Sunday, September 23, 2007

Names of God - Part II, El Shaddai

The first name I want to talk about is one that was made familiar by Amy Grant. El Shaddai. This name means “God Almighty” or “God All Sufficient”. It’s found 48 times in the Old Testament. It is first found in Genesis 17:1.

“When Abraham was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”

That verse fills my heart! The Lord appeared to Abraham and said. “I am the God who is sufficient for every need.” I am the Lord Almighty. I am El Shaddai. That’s what He was saying to Abraham.

We see the name again in the story of Ruth and Naomi. In Ruth 1:20, Naomi says, “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.”

When Naomi couldn’t understand why her life had been destroyed by the loss of her husband and her sons, she also couldn’t understand why the God who was to be all-sufficient would allow that to happen.

Now, this passage is also interesting in that it tells us something about her as well. The name “Naomi” means “pleasant”. The name “Mara” means “bitter”. Because of her anger at God, who was supposed to be her sufficiency, she went from being a pleasant woman to being a very bitter woman and she wasn’t afraid to say it out loud.

Anger at God causes many of us to become bitter. And we stop seeing His active role in our lives. The story of Naomi and Ruth doesn’t end with her being angry and bitter. She is restored in a way that only God can make happen.

We know the story of Ruth, she meets Boaz and marries him, yet keeps her former mother-in-law, Naomi with her. I want to read to you from the end of this book.

“So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. And the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. The women said to Naomi, ‘Praise to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a kinsman redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.’

Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him. The women living there said, ‘Naomi has a son.’ And the named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.”

If you read Jesus’ lineage in both Matthew and Luke, you will discover that Obed’s name is there. Not only was Naomi’s bitterness redeemed as she held her daughter-in-law’s son, but for generations after that, her family was royalty.

God will redeem our bitterness and He is all-sufficient for us … if we just allow Him in to do that in our lives.

The last time we see this name used in scripture is in Revelation 16:7. “And I heard the altar respond, ‘Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments.’”.

God Almighty. God All Sufficient. El Shaddai.

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