1) The Lord Will See, Provide, Genesis 22:8
One of the most moving incidents recorded in Genesis is where Abraham offers his son. Isaac was a special son promised him and given by miracle, yet Abraham willingly offered him. Then, at the moment of offering, a ram is provided. The result is that Abraham makes a curious statement about the place name.
One translation is 'The LORD will provide' and 'on the mountain of the LORD it will be provided'.
The place Abraham named was in the land of Moriah. It was a mountain of which God said to Abraham, “I will tell you of.” The place is not identified by a name, but Abraham knew of the place he was going to. On the third day Abraham told his two men to stay, and he went alone with his son, Isaac, up the specific unnamed mountain. Isaac carried on his back up that mountain the wood Abraham had hewed.
There is a beautiful exchange between father and son. There is faith on both sides.
Isaac says, “My Father?”
Abraham answered, “Lo!/see/behold me my son.”
Isaac asked, “Lo!/behold/see the fire and the wood but where is the lamb (small sheep, goat) for burnt offering?”
And said Abraham, “Mighty Ones (Heb: Elohim) will see/ behold/ consider/ look upon/ advise (Heb: ra-ah) for himself the lamb for burnt offering my son.”
Isaac shows he knows of the requirements for the service of his father's God, and Abraham teaches his son to have faith in the Mighty Ones (Elohim).
Most English translations translate the word ra-ah as “provide” : “God will provide.” But there is only one other instance where this translation occurs, and it is in only a few versions. The KJV translated 'ra-ah' in 1 Samuel 16:17 as 'provide.'
Saul said unto his servants, “Provide me now a man that can play well, and bring him to me.”
Others translate ra-ah here as “find”. It is not unreasonable to translate it 'seek out', as David was not provided to Saul but rather his servants went looking for him.
Note how the exchange between father and son quoted above in a more literal Hebrew from Strongs emphasises seeing.
In context Abraham understood Isaac was the offering. He was telling his son that the Mighty Ones had seen, understood and fully knew of the situation and had for themselves provided an offering. Abraham was giving back a gift given to him. Abraham thought the offering was Isaac. The specific word Abraham uses for 'seeing' seems to be used as future imperfect, as if the Elohim had not looked once, but would now and in the future be in a constant state of looking, and considering.
The theme of seeing continues as when Abraham is about to sacrifice his son and is called. He replies, “Behold me!”
The God of Abraham had seen Abraham's actions. He is then told not to raise his hand, as by that time he had given every evidence he would not withhold his only son from God. There is no indication, God asked anything more of Abraham. It is Abraham who looks behind him and sees the ram caught. Not a lamb, but an acceptable offering. It seems it was Abraham's own initiative to offer that ram.
As a result of these events Abraham names the place on the mountain a two word phrase.
יהוה יראה
Transcribed it is Yəhweh yirəǎeh and it might be translated as 'He who will Be will see', all in the future perfect tense. It does not speak of seeing once, but of an ongoing oversight. Then the person who wrote down the events added a comment that it was said up until their time, as a saying, a very simple phrase.
בהר יהוה יראה
The extra Hebrew word means 'in (the) mountain'.
In the mountain He who will Be will see.
In that mountain, at that place, from that time forth on an ongoing basis the Mighty One of Abraham would see, consider, regard, look, respect, mark and think upon something related to that place.
Indeed Yahweh must have provided the ram. But it was Abraham who looked for it and saw it, and acted. But that action of providing the ram is not the focus of why those ancient Hebrews named and remembered that mountain. For some reason they knew that from that time forth their Mighty One would watch over that place. Was it more important Abraham found a ram, or that on that particular mountain a messenger of the Holy One called out of Heaven to Abraham, that he had seen him and approved his actions?
The passage goes on to explain why the sons of Abraham would value that place, saving the best for last. There, on that mountain, an ongoing commitment of oversight was made to Abraham,
The messenger of Yahweh called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, And said, By myself have I sworn, saith Yahweh, for because you have done this thing, and have not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because you have obeyed my voice. (Genesis 22:15-18)
The oversight was shown in an ongoing “blessing I will bless thee.” The blessing was based on what Yahweh saw in that place, on that mountain, the place to which Abraham obediently went. The place where after a 3 day journey the son, born by miracle, who had been promised ascended with the wood on his back, obedient to his father, believing that the Mighty Ones would see from their viewpoint in heaven 'a lamb'.
This place, was even special in the, “land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.” (Deuteronomy 11:12)
From the time of the obedience of Abraham, that one place was subject to the ongoing searching over-looking, seeking and thinking of Yahweh as he prepared and used many events to point forward to the core of his plan in offering in the same place a greater son of Abraham, also born due to a miracle, as a 'lamb'. But this was not the end of Yahweh's seeing and thinking regarding this place in the mountains of Moriah as the ongoing and daily blessing, as a future perfect action, has not yet been completed, and won't be until Abraham is personally blessed.
As yet Yahweh's action of seeing, and special oversight relating to that place, is not complete and all the nations have not been blessed through Isaac and in Isaac's special singular 'seed'.
For more The end of faith
Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God. (1 Corinthians 4:5)
This may be one of the most misunderstood passages of the Bible. Paul is notorious for long sentences of connected thoughts, and this is part of a complex wide ranging thought which lasts 2 chapters, and includes what seems opposite advice:
But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. (1 Cor. 5:11-13)
As I was thinking to write this article, having just read Psalm 46 as I do each year on that day, on January 25th a Bible was found untouched after a tornado hit Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
We have been given many time periods to prophetic events in the Bible. Many people think it too hard, and do not make an effort to understand them. However, if they were not to be understood, why were they given? And the Bible says the wise shall understand (Daniel 12:10).
In the light of the findings of science, how literally do we take what the scriptures say about the power of the God of the Bible, Yahweh Elohim (literally He who will become Mighty Ones)? Science at its best is a measurement of observable and repeatable phenomenon wrapped up in explanations which abound in analogy. There is no doubt in the benefit of investigating phenomena of the natural world. The surprising thing is that the more we investigate natural phenomena, the more it fits the explanations recorded over 2000 years ago.
The God of Israel is approachable and reasonable. He often speaks directly to his people. The following will seek to understand a passage where he speaks via the prophet Amos which has a few variant translations.
