JEHOVAH-JIREH AND OTHER COMPOUND NAMES OF GOD
JEHOVAH-JIREH AND OTHER COMPOUND NAMES OF GOD
Genesis 22: 13, 14; Exodus 17: 13-16; Judges 6: 22-24; Ezekiel 48: 30-35
The thought that unites these passages is the compound name of Jehovah found in each of them. In the first we have Jehovah-jireh; in the second, Jehovah-nissi; in the third, Jehovah-shalom; and in the fourth, “Jehovah is there” or Jehovah Shammah. I would like to speak of these four references to God, for they bring before us ways in which we are to know God, and all blessing lies in the knowledge of God.
As we grow older, we feel the poverty of what largely engages men now. What must be the greatness of that which will occupy eternity! All will then be engaged with God. God will fill eternity. He will be all in all. I think that is one of the most wonderful statements of Scripture, “that God may be all in all”, 1 Corinthians 15: 28. We are often made to feel that God has no place at all with many. It says in Scripture that God is not in all their thoughts. I think that means that such never think about God. But the blessedness of eternity is that God is all; He fills everything, He is all in all. I may say that Christ also is to be everything, for our blessed Lord has gone up “above all the heavens, that he might fill all things”, Ephesians 4: 10. He has gone beyond all limits. I understand “above all the heavens” to be beyond limits. The heavens are limited even though man cannot find the limit. Christ has gone far above all of them, beyond limitation, that He may fill everything.
I would like to present a few thoughts about God which I trust may magnify God to our hearts; not that God could be greater than He is in Himself, but it does say, “Magnify Jehovah with me”, Psalm 34: 3. He becomes greater to us. He could never be greater than He is, or less than He is. “I am that I am”, remains. But then,
God is to be magnified in our apprehension of Him. Following the laying of Isaac on the altar, Abraham sees a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. The ram suggests the devoted energy of Christ. The horns suggest the power of His love, that could hold Him, in view of sacrifice. Abraham names the place Jehovah-jireh, “The Lord will provide”.
The name “Jehovah” is a wonderful name. I think it has been said that it is as near to a personal name of God as we can get. The personal name of our Lord is Jesus; the other names are largely official titles, such as “Christ”, “Son of Man”, and the “Lord”. These bring His official glory before us, but Jesus is not exactly a title, for it is not to bring before us what is official; it is His personal name. I believe the name Jehovah is something like that. It is God known personally in His entering into covenant with man. The name Almighty does not suggest that; it brings before us God’s unlimited power. His name, as “Most High”, brings before us that lie is far above all others; whoever they are. But Jehovah is the name God uses to indicate that He is entering into relationship and covenant with men.
Jehovah-jireh means that that blessed God, who draws near to men in covenant, will provide what is required. In His personal interest and dealings with His people, He will provide what is needed. This is learnt in the place where He is ministered to. We are not entitled to use that name indiscriminately. If we are seeking to minister to the pleasure of God, then we can draw near to God as Jehovah-jireh; we can have access to such an altar as Abraham had erected. I commend this thought, that if we would be in touch with the One who will provide. He is known thus by those who would minister to Him. I would not exclude this from our homes or occupations if so be that His pleasure is really governing us, for He would thus provide whatever is needed in every sphere in which His people move. This is the path of true blessing and true support.
It is clear that Abraham moved in the line of ministering to the pleasure of God, for God says, “because thou hast done this”. We cannot estimate how God valued Abraham’s action. Abraham was prepared to minister to God of the choicest that he had on earth, and on that basis he names the place Jehovah-jireh, “the Lord will provide”. I hope we all have such an altar. An altar suggests our access to God. God desires that we should draw near to Him. “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you”, James 4: 8.
I would pass on to what I specially want to refer to, the next name, Jehovah-nissi, “Jehovah my banner”, and the altar in relation to this name. It is a matter of the very greatest importance if we are to be here for God, that we constantly draw near to God in this light, “Jehovah my banner”. It is a military thought. Jehovah has erected a banner, indeed He is the banner, and under His banner His people gather to wage war against Amalek in every generation. That banner has never ceased to fly. We shall never really have access to Jehovah-jireh if we do not draw near to Jehovah-nissi. I believe the first is really the last as well, as indeed it is always with God, the first and the last are the same, but the process in our souls to reach Jehovah-jireh is by way of Jehovah-nissi. That is to say, we are with God in relation to His war with Amalek. We shall never minister to God until we are found under that banner.
I suppose the conflict with Amalek is the first conflict a Christian has part in, and it never stops while time lasts. If we depart from that banner, we shall certainly miss the blessed privilege of being here for God. What it means is that we are with God in His hostility against the operations of sin in the flesh. God is against that; Satan is for it. The King Agag is a figure of Satan operating through sin in the flesh to displace God. His hand is on the throne of God to displace God’s rule over His people. What a power this is in our earlier days, what a conflict!
Satan would destroy us for the testimony through sin in the flesh, but God has erected His banner. Joshua is under that banner; Moses is under that banner; Aaron and Hur are under that banner.
Everyone who is under that banner gets the victory sooner or later. The battle may fluctuate; those of us who are a little older can tell you that it does fluctuate. In our history it has fluctuated like it did with Israel, sometimes up and sometimes down in the results, but the banner is there, “Jehovah my banner”. War throughout all generations is on the banner. Let us never lose sight of it day or night. War throughout all generations is the banner God maintains in respect of sin in the flesh.
How triumphant were God’s people when they were under that banner! In this very passage it says that Joshua smote Amalek with the edge of the sword. Later, the prophet Samuel is under the banner. He sees Jehovah-nissi as he hews Agag the Amalekite in pieces; he does not make quarter with Agag. David too, when he wages war under that banner, is triumphant. Mordecai down in Babylon is nevertheless under that banner. What a glorious victory was his over the Amalekite, even though isolated from Jerusalem!
Think of our brethren in the camps, away from the eyes of their brethren, but if under that banner, they are safe. If their eyes are on Jehovah-nissi, war against Amalek, we have nothing to fear as to them. Depart from this banner as king Saul did when he spared the Amalekite, and disaster follows. “I have rejected him”, the Lord says, “because he gave up Jehovah-nissi”, 1 Samuel 16: 1. David forgot this altar in the matter of Uriah and Bathsheba. He was not under that banner, with what awful results, what defeat, what dishonour! God would help us to know Him as Jehovah-nissi, He Himself being our banner, “the Lord my banner”, in respect of the war against sin in the flesh. I would appeal to the dear young ones never to entertain peace with Amalek. You may have conflict, you will have it; you may have fluctuating experiences, and you will, for we all have; but never allow the idea of peace with Amalek. Keep in touch with this altar, however testing it may be, for this is the way to blessing and victory, and it leads to what I began with, “the Lord will provide”.
I pass on to Gideon’s altar. He built an altar and he called it Jehovah-shalom, “Jehovah is peace”. A wonderful altar, and wonderful knowledge of God, “Jehovah is peace”. The opposite to “Jehovah my banner”, for that means God is conducting war, but “Jehovah is peace” is the other side of the truth. There was no peace around Gideon. There were Midianites like grasshoppers in multitudes round him. The Midianite represents contention. Scripture tells us that the Midianites destroyed the produce of the land. When contention comes, the produce of the land disappears. The land is a very good land, a land of wheat and barley. That is to say, in God’s land we feed upon Christ, according to the purpose of God, the wheat; upon Christ in resurrection, the barley. The forty days in which Christ moved amongst His own ere He ascended is the barley. What days they were! Canaan is a land of vines, a land of heavenly joy. The vine represents earthly joys, but the vine of Canaan represents heavenly joys. It is a land of olives, of fatness and spiritual substance. It is a land of figs, sweetness and good fruit. It is a land of pomegranates, of unity amongst God’s people. It is a land of honey, the sweetest thing of all. We know a little of these things. Thank God for the enjoyment of the produce of Canaan. It is a land of milk too, where the mind of God is known and enjoyed, where God’s thoughts are received.
But when the Midianite comes, the produce of the land is destroyed. I speak of this because contention arises at times, and a contentious spirit will destroy the present enjoyment of all these blessed things. Gideon is not contentious; indeed they called him Jerubbaal, saying, “Let Baal plead with (or contend against) him”. Gideon retires rather than contend. The Apostle Paul says of contention, “we have no such custom”. It is not a custom of the assemblies of God to have contention. So Gideon is not a contentious man; he is threshing wheat. What is needed is food, not contention. God reveals Himself to Gideon as Jehovah-shalom, “Jehovah is peace”. What a contrast to the contention represented by the Midianites. The thought of God for His own is peace. Gideon erects the altar and calls it this name. Jehovah-shalom.
I would point out how Gideon dealt with the Midianites and overthrew them. He received the thought of “Jehovah is peace” and later he attacks the Midianites. How does he do it? With the most remarkable weapons you could conceive. He takes a trumpet in his right hand and an empty pitcher in his left, and puts a torch in the pitcher and says to his three hundred men. What I do, do likewise. The most effective way of dealing with contention is to be an example. He goes forward as a model, he says, “Look on me, and do likewise”. The trumpet brings God in; it blows an alarm, bringing God into the matter. When there is contention, bring God in. Then get an empty vessel; you cannot contend with an empty vessel. Men are needed who are prepared to be emptied of their own self-importance: such was Gideon. Into that vessel is placed a torch, the light of God’s word. This is what overthrows the Midianites; God turns their swords against one another.
The book of Judges is remarkable as to the kind of instruments that are used. There is an array of weapons in the armoury of God in this book, the like of which you will find nowhere else; weapons which God uses in the last days, for the book of Judges depicts the last days just before the king appears. I do not pursue it, but suggest it for your meditation. One instrument is a two-edged dagger that Ehud made for himself. Other instruments are the tent-pin and the hammer — the tent-pin that holds down your tent in the inheritance, a fine weapon; and the hammer, the word of God. Another instrument is the ox goad that urges on the ox in its patient labour.
There are the trumpets, the empty pitchers and the torches, which routed these hosts of the Midianites. There is the upper mill-stone which a woman had, with which she ground corn. Then there is the fresh jaw bone of an ass, with which Samson slew Philistines by the thousand. These are instruments which God uses in the last days. I think all refer to different features of the word of God; whether it be the sword, the hammer, the light, or the ability to masticate food, all refer to the word of God in its living, operative power to deal with enemies that arise.
I trust we may receive an impression as to these three altars. First, “Jehovah will provide”; if we are seeking to minister to Him, Jehovah will provide. The second, “Jehovah my banner”; we are in the war with the flesh and we are not going to make peace as under that banner. Then “Jehovah is peace”; whatever the power of the Midianites around us, Jehovah is peace. He has peace in view for His people. As we face the Midianites, let us have this altar, the light of God as peace.
I refer now to the remarkable word in Ezekiel, “Jehovah is there”. “The name of the city from that day, Jehovah is there.” The great issue is Jehovah is there. As we follow these other names of God, it will bring us to this point — “Jehovah is there”. The setting of it is that every tribe is in its place, having its part. The feeble sense we often have of Jehovah being there is because so many are not in their places, fulfilling their part. It is when all occupy the places allotted to them and all function, that the presence of God is known. I know we but feebly realise this now, for in any case many are missing, but even so there is available a much greater sense of the divine presence if we are all in our places. It is not a matter only of being physically and literally present when we can be, though that is important, but being there actively in our spirits and affections. The measure in which all are fulfilling their part is the measure in which God’s presence is known. I beg that all of us take this up seriously if we want to know this, “the Lord is there”.
We do not occupy the same place; Reuben and Judah and Levi were on quite a different side of the city from three of the others. God allots to all just that place which He knows is best, and it is as we sympathetically and actively occupy it that the presence of God is known. We sometimes touch something of this in assembly when all are more or less truly in the service. It is a wonderful moment when the whole gathering is brought into living touch with God. These are moments when God gives His presence. It says when each of the tribes occupies the place given to it by God, that the name of the city from that day is Jehovah Shammah, “Jehovah is there”. It literally applies to the coming day, but the principle applies even in this city. If twenty saints are together in reality and faith, each contributing the part allotted to him by the Lord, then the Lord is there. It is by our dilatoriness, lack of interest, and lack of devotedness to the Lord that we are deprived of His presence. I do not think fewness of numbers necessarily should deprive the dear brethren here of the sense that the Lord is here if each one would take up in reality his part in the interests of God.
Those are the thoughts which one had in mind, desiring that we might know Jehovah in these ways; as Jehovah-jireh, “the Lord will provide”. Let us draw near to Him in faith; the Lord will provide. On our side it is imperative that the altar Jehovah-nissi should be approached, “the Lord my banner”. We are actively in the conflict against the flesh. Then, “Jehovah is peace”. Instead of contention and lack of supply, Jehovah is peace. He would help us to deal with the elements of contention in our own souls by bringing God in, by having empty vessels with the light of His mind in them. God known thus will lead to each one functioning in his proper place in the assembly, and the effect of this will be, “The name of the city from that day, Jehovah is there”.
We desire that the dear brethren here may know as never before that the name of the city is “The Lord is there”. May we all know it in greater measure as fulfilling our part in reality, in faith and, devotedness to the Lord, for His Name’s sake.