Yahweh Jireh, the first redemptive name of God proclaimed in the Bible, means “the Lord sees and the Lord provides.” The Lord sees beforehand and provides for the needs of His people. God is a God of vision-He sees the present; He sees the future; God observes, looks, perceives, considers, discerns, and distinguishes in a perfect manner. God looks behind all the circumstances and sees the crux of what is happening. God can discern the thoughts and intents of a person’s heart and see the spiritual battle raging behind the scenes. God sees in ways that no human can, and based upon His vision and heavenly perception, understands perfectly how to best provide for His children. God knows; God sees, and therefore God provides. God’s provision for His people is perfect and based on His unlimited ability to see every facet of every problem you are ever confronted with. Yahweh does not get fooled; Yahweh does not get deceived; Yahweh does not get hoodwinked. Yahweh sees everything and lovingly provides the best for His people on a daily basis. Nothing is lacking in God’s complete provision for you. The first characteristic of God’s goodness, that He wants you to know in His name Yahweh is that He sees and He provides.
I Peter 5:7 (Amplified):
Casting the whole of your care (all your anxieties,
all your worries, all your concerns, once and for
all) on Him, for He cares for you affectionately
and cares about you watchfully.
Phillips:
You can throw the whole weight of your anxieties
upon Him, for you are his personal concern.
New Living Translation:
Give all your worries and cares to God, for He
cares about you.
The word “casting” in the Amplified Version means: to throw, hurl or cast with a sudden motion; to throw something suddenly and completely on something else. This verb is in the aorist tense in the Greek, which means it is an act once and for all and involves a throwing of all our worries and anxieties past, present, and future upon God. It is not a timid casting of our cares upon Him or an apologetic casting in the sense of “could you please take a care or two from me God, if you have time?” It is an abrupt and swift hurling, like you were throwing a fastball or hurling a hot potato out of your hands. God does not want us to mess around with a half-hearted effort in this casting. You are not to hang on to one single anxious care, but forcefully throw every one of them upon Him. This verse also does not say “some” of your worries or “some” of your fears, but all of your anxious thoughts and cares, big or small, are to be hurled upon the strong shoulders of Yahweh Jireh. God wants to bear every burden, fear, worry, concern, and anxiety that you will ever have because you are His personal concern.
The word “care” in the Greek is the same word used in Matthew 6 and means: that which draws and divides the mind in different directions, and describes the mental state of being pulled apart. To worry is to have a divided mind that distracts and pulls someone in a wrong direction away from God’s plan and purpose. It is a feeling of apprehension or distress, and an extreme uneasiness of mind or brooding fear about some contingency. It is to be mentally distressed, agitated, and troubled.
The word “worry” comes from the Old English word meaning: to strangle or to grasp by the throat and lacerate with the teeth or to kill and injure by biting and shaking. It was like a dog that would attack an animal by taking it in its mouth and violently shaking it. This is what worry does to the life of a person. Worry will violently shake up your life and divide and distract your mind into a state of confusion. Worry will suffocate the love, joy, and peace out of your life. Worry is simply unbelief in the promises of God, and is meditation upon the negative instead of the positive truth of God’s Word. If you know and understand the name of the Lord as Yahweh-Jireh, the one who always sees and provides, worry and anxiety will be eliminated from your daily life.
Jesus divided these anxious cares and worries into two categories in the parable of the sower and the seed. The first category is the anxious cares of this age (Matthew13:22), which are worries about the current state of affairs in the world. Today it would be all the negatives we hear on the nightly news about the violent and horrible events of this age. Threats of terrorism, violent wars, disease outbreaks, environmental disasters, food shortages, and political corruption are just a few of the worries and cares of this age. The second category is the anxious cares of this life (Luke 8:14), which are daily worries and cares that come up in our personal lives. These are cares about our finances, jobs, relationships, food, clothing, health, and all problems that may arise from our day to day living. Jesus Christ clearly taught that these anxious worries choke the Word of God out of your mind and heart so you do not bear any fruit for God in your life. You cannot think, meditate, and grow in the word of God when these anxious cares and worries are dominating your thoughts for they crowd out the Word of God in your mind. The word “choke” in this parable means: to so press, throng and crowd to the point that it suffocates completely the life out of something. Worry always suffocates the growth of the Word of God in your life. This is why Jesus Christ spent so much time teaching His disciples that they cannot let worry and anxiety dominate their thoughts, if they expect to love and serve God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. We are to cast and throw every care upon our loving and mighty God, whether it is a care of this age or a care of our life.
God cares for you, and your welfare is His primary concern. God is bigger and more powerful than any worry or care that may ever confront you. Nothing is too hard for God to handle. The perfect cure for every worry or fear is a child-like trust in our Heavenly Father. We must drive our mind to build a habit pattern of trust and faith, rather than a habit pattern of worry and fear. We must understand the essence of the name Yahweh-Jireh is that He cares for you. When we begin to increase in the knowledge of God and who He is, we cannot help but trust Him. Isn’t it wonderful to know that God cares for us every second that we draw breath upon this earth? God has taken personal responsibility of caring for our well-being, so why should we ever worry? God is infinitely more concerned about our welfare than we are. God cares for you in a loving, personal way, as every detail of your life matters to God Almighty. Yahweh-Jireh bears every burden no matter how overwhelming, no matter how impossible, and no matter how troublesome.
