Telling the Truth for Women

Jill Briscoe: Welcome back to the names of God series. And we've been looking or beginning to look at some of the names of God because names are meaningful. Names all over the world are meaningful. Children are named after their favorite relative.

Jill Briscoe: Can you remember those of you that have children, how you probably struggled with what to call them? And maybe involved in their name or in a second name, you included a name of the family. And that of course can be a tremor and a problem, as well as a joy. I know that we fastened two or three names to our eldest child, making sure that all the relatives got a piece of him.

Jill Briscoe: And this is often the case when we're naming our children, and it's the same the world over. Sometimes people want the father or the grandfather or a favorite relative or an ancestor or a parent included in the name of a child. And so you get James I or James II or James III.

Jill Briscoe: Or as I remember it, during one of our missions weeks, it was Hudson Taylor III that we had speaking to us. James Hudson Taylor III. Exactly the same name as his famous great-great-grandfather, who went to China and became a very famous missionary, Hudson Taylor.

Jill Briscoe: And so the parents wishing, I'm sure that some of those characteristics of that man, that original Hudson Taylor, who was the pioneer missionary, would be transferred somehow in the name. And so they named him James Hudson Taylor III. Names are meaningful.

Jill Briscoe: They have to do with character. And of course that's what we're looking at as we look at the names of God. Now let's have not a pop quiz, but just a little reminder of where we're at. Elohim, the Creator, the Omnipotent One, the transcendent one, the one who made a promise to himself before the world was ever born.

Jill Briscoe: That he would be faithful within himself. Plural in nature, singular as well. God is one, but the hint of the Trinity there in the name Elohim. And then the names that come off that, the little appellations that are added to the concept of the great Creator, Omnipotent, transcendent, covenant-keeping God.

Jill Briscoe: El Elyon, the Most High God, the one who is the highest of all the other gods in the whole world. El Olam, the Revealer of Secrets, the one who gives us the big picture. The one who says, I have a plan from the ages to the ages, and I am working my purposes out as year unfolds on year. El Roi.

Jill Briscoe: The Living God who sees. And that's the name that Hagar told us. She was standing by the well of water in her desert, pregnant, afraid, abused, running away from the life that she couldn't stand anymore, she couldn't face. And the Living God leaned out of heaven and said, Hagar, Hagar, he called her by her name.

Jill Briscoe: Which was a tender, wonderful thing to do. A little slave that had never been called by a name, she was merely a number, a body, a baby machine. El Roi, the Living God who sees me. El Shaddai, the favorite name, God Almighty. You see it there in your Bible, translated by the English words God Almighty. Whenever you see that, it's El Shaddai.

Jill Briscoe: The one who is able to reverse the laws of nature and specifically in regard to bringing life out of deadness. It was El Shaddai that brought life, if you like, to the womb of Sarah, to the womb of Rebecca, to the womb of Rachel, and to the womb of Hannah. Who called her her God, God Almighty or El Shaddai.

Jill Briscoe: The fruitful one, the nourisher, the breast. It has the connotation of one who nourishes and cares for. Adonai, the Lord, the master, the husband, as master to the slave, as husband to the wife. The Lord, our Adonai, gives us our marching orders but softens it with that concept of the love relationship between the husband and the wife.

Jill Briscoe: And so we're learning what God is like. We're learning how big and how great and how powerful and how mighty he is. Jehovah, let's start there. Now in the King James Version, this is translated with big letters, not small letters. And they do that to distinguish it, the same word Lord in the English is used for Adonai in small letters.

Jill Briscoe: Capital L O R D in small letters, that's Adonai. Whenever you see the capital letters in your Bible, the same English word Lord, this is the name Jehovah. Jehovah. 6,823 times in the Old Testament, this word is used.

Jill Briscoe: And we're going to think about the definition of this name. The definition of this name is basically, it comes from the Hebrew word to live or to have being of itself, to be, to go on being, I am that I am that I am. It's a concept of a constant being exactly the same as he was in the past, he is now and he will be in the future.

Jill Briscoe: He cannot change. For Jehovah, the I Am, cannot change for two reasons. He cannot become better because he is perfect. And he cannot become worse because he is perfect. And so he is the same as he was.

Jill Briscoe: Elohim, Jehovah Elohim in eternity, promising himself faithfully to love himself is the same today. He hasn't changed. He will never begin to fight within himself. There will never be a divorce in the Trinity. He is totally committed to himself, to what he says to himself.

Jill Briscoe: And one of the things he said to himself, if you remember, was, I will be faithful to mend what is broken. If anything ever gets broken in my universe, I'll mend it. If my creation gets broken, I'll mend it. I'll make a new heavens and I'll make a new earth. If my creature ever gets broken, my creature ever sins, ever falls away from being perfect as I made him, I'll mend him.

Jill Briscoe: Elohim promised himself that. And the aspect we're going to look at today is how God began to make those broken things in his universe better. And that's all wrapped up in the name Jehovah. Now the first thing we know about this name is that it tells us God is a relational God, a personal God.

Jill Briscoe: Elohim is transcendent. He is out there. He is everywhere, yes, because he is everywhere, he is here. But when you think of Elohim, you think of creation. You think of God being enthusiastic and throwing worlds and universes into place. That's Elohim. That's that aspect of our great God.

Jill Briscoe: Another aspect is the relational side of him, to the creation and the creatures that he's made. It speaks of God's involvement with man in a very special, personal relationship. When we talk about knowing Jesus as our personal savior, in a sense, that's the aspect we're talking about, the Jehovah aspect of God.

Jill Briscoe: He is a personal God. A lot of people struggle with this. We have to turn to Genesis 28. That's where we're going to begin today. Beginning to read at verse 10. Because Esau had been done in by his brother Jacob, and Jacob had twisted him out of his birthright. Jacob's name means twister. He had to leave home.

Jill Briscoe: And on the way to Haran, which is where he was heading, the home of his ancestor Abraham, he reached a certain place. And he stopped for the night, verse 11, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and he lay down to sleep. I've always thought that sounded a little bit uncomfortable.

Jill Briscoe: The reason he put a stone under his head, I'm told by my friends from Africa, is that's the way the snakes are kept away from your head at night. If you just put your head down in the dust, then you're going to get bitten by a snake. And so you put your head on some stones and apparently that does the trick. Well, there we are.

Jill Briscoe: He had a dream. I bet he did. If I'd been lying among the snakes, I would have had a dream as well. But this was not a dream about the snakes coming to get him. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway, or you will have a ladder probably in your Bible, resting on the earth with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

Jill Briscoe: There above it stood the Lord, and he said, I am the Lord. Now, there's the word. I am Jehovah. The Elohim of your father Abraham, and the Elohim of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. And your descendants will be like the dust of the earth. And you will spread to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south, and all people on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.

Jill Briscoe: I am with you, and I'll watch over you wherever you go, and I'll bring you back to this land. I'll not leave you until I've done that which I've promised you. When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, surely, Jehovah is in this place, and I wasn't aware of it. He was afraid and he said, how awesome is this place. This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven.

Jill Briscoe: Early the next morning, he took the stone he'd placed under his head, and he set it up as a pillar, and he poured oil on the top of it, and he called that place Bethel, which means the house of God. Through the city used to be called Luz. Then Jacob made a vow saying, if Elohim will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I'm taking, and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear, so that I return safely to my father's house.

Jill Briscoe: Then Jehovah will be my Elohim. Jehovah will be my God. And this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's house, and of all that you give me, I will give you a tenth. Now, here we have Jehovah, a name known to Jacob, but not fully understood, coming to him down that ladder, if you like.

Jill Briscoe: Have that little picture in your mind. Elohim was the transcendent God, the top of the ladder. Jehovah comes down into his life. I will be with you always. What does that remind you of? Jesus saying, lo, I am with you always. The concept of God being a personal, relational God.

Jill Briscoe: Angels ascending and descending, doing the will of God, bringing God's blessings down to us, taking our prayers to God. The concept of access into heaven. Because God in one aspect of his nature is intent on having a relationship with his creatures. A personal, living relationship.

Jill Briscoe: Now this name shows qualities in God that the first name Elohim hardly expressed. Hardly expressed at all. Elohim and Jehovah are the same, but each name shows this different aspect. For example, in Genesis, the beginning of the Bible, when Eve, who only knew Elohim, she did not know the name Jehovah in her innocence.

Jill Briscoe: She did not need to. Calls him Elohim and talks of him as though he's absent. There she is, talking to the snake, and the snake calls him Elohim, and talks of him as if he's absent. Has God said this? What did God tell you? Oh, well, Elohim said this and Elohim said that, obviously speaking as if he's not there.

Jill Briscoe: The Bible talks about how Elohim came in the cool of the day and walked with them, in a sort of visible manifestation apparently of his presence. And so during the day, they were doing the work that Elohim had given them to do in the garden, but they talk of him as being absent, in a sense. But here Jacob says, I've seen the face of God.

Jill Briscoe: And he begins to talk of him as being present. And that's all wrapped up with the revelation of an aspect of God that the early people were hardly grasping because God's revelation is unfolding. It's unfolding. And so here we see that we can know God personally.

Jill Briscoe: And let me ask you and stop at this point. Because it's the agnostic that says, God is, I believe he is, I believe he is there, but he is not to be known, he is not to be experienced, he is not relational, he is not personal. That is to diminish the size and the majesty of God. But the believer says, no, no, God has revealed to us that he is a relational God.

Jill Briscoe: He is a personal God. He came down Jacob's ladder into my heart. We can know him. He's not too big. What's that hymn or that song that says, he's large enough to make the mighty universe, small enough to live within my heart? Large enough to make the mighty universe, small enough to live within my heart.

Jill Briscoe: Do you know God as the transcendent God? I'm sure all of you would say, yes, I believe in that God. I believe in Elohim. Do you know him as Jehovah? Has he come down the ladder from heaven into your heart? Have you seen him in that way? Well, the name Jehovah tells you you can.

Jill Briscoe: And not only that you can know him in this personal, relational sense, but that he wants you to know him in this way. What did he say to Jacob? I will be with you wherever you go. I'll be where you go, I'll be there before you get there. I'll be here when you come back. I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Jill Briscoe: This is the relational aspect of God. Secondly, Jehovah teaches us he is a God of revelation. Not only is he a God of relation, he is a God of revelation. The word Yahweh simply means to become known, to become known. You know, there was a story in the Bible of men that wanted to get to know God.

Jill Briscoe: So they thought they would start from their end and build a tower up to heaven. And if they got really near heaven, and maybe they could see him. If they got high enough up off the earth, maybe they would see Elohim where he was, if they got nearer to the place that he lived. And so they began to find out what it was like to get nearer heaven.

Jill Briscoe: And so they built a tower called the Tower of Babel. Now it was called the Tower of Babel because God didn't think this was a very good idea what they were doing for many reasons. And he came down and he confused their language there. And so they began to babble or babel, and they couldn't get the instructions and the tower was never finished.

Jill Briscoe: Now, one reason that God wanted to frustrate the purposes of man at that point was that man thought he could get to know God, that by searching he could get to know God. As Job says, can man by searching find out God? And the answer is no. We cannot get to know God by struggling from our own perspective to see what he is like, to figure it out with our own little dust minds.

Jill Briscoe: It doesn't work. What we have to do is to realize that we need to open ourselves up to the revelation of God. God is going to show us what he's like. He's going to come down the ladder. He's going to say, this is what I'm like. It is not up to man to figure out, I think God is like this.

Jill Briscoe: We do not put God in the dock and judge him and say, I don't think God is a judge, for example. I don't think God's a judge. He's not like that. God's love, he's not a judge. Now, it's not up to man to decide what God is like, to put God in the dock or the you don't say the dock. What do you say? In a court?

Jill Briscoe: Witness stand. Thank you. You don't put God in the witness stand and say, you are like this or I think you're like that or I judge you to be this or I judge you not to be this. We are in the dock or in the witness stand. We are the ones. And God leans out of heaven and says, I'll tell you what you're like and I'll tell you what I'm like.

Jill Briscoe: This is terribly important because people are running all over this world today deciding what God is like. They're building their little towers, and it's all speculation. Nothing to do with revelation. It's all speculation. Now, Jehovah says, I'll tell you what I'm like. Because you can't figure it out. I will reveal myself and my nature and my ways to you.

Jill Briscoe: And what you need to do is open yourself up to that. And so we turn to Exodus 3, and we come to the story of Moses, where Moses is being told to go and bring the people out of Israel. The full significance of Jehovah's name was not revealed to the patriarchs, even to Jacob. He got a glimpse of it, he got a little understanding of it.

Jill Briscoe: God's relational nature. But it was to Moses that this was revealed. Moses said to God, verse 13, suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, the Elohim of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, so, what's his name? Then what shall I tell them? And Elohim said to Moses, Jehovah. I am who I am.

Jill Briscoe: Tell them that the living one, self-existent one, Jehovah, that's who I am. That's my name. This is what you're to say to the Israelites. Jehovah has sent me to you. I am has sent me to you. Elohim also said to Moses, say to the Israelites, Jehovah, the Elohim of your fathers, the Elohim of Abraham, the Elohim of Isaac, the Elohim of Jacob has sent me to you.

Jill Briscoe: This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered for generation to generation. Go assemble the elders and say to them, Jehovah, the Elohim of your fathers, the Elohim of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob appeared to me and said, I have watched over you and have seen what's been done to you in Egypt. I'm this personal God that cares, that wants to get involved, that wants to have a relationship with you.

Jill Briscoe: And I'm going to come down, I'm going to bring you out because Jehovah is the name of redemption. Jehovah is the name that says, I'm going to bring you out. Bring you out of what? Of bondage. There's the picture. I'm going to bring mankind out of the bondage of sin. I'm going to bring him into blessing. I'm going to bring him into a promised land of spiritual blessing.

Jill Briscoe: Jehovah is that name. You go to the Israelites and say, you have known me as the transcendent God, but now you are going to see me as Jehovah. That's the name you go away with. And he was revealing himself to Moses in this way. If you just turn over to chapter 6, two and three. Elohim also said to Moses, I am Jehovah.

Jill Briscoe: I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as El Shaddai, God Almighty. But by my name Jehovah, I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land, etcetera, etcetera. Therefore, say to the Israelites, I am Jehovah, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.

Jill Briscoe: I will free you from being slaves to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and a mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people. I will be your God, your Elohim. Then you will know that I am Jehovah your Elohim, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. That is your key passage to do with this name. That's where it's at.

Jill Briscoe: That explains to us what Jehovah is all about. It is the revelation of God as a personal, living being, fulfilling to the people of Israel the promises made to their fathers. Now there are three new aspects of God to this name Jehovah, as it's unfolded in revelation to the people in the Bible.

Jill Briscoe: The two aspects of God that were most known to the Israelites were the holiness and the righteousness of God. And they have to do with this name Jehovah. He is a God of holiness, and he is a God of righteousness. Those two aspects had not come across in the name Elohim. This was news, folks.

Jill Briscoe: Not altogether new news, for the patriarchs knew that God was holy and righteous, but as God began to reveal his nature a little bit more and a little bit more, these were the two aspects that particularly the Jews, the Israelites held most dear. And they had to do with the name Jehovah.

Jill Briscoe: And because they knew that when you said Jehovah, you were talking about the mighty, sparkling, pure holiness of God. This name became so holy to the Jews, they would not even mention it aloud. They would not let it pass their lips, lest they blaspheme the God of heaven. Ye shall be holy, for Jehovah your Elohim is holy.

Jill Briscoe: Leviticus 19:2. And they believed that Jehovah was so holy that even if they said their name, they might be guilty of some sin. Even today in a synagogue, in the Jewish synagogue, they will not use this name. They substitute Adonai instead. And so the two aspects that are most spoken about whenever you read Jehovah.

Jill Briscoe: As soon as somebody would see that in the Bible, an Israelite, they'd say, God is holy and God is righteous. God is holy and God is righteous. In other words, God places man under a moral obligation. He gives him some rules. We know that he gave those rules to Moses. Thou shalt not do this, do that, do the other. Thou shalt do this, do the other.

Jill Briscoe: He puts man under a moral obligation. He puts within us a conscience that knows what is right and what is wrong. And he holds us accountable. He holds us accountable. We must teach our children that they are accountable, that actions have consequences. Why must we teach them that? Because God wants us to teach our children that, that he is a God of holiness and rightness.

Jill Briscoe: And if there's a rightness, there's a wrongness. And there are absolutes, and God has set them out for us. He's mapped it out how we should live a holy, upright life. Now, this is very important, especially in this day and age. Not too long ago, I sat opposite a young lady who had been in full-time Christian work.

Jill Briscoe: She'd gone to work for a Christian organization, and she'd fallen in love with somebody there that worked. And she had two small children. I knew her very well indeed. And I hadn't seen her for a long time. She'd moved out of the Milwaukee area, and I came across her at a conference, and I I just caught a glimpse of her sitting on the front row.

Jill Briscoe: And it I was in in full flight in the middle of a message, and it just went right through my mind, Uh oh, simply by what she was wearing and how she was sitting and what she looked like. She'd slimmed down, she was wearing a very revealing pantsuit, and she looked quite honestly, a little cheap. This was not the girl.

Jill Briscoe: I had known well, prayed with, worked with. There was just something about her that put me on the alert, that put everybody else on the alert. I had lunch with her. I asked her what was happening in her life. Well, what was happening in her life was that she was having an affair with this other man, that she wanted to leave her husband, and she leaned over the table and very, in a very hostile way, she said, and don't you tell me that it's wrong.

Jill Briscoe: Don't you tell me that it's wrong. She said, I have such peace. I have such peace in my heart. I have such joy, and I am closer to God than I have ever been. Have you heard that before? I know God now in a way that I've never known him before. There's such peace in my heart. It feels so good. It must be right. Feels so good, it must be right.

Jill Briscoe: This is a very puzzling thing. I've I've had women often say to me, when they have given up the struggle of doing what is holy and what is right, that they have peace. I'm sure you've had that said to you as well. Well, it really makes sense if you think about it. Because to do the right thing involves tension.

Jill Briscoe: There are struggles. People are telling you to do the right thing, but inside you want to do the wrong thing. So there's a terrific tension. Now, if you give up, there's going to be peace. Obviously there's going to be peace of a sort. The peace of ceasing to struggle. The peace of doing what you really want to do instead of doing what you really know you should do.

Jill Briscoe: There is a peace in that. But as she talked about this God who was encouraging her in this situation, I said to her, this is not the God I know. I don't know what God you are talking about. I don't know what Elohim you are worshiping. I don't know what Elohim, what God is giving you peace.

Jill Briscoe: It is not the God of the Bible, and it is not the God I know. For he has said, thou shalt not commit adultery. And so you cannot have peace from that God that said those things. That's not the God I know. Sin can feel good, but never mix that up with being holy and righteous.

Jill Briscoe: And so God is leaning out of heaven and saying, listen, I am revealing some aspects of my character to you folks that live down there on the earth, to mankind. I am holy, and be ye holy as I am holy. And I was able to say to this girl, using this verse, Ye shall be holy, for I, Jehovah your Elohim, am holy.

Jill Briscoe: I said, if you worship the God I'm talking about, the God who's revealed what he's like, then you should be holy as he is holy. And he doesn't commit adultery. God would never commit adultery. He would never be unfaithful to himself, for he is Elohim. He has made a covenant to love himself. He will never have a divorce.

Jill Briscoe: And we are told to be like him. However hard it is, and however bad it makes you feel. And being good often makes you feel bad. Because you're doing the right thing. And everything in you wants to do the wrong thing. Moses chose to serve Elohim and Jehovah instead of enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.

Jill Briscoe: And you can enjoy the pleasures of sin. It's just that nobody tells you it's only for a season. And soon winter comes. Nobody tells you about that. And winter came for this young lady. She did divorce her husband and get involved with this other man and another man and another man. And winter came. And the God, whoever the God was, the Elohim she was worshiping, did not give her peace forever.

Jill Briscoe: I can tell you that. God is a God of holiness. God is a God of rightness, of rightness. It was Jehovah that chased man out of the garden, that banished him. Genesis 3:23. Jehovah sent man out of Eden. But it's Jehovah in that same chapter, verse 21, that made garments for them.

Jill Briscoe: Where did he get the skins from animals that were killed? Blood was shed in order that Adam and Eve's sin and shame may be covered. And there's the hint. For up to that point, we don't think any animals had ever been killed. There is a point where man was given every green plant to eat in the early part of Genesis.

Jill Briscoe: And there comes a time afterwards where God says, now I give you the animals as well. And so the animals that were killed at that point were killed by, apparently, Jehovah, who would cover the shame and the sin of the man. And so within a few verses, within a very short distance, you have Jehovah having to be holy and righteous, and send the man out of Eden.

Jill Briscoe: Lest he eat of the Tree of Life and live forever in that sinful state without change being possible. But you also have Jehovah covering him with skins, and beginning to set up a system of sacrifice that Cain and Abel began to participate in as a hint, as a picture, as a type that sin is so heinous and so terrible that a life has to be shed in order to put it right.

Jill Briscoe: To mend what is broken, somebody has to die. A life has to be given. Animal's life was the picture. And yet we know that the blood of bulls and lambs and rams cannot take away sin. Only the blood of Jehovah himself. It's this redemptive point, or it's this redemptive picture that we're going to look at now with one of the compound names of Jehovah.

Jill Briscoe: Because the three aspects of Jehovah's character that are revealed to us are certainly God's holiness, certainly his righteousness, that he is of purer eyes than to behold evil, but also of love, of redeeming love. He wanted to teach man to approach him through sacrifice, and then he wanted to teach that it is Jehovah who will provide himself to be that sacrifice.

Jill Briscoe: He is a redemptive God. He is a relational God. He is a revelation God. He is a redemptive God. God hasn't changed his mind. He's promised to mend that which is broken. And he's going to now be true to that covenant of redemption that he promised himself and us. Now, a compound name, let me define that for you.

Jill Briscoe: Owes its significance to the name Jehovah itself. Most compound names of Jehovah have to do with a historic event and portray Jehovah in some aspect of his character as meeting human need. Coming down the ladder into our lives. Jehovah Jireh is the first compound name that we meet. It's in Genesis 22.

Jill Briscoe: Famous story of Abraham offering his son Isaac. Sometime later, verse 1, God tested Abraham. He said to him, Abraham, here I am, he replied. Then God said, take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love. Go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.

Jill Briscoe: God's incredible command came to this man, and the biggest crisis of many crisis in this man's life began. This was a huge crisis, obviously. God wanted to know if Abraham really loved him first and was committed to doing his will, whatever the price, putting God before the life of his own child. This was the supreme test.

Jill Briscoe: He'd had many tests. Go out, I'll tell you when you get there. You don't know where you're going. Leave a comfortable house, even had central heating pipes. They've dug up Ur of the Chaldees. They know what a advanced civilization it was. Abraham was a rich man living in Ur of the Chaldees. God came to him and said, leave it all. Just go and live in a tent. I'll tell you the way to go.

Jill Briscoe: And he did in faith, not knowing where he was going. He'd had many crisis, many tests in his life, but this indeed was the supreme test. And what confusion it must have brought to Abraham. Was he really hearing God all right? Would God tell him to do something like this? Hadn't God given him Isaac? A miracle baby, when he was past bearing and Sarah was 90?

Jill Briscoe: And now God is saying, kill him? Does God tell us to kill? Now remember, this was pre-law days. This was before Moses. He was very confused. Was God simply trying to strengthen his faith and to prove his commitment in the area of his most intimate relationships? Well, this was the crisis.

Jill Briscoe: The amazing thing to me is his prompt obedience. Early the next morning. I think I would have slept in a little bit. Wouldn't you? I also wonder if he tells Sarah and what her reaction was. Early the next morning, Abraham got up. His prompt obedience. And I love that about Abraham. His prompt obedience. Go out into a land, I'll tell you where it is. So Abraham went.

Jill Briscoe: Get up and offer your son to me as a burnt offering early the next morning. Is that what you are like? Is that what I am like? When we know what God is telling us to do, do we do it? I mean, when there's no confusion and we know what we should do, do we do it? Are we characterized as prompt servants to our Adonai, our master?

Jill Briscoe: Or do we, the slave, argue and think of all the reasons why we shouldn't do it? Now, remember Abraham knew the Lord as Adonai, as master, and he, his slave. He had had a visitation of God coming to him. He had become the slave of Adonai. He had stood there, he had served, he had done what Adonai wanted him to do. Now then, the supreme test.

Jill Briscoe: The choice came. So the crisis was there, and Abraham's incredible compliance, his prompt obedience just bowls me over. How fast do we obey? And there was an agonizing time lapse. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac, and when he cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.

Jill Briscoe: It was a long way. Folks, it was three days journey. Mount Moriah was three days journey. He had a lot of time to think. What would you have thought about? What would I? And God tested his resolve over three days. He tested his resolve. Do we stand up under such testing? We know what God wants us to do.

Jill Briscoe: Sometimes if we could just go and do it, it would be fine. But sometimes God allows the time lapse to test our resolve and to see if we indeed love him supremely and love him first. And Abraham comes through. Must have been absolute agony because Isaac begins to say, well, we've got the wood and we've got the fire, father, but where's the lamb?

Jill Briscoe: Where's the lamb? Can you imagine what that felt like when Isaac asked him that? Marvelous verse 8. Abraham answered, God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering. Now then, when they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar, arranged the wood, and he bound his son Isaac. Before this, he had left his servants.

Jill Briscoe: Verse 5. He said to his servants, stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you. Now, he did not say that because he was hoping he would get left off the hook. He said it because he believed that even if he had to kill Isaac, God would raise him from the dead.

Jill Briscoe: In fact, we know that to be true because the New Testament tells us that, that he believed in faith that even though Isaac would die, God would resurrect him. He would become a miracle. Even if he had to go through with it. Need to read Romans 4 and Hebrews 11. These verses talk about this incredible test that was coming.

Jill Briscoe: Have you ever thought of the child, the crisis, the choice, the child? Isaac's amazing compliance. Have you ever thought about Isaac, what he felt like? We've all thought about what Abraham felt like, but if you've ever thought about Isaac, what did he learn? Well, he was a big strapping teenager. He didn't need to be bound and put on the altar. He got the message.

Jill Briscoe: No lamb. His father took some cords and began to bind him. He knew what was happening. And yet we read that he submitted to death. He trusted his father. And I believe he too believed that even if he had to die, God would bring him back from the dead. And at the moment that Isaac was about to be sacrificed, God called out of heaven, don't touch him.

Jill Briscoe: Don't touch him. Don't lay a hand on the boy. Don't do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God because you've not withheld from me your son, your only son. Abraham is a type of prefiguring of Christ. And that's why Abraham called the place Jehovah Jireh. The Lord himself will provide a lamb.

Jill Briscoe: Or the Lord will provide, or on the on the mountain, it shall be seen. The word means it shall be seen in the sense of seer or prophetic utterance. That on this mountain, God will provide himself a lamb on Mount Moriah. And of course, it was on Mount Moriah that Abraham offered Isaac. And it was on Mount Moriah that Jesus Christ died on Calvary.

Jill Briscoe: It was on Mount Moriah that the sacrificial system in the temple was set up. The temple was built on Mount Moriah. And if you go to the Holy Land today, you can see the traditional place, probably the true place where Abraham offered Isaac. They've built a mosque over it. The Muslims for them, it is their most holy place, for Abraham is their father.

Jill Briscoe: Father of the Arabs. And there you'll see that massive rock. I'll always remember standing in that Muslim mosque, crying. Just weeping, looking at that great big rock, and thinking of Abraham offering Isaac, and thinking of another day, when there wasn't a voice from heaven saying, don't do anything to him. The voice didn't come for Jesus because God himself was providing himself a lamb for us.

Jill Briscoe: In fact, if the Angel of the Lord that called to Abraham out of heaven was Jesus, how poignant that must have been. He was watching his own death enacted, and knowing that the father would not stop the next time. You know, I think of Isaac so much, and I'm overwhelmed with all of that.

Jill Briscoe: It was during my missionary days that that particular little incident became very real to me because I was struggling with my husband being away a lot. Let me read you a little bit from the Snake in the Garden. There I was, sitting on the front pew in a packed room, listening to my husband preaching a most powerful message on Abraham.

Jill Briscoe: Suddenly, without any warning, the snake, who was sitting beside me, I noticed his Bible was upside down, said, Have you forgotten he's going away tomorrow for three months? You should be at home packing, comforting your poor children and praying for yourself. I tried to ignore him. After all, Stuart's voice was loud enough to drown him out.

Jill Briscoe: But he entangled himself around my Bible and tried to distract me. What was he doing? Well, he was actually preaching his own sermon from my husband's text. I couldn't believe the two such contrasting messages could come from one source. As Stewart preached his heart out to hundreds of attentive teens, the snake was preaching one of his own messages right in my ear.

Jill Briscoe: He was saying to me, it's all right for Abraham. He was just like your husband. Look at him. All that faith oozing out all over the place. He's going off tomorrow to a land he knows not of and will, no doubt, do great exploits for God. But what about Isaac? That's you. As soon as I began to give my full attention to the snake's interpretation of the passage, I was in trouble.

Jill Briscoe: I shut off the preacher and I turned on the snake. And I did it all behind the smile. As I walked home, I voluntarily began to wallow in a sea of self-pity. The snake was right. What about poor old Isaac? It was all right for Abraham, but it was Isaac who was bound upon the altar and would feel the knife. The same old struggle began. The snake was attacking the same old weak spot. The future, husbandless and lonely, stretched before me.

Jill Briscoe: My frustration grew. This had been yielded before. If the Bible said I was dead to sin, why was I leaping off the altar of sacrifice at this moment of time and feeling very much alive? And I talk about how I struggled through that, and it was Isaac that helped me through. And it was this passage of scripture that brought me relief.

Jill Briscoe: And by the time my husband came home, worn out and weary and ready to go away for that long three-month period, it was over. And I handed him the poem that is written in this book. It's all right for Abraham. God counts him as his friend, while I must be his enemy whose life he longs to end. It's all right for Abraham, experienced in the art of glad obedience when it means a dagger through my heart.

Jill Briscoe: My father, or my husband, bound me hand and foot and laid me on this pyre. I wondered why God hated me to torture me with fire. I must be very wicked or have ceased to play my part. I'd know in just a minute when the knife plunged through my heart. But greater than my fear of death, my hurt at Abraham's aim. His love for God transcended the love for me, he claimed.

Jill Briscoe: Then God revealed the truth to me. My pride had felt the knife. That's why there was an altar, the ropes, the fire, my life. When you're bound upon the altar by the hands of those you love, you don't know there'll be deliverance by the voice of God above. Then that's the time to trust the man whom God counts as his friend. The faith of him who puts God first will save you in the end.

Jill Briscoe: Because it's not all right for Abraham. Young Isaac learned that day. He watched his inward agony with groans he heard him pray. And suddenly he longed to help and cried in glad submission, dear father, sacrifice your son. You have my full permission. Because it's all right for Isaac now, it's all right to die. Cause if I die, I do believe a resurrection I'll achieve.

Jill Briscoe: I really feel quite lyrical. I'm going to be a miracle. And God did it in my life. And I became a miracle. Because it was all right to die. Jesus does that when he comes down the ladder into our lives. He makes it possible to be an Isaac. He makes us possible to be so committed to the covenant, to the big plan, to El Olam's big picture.

Jill Briscoe: To be part of what God is doing down here on earth, that whatever it takes and whatever the cost, it's all right. And you really begin to feel quite lyrical. Talk about real peace and real joy. It's when you cooperate with God's plan and that's what Isaac was doing. And in our little way, we can do that too.

Jill Briscoe: But we can only do it, of course, if Jehovah, our Jehovah Jesus has come down that ladder and walked into our hearts. Jesus himself said, Your father Abraham delighted to see my day. And he also said, I am Jehovah. Jesus is Jehovah. And he is Jehovah Jireh. He has provided himself a lamb.

Jill Briscoe: And that means I can know a relational, personal God who helps me in my little struggles down here to do the things I know I should do, to seek to be holy and righteous, to do the right thing as he is holy and righteous, knowing that he is a God of love. Knowing what it cost him, then the little cost that it'll cost me is nothing in comparison.

Jill Briscoe: Do you know Jehovah Jireh? Do you really feel quite lyrical because you're going to be a miracle? Can you be an Isaac? Can you be part of his plan? Can you be an Abraham? Will you promptly obey what you know God is telling you to do? Will you do the right thing even though it doesn't make you feel good? All of this and more is wrapped up in this name. Jehovah.

Jill Briscoe: And specifically, in Jehovah Jireh. The Lord will provide on this mountain, on Moriah, he did. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the names of God that tell us what you're like and who you are. We thank you today for a little glimpse of what the name Jehovah means. That you are who you are.

Jill Briscoe: You will never change and you will never be different. You will never change your mind about your world, mending what is broken, and being the sort of God that you are. I'm so glad because you told us you were a relational God. You revealed that to us and you said, you want to have a relationship with us that's a holy relationship and a right relationship. You want to hold us to that.

Jill Briscoe: You've told us to be like you. And you've given us the power to do that by lending us your very spirit, yourself. For we cannot do that on our own. We thank you for that. We thank you that whether you call us to obedience as you called Abraham to obedience, and Isaac to obedience. Whether you give us testing times that are very crucial in the areas of our most personal, intimate relationships or other tests.

Jill Briscoe: We know that Jehovah will be with us, that you will stay with us, that you'll stick with us, that you'll be in us and work through us. And you will enable us to yield our hearts and our wills, our stubborn wills, to the greater will of God, that your plan may be worked out, that your purposes may be done.

Jill Briscoe: Teach us that this is the highest calling of man. We ask it for Christ's sake. Amen.