Jehovah Jireh: The Lord Sees
Text: Genesis 3:1-15 Speaker: Pastor Matthew Ude Festival: Advent Passages: Genesis 3:1-15
Full Service Video
Audio Sermon
Genesis 3:1-15
The Fall (Listen)
3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You1 shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise,2 she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
8 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool3 of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”4 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 The LORD God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring5 and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
Footnotes
[1] 3:1
[2] 3:6
[3] 3:8
[4] 3:9
[5] 3:15
(ESV)
When the prophet Samuel was a little boy, God called to him at night. Samuel did not know it was God calling to him and ran to find Eli the priest.
He said to Eli, “Here I am, you called for me.”
Eli responded, “I did not call. Lie down again.”
Three times God called Samuel and three times Samuel said to Eli, “Here I am.”
Finally, Eli perceived what was happening and told Samuel that it was God who was calling him.
The fourth time God called Samuel, Samuel responded, “Speak, your servant is listening.”
And Samuel did listen and served the Lord all his life.
Samuel was a true servant of the Lord who first listened carefully to God’s word and then did God’s will. As Jesus reminds us in:
Mat 7:24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:
But even Samuel was only a shadow of the one true servant of the Lord, who is the LORD Jesus Christ. For it was the Son of God who responded the first time, not the fourth, that the Father called to Him:
Psalm 40:7-8 7 Then I said, “Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me. 8 I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart.”
Just as Jesus is a greater prophet than Samuel, a greater King than David, and a greater priest than Aaron, so also, He is the greater servant. He is the servant greater than Samuel and greater than us.
It is Jesus who says to the Father, “Here I AM to do Your will.”
So that the Father says of Jesus, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:17
The Father tells us, not to clean our room, but to clean our hearts. We pout or maybe we try to get started but we find its too much of a mess. The best we can do is attempt to hide our sins under our bed or in our closet where we hope no one will see them. Of course God sees our sin.
Jesus says to the Father, “Here I AM. I will cleanse their hearts with my blood. I will do their chores in their places. So that through me they also shall be called the sons of God.”
Yet even more amazing than what Jesus says to the Father is what He says to us. To us He also says “Here I AM.”
Isaiah 65:1 I [answered] those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.”
The name Jesus means, “Jehovah saves.” He is the I AM God who is here to save us. He says to us as He says to the Father, “Here I AM.”
This Advent we are going to be looking forward to the coming of Jehovah, Jesus the servant of the Lord, the one who says to the Father and to us, “Here I AM.”
Jehovah-Jireh: Here I AM to see you in your sin.
What is the best Christmas gift? Children are relatively easy. You get them something fun and shiny new. Most of them will tell you exactly what they are into and what they like. Spouses are more difficult. The best gifts are those that prove that you know them, that prove that you have been listening to them, and therefore really prove that you love them. The best gifts are those that prove that you really see them.
Jesus is the one who does see us and give the perfect gift, the thing that we most need.
God appeared to Abraham and told him to take his son Isaac and sacrifice him on a mountain. Abraham did as God commanded. Just as Abraham was about to plunge the knife into Isaacs heart, the angel of the Lord stopped Abraham. God provided a ram as a sacrifice in place of Isaac. Abraham then named that place, Jehovah-Jireh, and this is translated “The Lord will provide.” But the Hebrew word “Jireh” also means “to see.”
These two things go together. Because the Lord sees us, He can provide exactly what we need. He sees our trouble our anxiety, our fears, our worries, and our shame. He sees our strengths, our failures, our desires, and our needs. He sees and provides.
God saw Abraham and Isaac and provided what was needed: a ram to take Isaac’s place. He sees us and provides what is needed. Most importantly He sees our sin and provides the sacrifice that is needed to atone for our transgression.
Jesus says to us “Here I AM, I see you, I know you by name, and seeing your needs I provide.”
Jehovah-Jireh. Here I AM to see you and provide.
In our text the Son of God sees Adam.
We talked on Thursday at our thanksgiving service about how the Lord saw Adam’s need for fellowship and provided to him a wife Eve and even a day on which Adam could fellowship with Lord.
In Genesis 2:17 God created the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Why? The Bible doesn’t tell us specifically and we can’t fully understand, but from what the Bible does tell us of God we know that there was a need. Perhaps a need for Adam and Eve to have a choice. The Lord saw them and provided what they needed.
The Lord sees them hiding and calls to them.
In verse eight of our text the Lord sees Adam and Eve hiding and He provides. He himself comes to find them.
There was a book I was reading a few months ago. The hero is traveling up north where he finds this gal in trouble. A gal he had meet previously and fallen in love. Of course, he rescues her and she asks how he knew she was in trouble. He tells her that he didn’t know. Her response is that anyone can come to your rescue when you call them, but a true hero always shows up when needed without being called.
We might wish others would be there for us even without out asking but that is not a reasonable expectation for other people.
Yet Jesus does. He promises that he is the Good Shepherd who seeks after the lost sheep. We read Isaiah 65:1 where He promises to answer those who did not ask, to appear to those who did not seek, to say “Here I am,” to those who did not call.
He saw Adam and Eve hiding, and He came to call them when they did not call to Him.
The Lord sees you too, those who are hiding from God, those who avoid church and bible study and prayer because of your sin. He calls you to come out of the bushes and receive His gifts in word and sacrament.
Jehovah Jireh – the Lord sees you when you are hiding and calls to you
The Lord sees their shame and provides
In our text the Lord sees Adam and Eve’s shame because of what they had done. The Lord provided clothing. The Lord himself made Adam and Eve clothing out of the skin of an animal. The Lord saw their shame and covered it.
The problem with growing up is that we realize more and more how foolish we were. Even as we are learning to do better and to be better, we also are learning just how foolish we were just last year.
The Lord sees our shame and provides spiritual clothing. He covers our shame with his sacrifice and with His sacraments. This very sacrament we are about to receive is spiritual clothing to cover the sins we have committed.
Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord sees our shame and provides clothing
The Lord sees their sin and provides
Above everything else the Lord sees that Adam and Eve are sinners and in verse fifteen He provides what is needed. He will send the seed of the woman who will crush Satan’s head.
This is also what Abraham was talking about when he named that mountain. Isaac was not to be the sacrifice, but God saw Abraham and all people and knew the sacrifice they would need. Therefore, Abraham says, “in the mount of the Lord it will be provided.”
Jehovah Jireh – He sees our sin and comes to provide atonement
Wives, husbands don’t expect more than your spouse is capable of. We are going to be talking about expectations in our Wednesday night Advent services. If you went to see Episode I – The Phantom Menace with high expectations, expecting it to be the greatest movie ever, you were going to be disappointed no matter how good it was. If you simply accept it for what it is, you can enjoy it even if it’s not perfect. Don’t expect more from your spouse than he or she is capable of. That is what ruins marriages, false expectations. Don’t expect the perfect present from your spouse. Receive whatever they give you for what it is, and expression of their love.
But know that Jesus id Jehovah-Jireh the one who sees you as you are and gives all that you need, especially a Savior from your sins.
Amen