Word of the Week: Yahweh Yireh

Yahweh Yireh (yah-WEH yir-EH)
Last week’s Word was God’s Name “El Roi,” the God who Sees. He sees our present situation, our past hurts, our future destination. He is the God who sees EVERYTHING that we are, and loves us anyway. Remember FB Meyer’s quote, “Wherever we go He precedes and brings up the rear; we are beset by His care behind and before.” Because God is omniscient (able to see the future as well as the past and the present), he is able to anticipate and provide for what is needed. The Name of God that corresponds to this idea is “Yaweh Yireh” or, more commonly translated as “Jehovah Jireh,” the Lord will Provide.
The Hebrew word raah (RA-ah, from which both “yireh” and “roi” are derived) means “to see.” In the case of Genesis 22, the story of God testing Abraham’s faith by asking him to sacrifice his only son, it is translated as “provide.” The English word “provision” is made up of two Latin words: “pro” meaning before hand, and vision, meaning “to see.” When you pray to Yahweh Yireh, you are praying to the God who sees the situation beforehand and is able to provide for your needs.
Check it out for yourself: Read Genesis 22:1-14.
Anne Spangler (Praying the Names of God) asks, if we have “ever considered [this story] from God’s point of view? Watching the man and is son, did God feel something tearing at his heart, knowing that what he asked but did not require of Abraham – the sacrifice of his only son – he would one day require of himself?” She sheds a little more light on the story also, “Moriah, the site of Abraham’s thwarted attempt to sacrifice his son, has been traditionally associated with the temple mount in Jerusalem. Today Mount Moriah is occupied by a Muslim shrine called the Dome of the Rock. Jesus, whom John the Baptist called “the Lamb of God,” is thought to have been crucified just a quarter mile away from Mount Moriah. It was there that Yahweh Yireh provided the one sacrifice that would make our peace with him.” See John 1:29, and Isaiah 53 (especially verses 6-8).
Here’s another excerpt from Anne Spangler:
What kind of God would ask a man to do this? What kind of man would obey?? The questions betray our ignorance. Seeing the story through human eyes, we miss the point and fail to see what it means to be God and what it means to be human. Why would God ask for such a sacrifice? Because he knows there is no other way for us to learn that he is God. When we put something on the altar, sacrificing it to him, we acknowledge two things: that he is God, and that we are not God. This is the worship we need to offer, the worship that will allow us to experience his provision for our lives.
Each of us will be faced with Abraham’s dilemma, perhaps many times in our lives. In our case, it won’t be a matter of physically placing a child on an altar, but it may mean placing a child in God’s hands, forswearing our tendency to be a little god to that child, trying to control her universe and to keep her safe. If not a child, then something else – a relationship, a career, a gift, a dream. Whatever it is, if we offer it to God as Abraham offered his only son, we will begin to know God as Yahweh Yireh, the Lord who provides everything we need.

Reference: Praying the Names of God by Anne Spangler