Baruch Ha Shem Adonai!
(Blessed be the Name of the Lord!)
This is the third in The CRIB's presentation of the Twelve Jewels of God ... a look at the wonderful, powerful, inspirational names of God. (My apolgies to visitors for the delay in getting this out; God and my wife had other things for me to do)
As it was with El Elyon (God Most High) and El Roi (God Who Sees) we must start in the Old Testament where it all begins ...
OLD TESTAMENT
El Shaddai, a name known by some as Almighty God [KJV (3x)] or more commonly God Almighty [ESV (9x); KJV (12x); NASB (7x)]. And then a few translate the Hebrew as The All-Sufficient One (See Kay Arthur's coffee table book, "The Peace & Power of Knowing God's Name"; Waterbrook Press, 2002).
We literally encounter El Shaddai from cover to cover in Scripture, Genesis 17:1 to Revelation 11:17 (the latter of course in the Greek equivalent, not the Hebrew). According to Strong's we might have good cause to translate Almighty God "Almighty Might."
In Genesis 17:1-8 Abram is ninety-nine years old and Sarai is eighty-nine, both well past child-bearing; yet God clearly indicates He intends to make Abram the patriarch of a large family - "I will multiply you exceedingly."
The divine attribute of Omnipotence is seen here; God will overrule mother nature to achieve His strategic objective. Infertility is no problem for the Creator (this should have prepared the Hebrews for a God who would literally fulfill Isaiah 7:14). Consider the flood as a negative example of God Almighty.
God did not fully reveal Himself by name until after the three primary Hebrew patriarchs ...
In Genesis 28:3 Isaac called upon El Shaddai to bless his son Jacob in his quest for a wife ... including the words "fruitful and multiply" as a precursor for "a company of peoples." In Genesis 35:11 similar wording is used by El Shaddai in His blessing of Jacob and in His renaming the patriarch Israel.
Jacob, as his sons departed on their return trip to Egypt with Benjamin, asks God Almighty for mercy before "the man" (i.e., Joseph, now number two in all of Egypt).
Ezekiel 10:5 describes the sound of the Cherubim's wings as that of "the voice of El Shaddai" [cf. Psalm 29:3-9] speaking.
God as "the Almighty" appears no less than thirty-eight times in the Old Testament writings.
Clearly the picture painted by this name is one of might, but there is also a sense of foundation, establishment, and sustenance involved as well.
NEW TESTAMENT
There are two occurences of God Almighty in the newer testament; both in Revelation, and both with Old Testament imagery.
In Revelation 4:8 we have ...
How, pray tell, can man the worm, who's righteousness is like a soiled menstrual clothe [Isaiah 64:6], once offered the fellowship of El Elyon (God Most High), who is El Roi (God sees) as well, reject Him knowing there is no power on earth or under the earth or in heaven which is mightier than his God who is El Shaddai, LORD GOD ALMIGHTY?
What has he to fear? What force will shorten one moment of eternity for Him?
As it was with El Elyon (God Most High) and El Roi (God Who Sees) we must start in the Old Testament where it all begins ...
OLD TESTAMENT
El Shaddai, a name known by some as Almighty God [KJV (3x)] or more commonly God Almighty [ESV (9x); KJV (12x); NASB (7x)]. And then a few translate the Hebrew as The All-Sufficient One (See Kay Arthur's coffee table book, "The Peace & Power of Knowing God's Name"; Waterbrook Press, 2002).
We literally encounter El Shaddai from cover to cover in Scripture, Genesis 17:1 to Revelation 11:17 (the latter of course in the Greek equivalent, not the Hebrew). According to Strong's we might have good cause to translate Almighty God "Almighty Might."
In Genesis 17:1-8 Abram is ninety-nine years old and Sarai is eighty-nine, both well past child-bearing; yet God clearly indicates He intends to make Abram the patriarch of a large family - "I will multiply you exceedingly."
The divine attribute of Omnipotence is seen here; God will overrule mother nature to achieve His strategic objective. Infertility is no problem for the Creator (this should have prepared the Hebrews for a God who would literally fulfill Isaiah 7:14). Consider the flood as a negative example of God Almighty.
God did not fully reveal Himself by name until after the three primary Hebrew patriarchs ...
I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as El Shaddai, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them.The sense of the root for Shaddai is one of power or might without the edge of violence. Arthur quotes Andrew Jukes, from his work "The Names of God," suggesting the Hebrew root is Shad, meaning breast or pap [Isaiah 60:16; Lamentations 4:3]. By extension he suggests the breast illustrates a source of nourishment and strength; thus, God is the source of life's might and provision. (The fems will love that one.)Exodus 6:3, ESV
In Genesis 28:3 Isaac called upon El Shaddai to bless his son Jacob in his quest for a wife ... including the words "fruitful and multiply" as a precursor for "a company of peoples." In Genesis 35:11 similar wording is used by El Shaddai in His blessing of Jacob and in His renaming the patriarch Israel.
Jacob, as his sons departed on their return trip to Egypt with Benjamin, asks God Almighty for mercy before "the man" (i.e., Joseph, now number two in all of Egypt).
Ezekiel 10:5 describes the sound of the Cherubim's wings as that of "the voice of El Shaddai" [cf. Psalm 29:3-9] speaking.
God as "the Almighty" appears no less than thirty-eight times in the Old Testament writings.
Clearly the picture painted by this name is one of might, but there is also a sense of foundation, establishment, and sustenance involved as well.
NEW TESTAMENT
There are two occurences of God Almighty in the newer testament; both in Revelation, and both with Old Testament imagery.
In Revelation 4:8 we have ...
And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty (Kurios Theos Pantokrator), who was and is and is to come!"And in Revelation 11:16-17 we have ...
And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, "We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty (Kuios Theos Pantokrator), who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign.These two references are unique in Scripture; the only places Lord is used to enhance the name El Shaddai.
How, pray tell, can man the worm, who's righteousness is like a soiled menstrual clothe [Isaiah 64:6], once offered the fellowship of El Elyon (God Most High), who is El Roi (God sees) as well, reject Him knowing there is no power on earth or under the earth or in heaven which is mightier than his God who is El Shaddai, LORD GOD ALMIGHTY?
What has he to fear? What force will shorten one moment of eternity for Him?
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