What’s In A Name?, Pt. 5: El-Shaddai

Genesis 17:1-2                       1 When Avram was 99 years old ADONAI appeared to Avram and said to him, “I am El Shaddai [God Almighty]. Walk in my presence and be pure-hearted. 2 I will make my covenant between me and you, and I will increase your numbers greatly.” (CJB)

Genesis 17:1-2                       1When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. 2Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.” (NIV)

The traditional translation of El-Shaddai is God Almighty as seen in the Complete Jewish Bible translation of Genesis 17:1.  When translators are attempting to render ancient Eastern-concrete thinking Hebrew understandable to modern Western-abstract thinking English minds, they occasionally have to ‘soften’ the translation to make it more palatable in English.  Shaddai is a case in point.  The translation ‘almighty’ is true but incomplete.

In the Jewish Passover liturgy called the Passover Haggadah, there is a section called the Dayeinu which is a call-and-response song about the miracles God performed in rescuing his people from Egyptian servitude.  A reader would sing about a miracle and the people respond “Dayeinu” which means ‘it would have been enough for us’.  Shaddai and Dayeinu come from the same Hebrew root word dai which means enough or sufficient.  So in context we see that the dai part of Shaddai means “the sufficient one” or ‘the complete one’.

The other root of Shaddai is the Hebrew root word shad which means ‘the two danglers’ and refers to the method by which a kid will gain nourishment from his mother goat.  In context the image is that God provides all the nourishment necessary to sustain his children and provides all the necessities of life.  So in combination we see almighty is correct but doesn’t provide the deeper meaning in the Hebrew.  El Shaddai is more than just powerful; he is caring, nourishing, and sufficient to provide all that we need.

 By calling himself El Shaddai to Abram, Adonai was saying that he is the Almighty One, the sufficient One, the God of More Than Enough.  How do we respond to this?  James 4:8 says, “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.”  The presence of this verse in James’ letter indicates his readers weren’t drawing near to God.  Most of us in the West aren’t either.  As I am writing this the Jewish ecclesiastical calendar indicates Yom Kippur is approaching.  Yom Kippur is the holiest day in the Jewish year; a day which reminds us believers in Christ of his greatest and final act of cleansing at his 2nd Coming when he will cleanse his people of their sins and lay all responsibility for those sins upon Satan.

How can we not want to draw near to God when we consider the gift given to us by his Son?  Drawing near to God refers to living in a way that pleases Him.  If we follow a God Of More Than Enough why do we take him for granted?  If El-Shaddai is our God Of More Than Enough does knowing that change the way that we live? 

I recently facilitated a small group meeting where we discussed and thought through this very question. The consensus was that a person should regularly spend alone time with God, free from external distraction, in which he had conversations with God (prayer) and waited to hear what God had to say to him.  One person opined that one ought to be praying for other people more often and help them through their struggles.  Another thought that if one was about to meet with God in some manner, one ought to properly prepare for that encounter through personal reflection.  These are all good things, but one has to wonder just how often one goes into his prayer closet to be with God.  But one woman seemed to get it.  She thought drawing near to God was more practical in real-time.  She considered every day what she should wear.  Did her clothes properly reflect God, or did they draw another’s eyes to inappropriate places?  She thought that drawing near to God meant that when in conversation with a crabby person, one should not respond with the same crabbiness but that a “soft answer turns away wrath” (Proverbs 15:1).  She even went so far as to admit she had had a profound encounter with God when she realized she had been putting others before Him.

If our God is the God Of More Than Enough then we ought to let him guide us in our life journey.  1Corinthians (1:25-29, 2:1-5) talks about this:

25For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. 26Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him….1And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

The God Of More Than Enough is capable of caring for us if we let him.  ‘Let him’ means living our lives according to his standards, not ours.  Whatever our position in life, whether exalted or humble, we everyday have opportunities to choose God over man.  Will we go out drinking and fooling around to assuage our hurt or will we seek his healing and blessing through Godly counsel and prayer.  Will we act in Godly ways in our financial activities?  Will we work through the hard times with our spouse or will we take the easy way out to avoid dealing with our own contributing issues?  There will always be those willing to steer us toward Satan’s ways.  Don’t be one who follows his ways.  Draw near to God and let him help you through your hard times.

Owens, G. (2018).  Let God Be Your El-Shaddai.  In The Sampson Independent.  Retrieved from https://www.clintonnc.com/uncategorized/26916/Let God be your El Shaddai | Sampson Independent (clintonnc.com)