Jehovah Jireh Mark 8:1-21

Text: “...Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him.”

Matthew 6:8.

Good morning, provided for Christian!  Anxieties as to where your next meal is coming from; the clothes on your back; or how you shall meet your weekly household budget costs should not cause you to fret.  Our Heavenly Father knows our every requirement even before we ask.  What a comforting truth in the materialistic world in which we live.  Our needs shall be provided for by God’s Omnipotent hand.  Hallelujah! 

“But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”   (Philippians 4:19)

Old Abraham knew the reality of this great Scripture assurance from a very personal experience he had upon Mount Moriah; and a reading of his experience will do the Christian’s soul good, especially in times of material need.  (Genesis 22:1-14)

After Abraham’s traumatic experience of God’ Providence, he called the place of his experience Jehovah Jireh - which literally, in the English tongue, means – “…the Lord will see afar of and provide.”; just as our New Testament text teaches! 

“Sanctify them though Thy truth: Thy Word is truth.” (John 17:17)

Today’s Bible story reveals Christ’s Supernatural provision via an act of re-creation - He took a quantity of materials and re-created from them provisions to feed the hungry masses.  This should be no surprise to us who know Christ Jesus as both Saviour and Creator Lord God.  Praise His gracious and generous Name!  (Hebrews 1:1-2) (John 1:1-12) (Psalm 33:6) (1 Corinthians 8:6)

However, what does seem to surprise us is the depth of unbelief manifested by the disciples just a short time after seeing Christ perform a similarly miraculous feeding of thousands - they actually believed Christ was rebuking them for failing to bring bread along to eat on the sea trip! (Vs.13-21)

Yet, how very like those disciples are WE latter day believers?   “...There is no difference...”.  As we have taught so many times before: within the realm of depraved human nature there is NO DIFFERENCE. Faithlessness, unbelief, and doubt dwell within each of us.   (Romans 3:22-23)

How often throughout our Christian lives have we been openly provided for by a loving Heavenly Father?  How frequently we take the Lord’s providence for granted and fret about, often petty, daily needs.

The host of Israel were no different as they wandered in the wilderness.  (Exodus 16:11-18)

We too frequently murmur and desire more.  We are no different, therefore, than the disciples of old.  They indeed SAW the miracles of Christ with their own eyes - but we have the historical, God-breathed, Gospel records written in our Bibles, and yet we, too, are still often so very unbelieving!  (Mark 5:36b)

J.C. Ryle Comments:

“Let us never doubt Christ’s providential care for the temporal wants of all His people. He knows their cir­cumstances. He is acquainted with all their necessities. He will never allow them to lack anything that is really for their good. His heart is not changed since He ascended up on high, and sat down on the right hand of God. He still lives who had compassion on the hungry crowd in the wilderness, and supplied their need. How much more, may we suppose, will He supply the need of those who trust Him? He will supply them without fail. Their faith may occasionally be tried. They may sometimes be kept waiting, and be brought very low. But the believer shall never be left entirely destitute. “Bread shall be given him; his water shall be sure.” (Isaiah 33:16) (J.C. Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels 1816-1900)

Think now, beloved Christian!  Who provides the very air we breathe?  Who commanded the sun to rise this morning?  Whose gracious hand gives us rain, and sun, and crops to grow?  Thanks be to God, He has done all things well, and provided more than we shall ever need.  Who then will say an “Amen!” to that?  Yes, and hallelujah!  Away, unbelief!

J.C. Ryle Comments:

“Let us leave the passage with solemn self-inquiry. Do we know anything of likeness to Christ, and fellow-feeling with Him? Do we feel hurt, and pained, and sorrowful, when we see men continuing in sin and unbelief? Do we feel grieved and concerned about the state of the un­converted? These are heart-searching questions, and demand serious consideration. There are few surer marks of an unconverted heart, than carelessness and indiffer­ence about the souls of others.

“Finally, let us never forget that unbelief and sin are just as great a cause of grief to our Lord now, as they were eighteen hundred years ago. Let us strive and pray that we may not add to that grief by any act or deed of ours. The sin of grieving Christ is one which many commit continually without thought or reflection. He that sighed over the unbelief of the Pharisees is still unchanged. Can we doubt that when He sees some persisting in unbelief at the present day, He is grieved? From such sin may we be delivered!” (J.C. Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels 1816-1900)

He who has given us His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer on a cruel Cross and die in our place, and for our every sin - will never withhold any other need from us.  What a Lord God!  What a Saviour!  Thank you, dear Father Lord, Amen. (Romans 8:32)

Thought:  To thank God for His daily providence is mankind’s greatest need.