Names of God: El Shaddai
Growing up before the days of cellphones and tablets, my friends and I came up with strange ways to fend off boredom. One strange activity we came up with was to put on as many shirts and pants as we could fit into at one time until we looked like 9-year-old sumo wrestlers. Then we would collide into one another and see who could stay on their feet. It would get hot under all those layers, but the laughter that would pour from us was worth it. You could say, when it came to how many T-shirts we owned, we had more than enough. We had been abundantly provided for.
There is a name that God reveals in the Old Testament that communicates his ability to abundantly provide for his people. The name, in Hebrew, is El Shaddai. As previously discussed, El is a shortened version of Elohim, and means ‘God,’ or ‘Mighty Ruler.’ The word ‘shaddai’ carries the ideas of provision, and can be used of a fruitful field, or a mother’s breast. In our English translations the name El Shaddai is simply translated God Almighty, but when you read this name of God, it is helpful to not just think of the name as extoling God’s greatness and power, but his ability to abundantly meet every need of his people and his world. A helpful way to think of El Shaddai is ‘the God who is more than enough.’
God first reveals himself in the bible as El Shaddai to Abram, then Isaac, and then Jacob.
And in each case he is communicating to the patriarchs his ability, even through miraculous means, to meet his promises and bless their lives despite strange circumstances. Abram’s life seemed to be fizzling out. He was 99 years old, had no children despite desires to the contrary, and it seemed his wealth would be left to his lead servant. But then, in Genesis 17, God comes to Abram as El Shaddai, and Abram’s destiny, and as a symbol his name as well, are changed forever. “The LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am (El Shaddai); walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.”
God was able to bring, as Jesus said later, “life and life abundant” to Abram despite the years of disappointment and barrenness. God is not a dry riverbed that needs people to pour their works and prayers into him to start flowing with the waters of life. Rather, he is an overflowing spring. He is ‘more than enough’ to water the dry areas of our lives that are in need of refreshment. Do you know this El Shaddai? I invite you even now to believe in this God over the dry areas of your life. Pronounce his abundance in your areas of need.
God is more than enough to sustain my health. God is more than enough to provide for me financially. God is more than enough to bring back my wayward child. God is more than enough to restore my marriage. God is more than enough to sustain my faith in trying times.
Together in the Journey,
Father Cam Lemons
(Father Cam Lemons serves at St. Timothy’s Anglican Church. Service is at 9 a.m. on Sunday at 700 Hobson St. in Bishop. He also serves at Trinity Memorial Anglican
Church in Lone Pine. The service there is at noon at 220 N. Lakeview Road. For more information, go to StTimothysBishop.com.)