El Shaddai

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

EL SHADDAI

Gen 17:1-2

17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. 2 I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers."

NIV

Before we get into the renewing of this covenant between God and Abram which includes the changing of Abram’s name, it is fitting that we spend a moment on God Almighty, or in the Hebrew, El Shaddai. This Hebrew word is the most commonly used because it refers to God as The Almighty, the one who has the greatest power, the one who has enduring power. Interestingly, we found a reference to the Hebrew word Shad, which is part of Shaddai, and in Hebrew Shad means breast.  The Hebrews would know that a mother’s breast is enduring strength, feeding her child relentlessly, day and night without fail, always being there, strength that is faithful. This is how the Israelites thought about El Shaddai, God Almighty, enduring strength, never failing to be there for them. We might spend time considering how or in what form the LORD appeared to Abram, but we are most moved by this enduring strength of El Shaddai, the Lord God Almighty. Is it possible we have lost some of that concept of God Almighty because we tend to focus more on Jesus and his words, or even simply put our faith in Jesus? Abram lived under the influence of El Shaddai, God Almighty, He who is enduring strength and power. He who is constantly, and consistently faithful. Jesus indeed established a new covenant with us. In some sense Jesus is our access to God Almighty, for in fact, Jesus is the Son but is also God, therefore Jesus is also El Shaddai, God Almighty, the faithful one, who will never leave or forsake us, but will constantly and consistently be there providing, protecting, and guiding us in our daily walk with him. Could we say that God has appeared to us? He certainly has revealed himself to us. He has shown himself to us over and over again because the Spirit dwells within us. It makes us wonder if we could say that El Shaddai, God Almighty is dwelling within those who put their trust, and their faith in him. That would be totally awesome and maybe we should be living in the totally awesome instead of  living in the mundane, the ho-hum, the just living the normal boring life of simply calling ourselves a Christian, but not having that awesome interaction with El Shaddai, experiencing the fullness of his enduring strength, his overwhelming power in our lives.