Gen. xxii. 14. And Abraham called the name of that place, Jehovah-j/reh : as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.
THE Saints of old took special care to remember the mercies of their God. Hence they scarcely ever received any remarkable deliverance from evil, or communication of good from him, but they erected some memorial of it, and gave either to the place or to the memorial itself, some name, that should trans- mit to posterity a remembrance of the blessing vouch- safed unto them. Such was " Beth-el," where Jacob
was favoured with a special vision3; and " Peniel," where he wrestled with the angel b; and " Eben-ezer," the stone erected by Samuel in remembrance of Israel's victory over the Philistines c. Frequently the name of Jehovah himself was annexed to some word expressive of the event commemorated; as, " Jehovah- nissi, meaning, The Lord my banner ; " a name given to an altar raised by Moses, to commemorate the total discomfiture of the Amalekites d ; and " Jehovah- shalom, The Lord send peace;" being the name given to another altar, which Gideon erected in re- membrance of a special visit which he had received from the Lord in Ophrah of the Abi-ezritese. The Father of the Faithful set an example in this respect. He had been ordered by God to sacrifice his son Isaac; but in the very act of offering him up, God had arrested his uplifted arm, and directed him to offer in the stead of his son a ram caught in the thicket which was close at hand. This was in fact an accomplishment of what Abraham himself had a little before unwittingly predicted. For, in answer to Isaac's question, " My father, behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt-offer- ing?" he replied, " My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt-offering." By this answer he merely intended to satisfy his son's mind for the present, till the time should arrive for making known to him the command which he had received from God ; in which command that provision was actually made : but through the miraculous intervention of Divine Providence and the substitution of the ram in Isaac's place, it had now been literally verified in a way which he himself had never contemplated. And it was in reference to this expression which he had used, that he called the name of the place, " Je- hovah-jireh," which means, " The Lord will provide." This circumstance, occurring on Mount Moriah at the very instant when Abraham's hand was lifted up to slay his son, passed immediately into a proverb,
8 Gen. xxviii. 19. b Gen. xxxii. 30. c 1 Sain. vii. 12.
d Exod. xvii. 15. e Judg. vi. 24.