Wednesday, February 12, 2025
Tonight’s Study – Session 4: El Shaddai – Almighty God
Introduction: The third name for God that we will look at in the Names of God series is
El Shaddai – Almighty God. At the ripe old age of ninety-nine years old, Abram had an
encounter with God. God proclaimed to Abram, “I am Almighty God.” It is from this that
the name El Shaddai derives. God calls Himself Almighty God in reference to the covenant
promise He makes with Abram to multiply his descendants by giving him an heir even in his
old age and in spite of his previous unbelief, impatience, and disobedience.
Key Scripture Passage Where El Shaddai is Found
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.
Also, I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her.”
Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!” Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.” Then He finished talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.
(Genesis 17:1-8, 15-22)
- El Shaddai points to the omnipotence of God.
- A little preview before the name El Shaddai is found in Genesis 17.
In Genesis 15, God makes a promise to Abraham to multiply his descendants though he didn’t even have one son yet.
– Genesis 15:5 – Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
Genesis 16 gives us the account of Abram and Sarai’s unbelief, impatience, and disobedience.
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. (Genesis 16:1-4)
- Abram’s need and God’s promise
– Gen. 17:1-2 – When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.”
-Notice in verse 2 of Genesis 17, God says, “And I will make My covenant….” God made the covenant and will bring it to fruition.
It was not depended upon Abram, God is the Almighty God, not Abram, not us, not anyone else!
– We trust God fully and totally for forgiveness and salvation, but then we live the Christian life as though everything depended on us. We may even piously quote the unbiblical verse, “God helps those who help themselves.”
- Practicing positive surrender
– When God revealed Himself to Abram as the Almighty God, Abram prostrated himself before the Lord in absolute surrender.
– With Abram on his face before God, God reminded him of the covenant promise He had made.
– He again underlines the truth that Abram was to be the father of a multitude of nations.
-As a sign of this covenant, God changed Abram’s name to Abraham. Name changing was symbolic of God’s omnipotent power working in an individual’s life.
– Abram meant “exalted father”; Abraham means “Father of a multitude.”
– Sarai’s name meant “to persist, exert oneself, or contend”; Sarah means “princess.”
– Abraham was staggered by the enormous promise which God had confirmed, but he surrendered himself to the will of God.
- A name fulfilled in Christ
- Jesus (and Peter) walks on the water – Matthew 14:22-33
- Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead – John 11:1-44
- Jesus is raised from the dead – John 20:1-18
– In-order to know God as El Shaddai, you must have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
- Lessons for Today
- Salvation can never come by the works of human flesh.
– There was nothing that Abraham and Sarah could do in their own strength to fulfill the promise of God in their lives, even though they tried.
– There is nothing anyone can do humanly to make themselves right with God
– Sadly, many trust in their good works, their church membership, their baptism, or their acts of kindness to make themselves right with God
- The second lesson is a warning to Christians – we can accomplish nothing for God if we think we can do it in our own strength.
– Many Christians get caught up in an “Avis” brand of Christianity. They just keep ‘trying harder’ to please God. (Avis used the slogan “We Try Harder” for a long time in their advertising campaigns).
- The third lesson we can learn from the story of Abraham is that God has abundant resources to supply all our needs.
And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
(Philippians 4:19)
– Abraham’s and Sarah’s attempts to “help” God fulfill His promise pales in significance when we see all that God wanted was to supply out of His abundance.
– Too many Christians live impoverished Christian lives even though they have unlimited resources available to accomplish God’s will.
Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. (Ephesians 1:15-21)
- We must learn to wait upon God to fulfill his promises in His own time.
But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.(Isaiah 40:31)
Conclusion:
Abraham and Sarah were so eager to see the fulfillment of God’s promise of an heir that they continually ran ahead of God with disastrous results! So often, we as Christians do the same exact thing. When we wait on God, El Shaddai, Almighty God, He is able to do all things in His time. He has the best for us!
Next Week, Session 5: Jehovah Jireh – Provider God