El Olam & Jehovah Jireh

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Genesis 17-21

In the year between the time that he was 99 and the time that he was 100 years old, many things happened in Abraham’s life. God changed his name from Abram to Abraham; all of the Hebrew males were circumcised in order to be under the covenant; Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed; and Abraham had an encounter with another king who desired Sarah, his wife.

Then, when Abraham was 100 years old, the thing happened which Abraham and Sarah had hoped and yearned for, and had wanted to believe but battled doubt for. Sarah conceived, and Isaac was born.

Chapter 21 of Genesis covers a period of several years. During that time, Isaac was born and weaned. Then Sarah, to her own displeasure, discovered that Isaac’s half-brother, Ishmael, had been mocking him. 

It was then that Sarah insisted that Hagar and Ishmael be exiled. At that time, Ishmael could have been in his late teens or even his early twenties – recall that he was circumcised at the age of 13 when Abram was 99 years old. Even so, the Bible text reads as if Ishmael was still a small child.

But God heard the despair of Ishmael and Hagar as they lay perishing in the desert, seemingly at life’s end. He miraculously met them and rescued them, fulfilling His promise to Hagar from Genesis 16.

Here is where we begin our study for today.

El Olam: the Everlasting God

The first time that El Olam is mentioned in the Bible is in Genesis 21:33. This was after Hagar and Ishmael had gone, and after Abraham had made a covenant with Abimelech, King of the Philistines (who had put Sarah into his harem for a time). The fact that Abraham planted some trees tells us that he was in the final step of the covenant ceremony: he was establishing a memorial to the covenant. This was when he called on El Olam.

El Olam is a Hebrew name for God meaning ‘Everlasting God’ or ‘Eternal God’  It combines the Hebrew words ‘El’ (God) and ‘Olam’ (everlasting or eternal’)

El Olam is not often seen as an address for God in the Bible. In fact, God is addressed directly as El Olam only one other time, in Isaiah 40:28.

Although God is formally addressed as El Olam in only these two instances, there is no question that Olam is an attribute of God’s nature. It is used more than 400 times in the Old Testament to describe him.

The Attributes of El Olam

The previous names that we have studied have emphasized God’s oversight as Elohim – the Creator God; His status as El Elyon – Most High God; His position as Lord and Master – Adonai, and His overarching might as El Shaddai – Almighty God. This is the first time that we see the everlasting or eternal aspect of God’s nature named.

The name El Olam, itself, emphasizes God’s eternal existence. He is the eternal, unchanging God whose identity is described over and over again throughout scripture. He was not created and will never die; He has always existed and will always exist. As such, he is often described as unchanging, faithful, and reliable, and with eternal plans. Let’s look at a few of the attributes of El Olam.

El Olam is our Everlasting Rock 

God is often likened to a rock. A rock in the desert can provide shade from the sun and an anchor and refuge from harsh winds. Figuratively, He is our refuge and He provides the lifeline that we need to stay grounded in Him.

He was the literal rock in the desert that provided life-sustaining water as the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, as seen in Exodus 17.

El Olam is our Everlasting Light and Glory

Isaiah foretold that El Olam is the Everlasting light and glory, replacing the need for the sun and moon. Doesn’t this reflect the account of the Creation in Genesis 1:3 where God said, “Let there be Light” and there was light, even before He made the sun, moon and stars?

El Olam is the True and Living God

Only the Israelites could claim to have a God who was alive, and only they could claim to have a God who would never die. This is seen in Jeremiah’s description of God as an everlasting king.

Strength in El Olam

God does not grow weary despite the trouble mankind has gotten into. Think about the times that your own family members may have made you tired and impatient because of their antics and bad behavior. But Isaiah said that those who wait on Him will renew their strength and stamina like soaring eagles. Isaiah’s description of El Olam gave the procedure for successfully accessing His strength: But they that wait upon the Lord …

El Olam is Timeless

Peter provided a unique perspective of God, indicating that one day with El Olam is as a thousand years. This is because time holds a different meaning for the Eternal God. It is not that He is confusing a day with 1000 years, but rather that one day is not too short of a time and 1000 years is not too long of a time for Him to wait for us because He is timeless: the passage of time does not affect Him. He is willing to wait patiently for us all to come into the knowledge of Him.

El Olam defines Himself

El Olam has placed clues about himself all over Creation. If we will just look for them, we will find that He has revealed His nature in His works over and over again.

 Can we have faith in these clues? Which comes first? The faith or the understanding of them? According to Hebrews 11:3, He asks us to believe that He is who He says He is, just because of these clues. He does not ask us to understand first, but to have faith first, then He will bring the understanding.

Jesus is unchanging and eternal

Jesus is unchanging: what He was in His pre-incarnate person is the same as what we observe about Him from scripture when He lived and walked the earth, and it is the same as He is now, seated at the right hand of the Father.

While He was in the form of a man, He gave us glimpses into the nature of El Olam in everything that He did and said. The next time you read any of the gospels, look for ways that Jesus related to El Olam.

El Olam has Everlasting Ways

El Olam’s perspective is from the position of eternity. He can see past the fog of life and survival that we experience to know how events shape our lives and futures. 

Even before the beginning of time, El Olam began His plan to secure eternal redemption for all of humanity. Every person who comes to a saving knowledge of El Olam will spend eternity with Him.

As we dwell on the nature of El Olam, perhaps we can begin to see through His eyes to find a glimpse of the eternity promised to us.

El Olam secured Eternal Redemption for us:

Knowing that, upon death, we will not be lost to oblivion, but will go on to live eternally with Christ, gives us hope. Parting with a loved one is a sad event, but the knowledge that we will see each other again blunts the pain of parting. David expressed this at the death of his baby son when he said,

… I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. 2 Samuel 12:23

The unthinkable command

The unthinkable happened! At least for us, it is unthinkable. The thought of killing a child for any reason is appalling, but because a god demands it? None of us would entertain that thought, even for a second.

But in the time of Abraham, this was a common practice. Children were often sacrificed to the god Molech, possibly even in some of the communities that surrounded Abraham. For this reason and others, Elohim had originally called Abram to move himself and his household away from Haran, to take them away from such close proximity to this abominable practice.

Abraham’s radical obedience

 In Genesis 22, Abraham faced a test of faith like no other. God instructed him to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac on Mount Moriah. Yet even amidst this heart-wrenching trial, Abraham called on his Provider, Jehovah Jireh. Just listen to his faith-filled words when Isaac asked about the lamb for the burnt offering: 

And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering… Genesis 22:8

Abraham’s faith was mountain-moving faith. He obeyed God without delay or question because he had learned to walk with Him over time. In Hebrews 11, the writer says that Abraham even believed that God could raise Isaac from the dead, although we are not told that he had ever known this to happen before.

Foreshadowing the provision of the cross

Many believe that this account of the almost-sacrifice of Isaac is a foreshadowing of Christ on the cross. There are many similarities:

• Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son, Isaac, and God was willing to sacrifice His Son, Jesus.

• Just as Jehovah Jireh provided a substitute for Isaac on Mount Moriah, He also provided the ultimate substitute for humanity on Mount Calvary.

• The geographical location for Isaac’s almost-sacrifice, although not precisely known, is probably within shouting distance of the hill where Jesus was crucified, and possibly the identical hill.

Jehovah Jireh: The Lord will see to it

Jehovah Jireh is actually not a name of God at all. It appears only one time in the Bible, in Genesis 22:14 where Abraham named the place where he was called to sacrifice Isaac, Jehovah–jireh. 

According to Strong’s Concordance Hebrew Dictionary, this place-name translates as ‘the Lord will see to it,’ although the popular translation Jehovah Jireh, my provider, also holds the same contextual meaning. The Lord will see to it, He will provide it.

God offers provision throughout the Bible

Over and over again, God provided for his people, both under the Old Covenant and the New:

• manna and water in the wilderness;
• the feeding of Elijah by ravens;
• the provision for Naomi by Ruth and Boaz;
• the multiplying of oil for the widow of Zarephath;
• sustenance for Joseph’s family in Egypt;
• the provision of a ram for Abraham;
• the feeding of the multitudes by Jesus;
• provision of the temple tax from a fish;
• the healing miracles of Jesus and, ultimately, His sacrifice on the cross.

Everywhere you look, God provided for His people.

The ‘Jireh’ in us 

Personally, I believe this attribute of God is a particularly strong one, and is resident in every person. Look at the instances in your own life where you have provided for others, even making sacrifices of time, resources, talent, skills and money to do so. We just naturally want to provide for others. It is part of God’s nature that He has put into us.

How many of the activities of provision on the accompanying list can you say you have participated in? How many more can you add to the list?

God placed His nature into each and every one of us. Genesis 1:26 says that we are created after His likeness. We don’t need to strain to get it, it is already there.