El Shaddai, El Shaddai
El-Elyon na Adonia
Age to age You’re still the same
By the power of the name
El Shaddai, El Shaddai
Erkamka na adonai
We will praise and lift You high
El Shaddai
Most of us will recognize these lines from the widely popular song by Amy Grant, fittingly titled “El Shaddai” off of her 1982 Age to Age album. Yes, it’s been 40 years, yet the song is still well-known. El Shaddai means God Almighty. The next Hebrew line—El-Elyon na Adonia—means “God in the highest, Oh, Lord.” The final Hebrew phrase— Erkamka na adonai —means “We will love You, Oh, Lord.” Here’s a link to a video of the song: We will be looking at El Shaddai and Shaddai alone in the rest of this post.
Now, I knew this name would not have been used as often in the Bible as Yahweh, God’s personal name. Yahweh was mentioned over 6,800 times (see our post YHWH: The Name) in the OT. Nor did I expect it to be used over 700 times, like Adonai (See our post Adonai: When You Can’t Say the Name). Yet, I was expecting that El Shaddai—this famous name celebrated in song—would have been used well into the triple digits. But no, the name Shaddai is only used 48 times. The Greek word for Almighty, παντοκράτωρ (pantokrátōr), is used 10 times in the NT. What really shocked me is the combined name for God—El Shaddai—is used only seven times: Gen 17:1; 28:3; 35:11; 43:14; 48:3; Ex 6:3; and Eze 10:5. That is only twice outside of Genesis!
While limited in use, it is still an important name for God. Every use of Almighty (Shaddai and pantokrátōr) is always a reference to the One True God. No other person or god is referred to as the Almighty. It is incredibly noteworthy that of the 48 uses of Shaddai, 31 of them are in Job. Think of that. An account of a man who lost everything: his reputation, his health, his wealth, his possessions, and worst of all his children, uses Almighty to refer to his God. That is faith in the face of unbelievable and unbearable trials!
El Shaddai is one of many compound names for God. The first part—EL—we have already looked at in our post “GOD.” El is a generic word for God. It is mostly used for the One True God but is also used for false gods and even powerful people. In combination with Shaddai, it is always a reference to the God of the Bible. Even when not directly combined with Shaddai but used in the same context with it, El always points to our God.
More than just a reference to God, El also carries its own sense of power and strength. When we look at the many verses where El is used, it is very often connected to God’s power. Now tied to Shaddai, we have an even greater emphasis on the might and power of our God. He is not just powerful, but ALMIGHTY!
There is some debate as to the root meaning of Shaddai. All agree that the main meaning is power and strength. There is a minority of scholars who see the root meaning coming from a word for breast, signifying Shaddai is powerful enough to nourish us and to meet our needs. Even if breast is not a correct root meaning, when God’s power is understood to be in perfect harmony with His love, mercy, and grace, we still have an all-powerful God capable and willing to meet our needs. Especially our need for salvation. The Father sending His Son to die for our sins, and the Holy Spirit applying His work to our lives to give us eternal life. Now that’s an Almighty God!
El Shaddai is first used in Gen 17:1. At 99 years old, Abram was still without the promised heir. In his human efforts, he fathered Ishmael through his wife’s servant, Hagar. Yahweh now comes to Abram: “1When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” (Gen 17:1-2, emphasis added). How fitting that God would reveal Himself as God Almighty to Abram, who had left his home at the age of seventy-five, traveling to a strange land God had promised to him along with the promise to make him the father of a great nation. Yet Abram was still without a child from his 89-year-old wife, Sarai.
In this account in Genesis 17, God makes a covenant with Abram. El Shaddai will be their God, and Abram will be the father of a multitude of nations. Then God changes Abram’s name from Abram (exalted father) to Abraham (father of a multitude). At this time, God also changes Sarai’s name to Sarah. Both names come from the same root meaning “princess.”
God again promised Abraham many descendants. The term “father” means more than just the one-generation parent of a child, but one who is the ancestor of many generations. It is in this context God establishes the sign for the covenant He is making with Abraham’s family: the circumcision of every male eight days old. Circumcision was not created at this point; other groups had practiced circumcision, but it was given unique importance as a sign of Abraham and his offspring’s covenantal relationship with the Almighty.
There is one other reference we need to look at. In Exodus 6:3, God tells Moses, “I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them.” El Shaddai was God’s favored way to show Himself to the patriarchs. As a small group of sojourners in a strange land, powerless and alone, He was showing Himself to be Almighty. They needed to know this. However, during the Exodus, He reveals Himself as Yahweh, the One Who Is. Be careful not to misunderstand this verse to mean the patriarchs did not know the name, Yahweh. They did know the Name and used it, but the full meaning and significance of the Name had not been revealed to them yet. Even later, Shaddai was used by many others throughout the OT, such as Jacob, Job, Balaam, Naomi, Ezekiel, and Joel.
The bottom line to take from this is the significance of a name for God is not just a matter of how often it is used. We should see the significance in its meaning and its use. We see in El Shaddai a reference to the power and might of God when His people needed a powerful God. We need to realize that we also have this powerful God! God loves us, and we, like Abraham, are in a covenantal relationship with God through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son. We are His people, and He is our God Almighty!
Until the next time we see you here at CultivatingFaith.org, God Bless! #CultivatingFaithOrg