbs, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." While Proverbs teaches that wisdom and knowledge are deeply connected to fearing the Lord, could Abraham have fully understood this before Proverbs was even written? When God told Abraham, "Now I know that you fear Me," 'fear' inherently means 'to be afraid of'. While seemingly simple on the surface, this prompts a deep reflection on Abraham's entire life. Where did he learn such profound reverence, and how could he demonstrate it through his life? According to the Old Testament, fearing God is something God directly teaches. In essence, God personally taught Abraham how to fear God. What was the fear of God that Abraham experienced? And why did God express it in such a unique way? I first paid attention to this word, and I hope you will too, because of its origin. 'Fearing God' sounds like such a simple and well-known phrase that we often think, 'it just means being afraid of God'. However, reflecting on Abraham's past life, we realize how profoundly significant this phrase became in his life.

 

Abraham's Life: God's Unceasing Grace

In fact, Abraham's life can be summarized as follows: God called him from Ur of the Chaldeans, and He also called Abraham when he settled in Haran. And God protected Abraham from danger in Egypt. All these moments were imprinted on Abraham's life as God's grace. Even when various northern nations invaded, God protected Abraham and granted him victory, allowing him to rescue Lot. Even when God's judgment came upon Sodom and Gomorrah, God protected and preserved Abraham. In the Abimelech incident, God ultimately protected him and caused him to pray. Finally, God gave Abraham Isaac. In this way, God fulfilled all His promises.

 

When All Is Laid Down, Only God Remains

Looking back from Abraham's perspective, all these moments were a boundless grace bestowed upon him by God. We are no different. Describe your life in connection with God. 'God brought me into this world. He led me to believe in Jesus. When I was in difficulty and trouble, He heard my prayers and answered them. Even when I was in the hospital, He protected me. God did all these things.' You surely have such precious experiences in your life as well.

 

But why did the phrase 'fearing God' emerge as a key expression summarizing Abraham's life? It was because God demanded everything that was at stake in Abraham's life. The command, "Offer Isaac," meant that Abraham was to willingly give up all the life he had lived so far, all the numerous graces he had received, and even Isaac, his promised son. God is asking you to lay down all the answers given as promises, countless graces, mysterious experiences difficult to share with others, joys experienced in prayer, and inexpressible emotions and joys gained from studying the Bible—all of it. It's like saying, "Let's pretend it never happened." If you give up everything, "what will be left for you?"

 

God asked for everything He had given you, all His fulfilled promises, even the son He gave to Abraham. He can make the same demand of you. For example, it's like God telling me, as a pastor who has served this church for a long time, "Now lay down all the hardships, joys, and pleasures you've experienced. I will take them away from you." If God were to say, "Lay down everything you confessed while walking with God in your life—'Thank You, God, for making me understand this truth; thank You for allowing me to live a life of faith in the church,'" what would be left for you? This is precisely why the phrase 'fearing God' is so important at this point.

 

For Abraham, the only word that remained for him was God. When God took away Isaac, whom He had given him, when God asked him to give him up and offer him as a burnt offering, what remained for Abraham? Not Isaac, but God. He did not argue, "Why are You taking back what You promised? God, haven't You guided and protected me until now? You allowed this too, and You answered my prayers when I was sick, so why are You asking for it?" Instead, he replied, "Yes, God, it's not all these things, but what remains for me is God." "You asked for all these things, so what is left for me? God." This is why the word 'God' comes to mind first in that moment.

 

When Even Salvation Is Withdrawn: Job's Confession

What if God, who lovingly watched over me and personally cherished me, who gave me everything, even the covenant itself, even the promises He made, even the answers that came from those promises, even the salvation that I believed I had received and was before my eyes – what if God were to ask me to give up even that? What if God were to say, "I will no longer give you heaven, hand it over," what would be left for you? Here, I want to read Job's confession from the Book of Job. Job confesses, "Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him."

 

What if God were to say, 'Even the salvation I have given you through Jesus Christ—you do not honor me, love me, approach me, or truly worship me after receiving that salvation; instead, you are filled only with your desires and thoughts. Therefore, I will revoke all salvation. I can no longer save you'? What would be left for you then? At that moment, a confession like Job's would be everything to you. "God, even if I forsake and lose all visible things of the flesh, my soul remains only with God. Even if God says He does not know me, only God remains for me."

 

Abraham Jireh, My Jireh

Dear beloved, of course, God would not do such a thing to you, nor would He ever. However, for Abraham, this astonishing confession clearly shows that he now looks only at God. Jehovah Jireh, meaning 'the Lord sees me', when this word was fulfilled in Abraham's life, it applied to him in the same way. Just as God sees us, we too look only at God. Therefore, this becomes 'Abraham Jireh'. Abraham sees only God. When God looks only at us, what remains for you and me is to look at God. Therefore, the word 'Jireh' now becomes your own word. It becomes 'My Jireh'. God's Jireh, in essence, becomes the Jireh of all of us through Jesus Christ and His cross. And because we have now become children of God who look only to Jesus Christ, we all put 'Jireh' after our names.

 

The True Meaning of Fearing God

I look only at God. I seek God's heart, and I earnestly desire His precious grace. I want to recall and once again grasp the astonishing history of God's companionship with me. My entire interest and sole hope is to deeply know and understand who God is. I long to draw even a step closer to Him. I want to know how He loves me, what He has poured out upon me, how He is with me today, why He prays for me with tears, and why He sighs, feels troubled, worried, and prays for me today. I want to fully understand His heart and mind that loves me.

 

Thus, everything became clear to him. What was his life like, with only God remaining? When everything was lost and taken away, even if it was God Himself who took it, not Satan, if you, in that situation, could confess, "God, even if all is gone and You slay me, all my heart and hope are in God," then you can take another step forward. "I love that God. I fear that God."

 

Beloved, God thus grandly summarized Abraham's life: "Now I know that he fears Me." This statement goes beyond simply fearing God. It clearly shows why only God remained for him, and how, in a life where he had to sacrifice even Isaac, he moved towards fearing God. Friends, the word 'fear' fundamentally means 'to be afraid of'. This is one of the key teachings often found in the Bible. "Will you fear the world, or will you fear God?" In many places in the Bible, we are told that it is natural to fear and revere God. The notion that we should fear God, not this world or its ways, clearly shows that God is the highest priority in all things. We realize that the word 'fear' is not disconnected from Abraham's life, which we have examined so far. For Abraham, the highest priority was not Isaac, nor the countless gifts he had received, nor even merely God's grace, but God Himself. This is the most crucial meaning of fearing God.

 

The Great Work of God, Our Lives

Samuel summarized the fear of God in 1 Samuel: "Only fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all your heart, for consider what great things He has done for you." When you begin to search the Bible for the meaning of 'fear,' that is, to fear God, one of the most common truths you will encounter is that fearing God is deeply connected to God's mighty acts. In other words, because God has performed great deeds, you are to fear Him because of those deeds. God is the one who filled your life, Abraham's life, and your life with His deeds. Simply put, we call it Abraham's life, but it's a life in which God has done great things. Your life is no different. Your life is not merely 'my life' but 'God's great work'.

 

This carries a profound meaning. Your life may be short or long. Some live in good health, while others suffer from many illnesses. Whether your life is long or short, healthy or sick, rich or poor, in a high position or a low one, having lost everything and betrayed in all things, or having everything and enjoying it all—for a believer, all of this is God's great work. In other words, for a believer, a 'meaningless life' is impossible. Because God's great work is your life.

 

Treasure in Jars of Clay

Paul expressed this truth in another way. He declares that all of you are precious beings. Why? Because you carry a treasure within you. Remember? And where does he say this treasure is held? In jars of clay. While Paul alluded elsewhere to clean vessels, fit for God's use, not of gold or silver, this passage is different. Here, only 'jars of clay' are emphasized. Even successful people, or those who appear to have failed in the world and might dare to call their lives 'meaningless' or consider themselves so, are all jars of clay. Even those who were born into this world, sat in the highest positions, commanded the world, or left behind great names, are jars of clay. Those who came and went quietly, unknown to anyone, are also jars of clay. Their preciousness is not inherent in their lives but in the treasure they contain. And you possess that treasure. So, could there be any life among you that is not precious? It seems there is still some uncertainty.

 

It seems you are drawn by the pastor's words, yet still uncertain. Friends, consider this: God giving Isaac, and God telling Abraham to offer Isaac, were both God's great deeds. Thus, God's great work was equally accomplished in Abraham's life. When Abraham went down to Egypt, and when he returned to the land of Canaan, wherever he was, God was carrying out His great work through his life. All those moments in his life are indispensable. Even the most painful moments, even his own moments of deceit, exist not for pleasure or joy, but as God's great work. You live lives like jars of clay, but God made you lives that contain the precious Jesus Christ. Therefore, all of us joyfully confess: "My life is God's great work." I am not great, there is nothing I can claim as great, and even if people searched my life, they might find nothing great. If a biography were written about me, it might end in a single line: 'I was born in such and such a year, lived for so many years, and died in such and such a year. The end, just one line.' Even if that's the case, my life is the most precious and valuable. Because I am a jar of clay holding Jesus Christ. That is your life. Since all of us have precious lives because of this treasure, we confess our lives in this way, and this is what we mean by fearing God. Fearing God means, as we read earlier, remembering God's great works in our lives. Your 'Amen' just now, your confession that 'Yes, my life is precious because Christ is in me,' that is fearing God. Those who confess that God is more precious than anything else, those who look only to God and the great works God has done, that is, 'My Jireh', meaning what I see is God, that is why you are called believers. That is called faith, and we will delve into that faith and works in more detail next week. But today, I wanted to re-emphasize what your life is, using these words from the Bible.

 

Strength in Weakness: God's Great Work

The Bible tells us, "When you are weak, then you are strong." Why is that? It says that even your weakness becomes strength when you look to God, when you look to the cross of Christ. This doesn't mean your weaknesses suddenly become strengths in a superficial way. Rather, it means that because God's great work is unfolding in your life, you become strong because of the treasure within you. When Abraham, who lied about his wife being his sister, looked to God, he became a man who prayed for Abimelech. When we, who feel utterly helpless, look to the cross of Jesus Christ, the Bible surprisingly tells us, "Nothing will be impossible for you." How amazing is that? Does that mean if we just believe in Jesus, we can do everything we couldn't before? Does it mean if someone who failed exams believes in Jesus, they'll suddenly do well, or someone in a bad job will automatically get a better one? Unfortunately, what the Bible means is a little different from that. Of course, I earnestly hope such things might happen too.

 

God's Grand Work Continuing Until Life's End

When you are lying on a sickbed, perhaps no one experiences as much internal conflict as a pastor. 'I wish I had a stronger gift of healing. How wonderful it would be if one prayer could cure everything,' they might think. Because seeing congregants suffer pains the hearts of all elders, and indeed, all cell group members. When someone struggles to find a job, we earnestly pray that God will provide a job for them somewhere, perhaps even tomorrow. And when God bestows such blessings, we are truly grateful and delight in testifying that this is indeed God's work.

 

But, dear beloved, is that the meaning of 'nothing will be impossible'? The Bible rather says that nothing is impossible in our lives if we only come to know that God is accomplishing His great work in your life. Your life is not just a one-line existence, not a life lived just to be buried in a grave, not a life where you think, 'I have only a year or two left, and my body and everything are exhausted and meaningless.' Rather, it's the secret to a life that proclaims, 'My end is near, so I desire to pour out my life as a drink offering. I confess that every last drop of my being belongs to the Lord.' Was Paul offered as a drink offering because he did something great at the end of his life? Was it because he performed more magnificent and astonishing works of God that we didn't know about? No. He probably just kept preaching the gospel to people as he had always done. He would have spent the rest of his life pleading with those around him about who God is, and as we know, he was eventually arrested and martyred. But why did he describe his end as a drink offering? Because it was God's great work.

 

My Life Is God's Great Work

Friends, it's not because of Paul's life itself that it was great, but because it was God's great work that his life shone. Your beloved life is the same. It's not because your life is great, but because God called you to accomplish His mighty and astonishing work (even if we ourselves don't fully grasp its profound meaning). Even in the moments when we acted falsely, the Bible says God accomplished His great work within those times. As we well know, when Sarah laughed and said, 'How could I have a son from God?', how does Hebrews remember it? It proclaims, 'By faith, Sarah herself received power to conceive.' This is because God's great work was accomplished in her life. We already saw last time that even Isaac's death, when we looked to God and saw the cross, became a hope of resurrection.

 

A Missionary's Confession: God More Precious Than Life

Friends, as I prepared this sermon, I wrestled deeply with the question: 'If God were to take everything from me, and even if God Himself didn't disappear but took away everything, would only God remain for me? And if God remains, would I truly fear Him?' While asking these questions, I was searching for hymns. Originally, today's final hymn was Psalm 63, a contemporary worship song. It's by Lee Yoo-jung, titled "Oh God, My God, You Are My God; The Lord Is My Strength." I changed the final hymn because some people might not know this one, and I wanted to sing a familiar hymn together during the service. I asked the praise team to sing it a few more times before we used it, but I heard that some people might still not know it, so I ultimately changed it.

 

Then, I received an email. It was from a pastor I know well, whose 24-year-old niece was serving as a missionary in a country near Singapore. One day, while spreading the gospel and doing missionary work, she suddenly collapsed and was rushed to the hospital. She was diagnosed with meningitis. Due to inadequate hospital facilities there, she was transferred to Singapore, but the news was that she had fallen into a coma due to meningitis, along with a request for prayer. The prayer request email also included a letter written by the missionary sister's younger sister. The missionary sister is 24, and her younger sister would be younger than that. But when I read that letter, even though I teach the Bible, know God's word, confess that I live by God's grace, and consider myself to be second to none in tears, zeal, and passion for the gospel, it was a truly humbling letter. I would love to read the entire letter to you, but I will share just a part of it.

 

"To my beloved prayer warriors," the sister's name is Sarah. This sister, who is currently in a coma, wrote this: "To my beloved prayer warriors, Sarah's life support will be turned off in 10 hours. If a miracle and life are not granted to Sarah on this earth, beloved, in heaven she will experience a greater miracle and life in the arms of her heavenly Father. Therefore, beloved, now, standing on the side of God's kingdom on this earth, please pray for Sarah's life." She, her sister, and their entire family are actually missionaries. Their parents also served as missionaries in Uzbekistan for 15 to 20 years. It's amazing enough that she dedicated herself to missions after seeing her parents serve, but the letter continues with this: "For Sarah, death is nothing. What is most precious to her are the people who have not heard the gospel, and God."

 

When All Is Laid Down, Only God Remains

What about you? When you strip away everything from your life, what remains? And if you can call that remaining entity the Lord God, then you are truly blessed. If you can simply confess that you love that God, if you can say, 'My life may still be weak and I may feel utterly helpless, but I confess, relying on the God who loves me, that all that remains for me is God, and I will dedicate my life to Him and loving Him,' then Psalm 63 will also become yours.

 

Psalm 63: The Confession of David and a Pastor

Psalm 63 is a psalm by David. I was surprised when I was thinking about this Psalm 63, because the pastor who sent me the letter followed up with a second letter, adding a commentary. This pastor, though it was over 20 years ago, lost his child just 55 days after birth. He was sharing his experience and feelings from that time, and how God had been a great comfort to him then, in a letter of consolation to his niece. I was truly surprised when he wrote that the very passage he had found comfort in from God at that time was Psalm 63.

 

Here is the word from Psalm 63 that I want to share with you: "O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water." David is now wandering in a wilderness, a place with nothing, literally in the wilderness of his life. There is no water to drink, nothing, yet he seeks the Lord. But the Lord is not to be found. So he says, "I long for you. I thirst for you. I have looked upon your power and your glory in the sanctuary." His heart was like a wilderness, but he was in Jerusalem, in the sanctuary. There, he sought and looked for God, longing to see God's power and glory.

 

Your Steadfast Love Is Better Than Life

David then breaks into an amazing confession: "Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you." Here, 'steadfast love' is the Hebrew word 'hesed', meaning God's faithful love and grace based on His covenant. David feels as if he is on the verge of death. Due to conflict, pain, and hardship, he wishes he could just cut everything off and disappear from this earth. Yet, at the same time, he desperately yearns for life. "My flesh faints for you." He has a desperate desire to rise again and live.

 

But his confession does not stop there. "Because your steadfast love is better than life, I will praise You." Even if my life disappears, even if I lose everything I have, even if no one remembers my existence, even if I end my life in a place of nothing, even if all ends in the deepest solitude, Your steadfast love is more precious than my entire life. The grace and love of the Lord that I have received overcome all these hardships and are far more abundant than all of them. Therefore, "I will bless You as long as I live; in Your name I will lift up my hands."

 

Dear beloved, what is your answer? If God were to take away everything in your life, even Isaac, what would remain for you? And who is that remaining being for you, and would you confess like this because of that One? "God, because Your steadfast love is better than my life, I will praise You forever."

 

Prayer

Loving Lord, this confession was none other than the confession of Jesus Christ. Our Lord believed in the faithfulness of God's promise more than His own life, and even in the fervent prayer, "Let this cup pass from me," He willingly offered His life according to God's will.

 

Now, we earnestly pray that this same confession may become our own. Your faithfulness, Your steadfast love, are better than all things in my life. We long for You, Lord.

 

Loving Lord, fully accomplish Your will within us, and help us deeply realize that God's great work is indeed our life, so that we may also walk that path with joy. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.