El Shaddai

 

Dan Steinfield

President

 

Christmas is a time full of names!  If your house is anything like my house, by now you are inundated with names!  My house, as of Sunday, will be filled with grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins.  Each with a name bearing great significance; the name holds certain sentimental value to us.  This week, we will gather with many family and friends to celebrate the Christmas season together and to remember and honor those loved ones who aren't here but in Christ we will one day see again. 

 

At Christmas we are also surrounded by several names of God … Jesus, Immanuel, Messiah.  Bible Department Head Jeremy Eagan, in our first Advent Devotional December 3, reminded us these names are symbolic names; the prophet Isaiah had also foretold that the Savior would be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).  To the Hebrews a name was not a label, or a tool to distinguish one person from another; a person's name was viewed as equivalent to the person himself. A person's name signified their person, worth, character, reputation, authority, will, and ownership.  And so it is with the names of God, particularly at Christmas where these names tell the Christmas story itself:  God taking the very form of man, bearing the weight of sin on his shoulders, dying and rising again to life that we can have life through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ.

 

In this final day before Christmas, may we reflect one more name, El Shaddai. Almighty.  The all sufficient one.  Pourer forth of blessing (Genesis 49:24-25).The name "Shaddai", by itself, occurs 41 times in the Old Testament and is translated "Almighty." Interestingly, Shaddai appears 29 times in the book of Job alone – the classic story of trusting in God's faithfulness despite the trials of human suffering.  Psalm 71:20, "You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.  You will increase my greatness and comfort me again."

 

"El" refers to Yahweh, the One who mightily nourishes, satisfies, protects, and supplies His people. El Shaddai is our All-Sufficient Sustainer. It is God as "El" who helps, and it is God as "Shaddai" who abundantly blesses with all manner of blessings.

 

Nathan Stone (Names of God) writes,  "The idea of One who is all-powerful and all-mighty is implied . . . for only an all-powerful One could be all-sufficient and all-bountiful. He is almighty because He is able to carry out His purposes and plans to their fullest and most glorious and triumphant completion. . . . So He is able to save to the uttermost.  And He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think."

 

This Christmas, may El Shaddai be all sufficient for you.  This year each of us has experienced the joy of blessing and the pain of trial and loss.  Christmas reminds us God has come; Jesus is here to be our all sufficient one and give us full life.  In our own insufficiency we experience the all sufficient El Shaddai.  I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of Egypt.  Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. (Psalm 81:10).

 

Merry Christmas,

Dan Steinfield

President

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