Out of Zion

Susan Michael: Who is God and what is He like? As we shared last week, in ancient times, a person's name was usually a prophetic declaration of their character or destiny. God identified Himself to Abraham as El Shaddai. I wonder why.

Welcome to this week's Shabbat Shalom devotional, when I seek to share just a little inspiration and bring a little peace to the close of your very busy week. The most common word referring to God in the Bible is the word "El," but that was not His name. El was the Semitic word for "God."

Just like today, the word "God" can mean the God of the Bible, or it can mean a pagan god, or any kind of god. Same with the word "El"; it was just any kind of god, and it means "the strong one." In the Old Testament, when referring to the God of the Israelites, a curious plural form of "El" was used: Elohim.

It occurs over 2,000 times in the Bible, but it's almost always paired with a singular verb. What that means is it doesn't mean a plurality of gods; it means one God, but there is some curious hint here to some plurality within God. Christians see in this plural form a hint of the Trinity nature of God.

The Jewish people see it a little bit differently and they instead understand it as an abstract sense about the plurality of majesty and honor and the fullness of God—that He is God of gods. He is just the most supreme God. While His premiere name that we talked about last week was revealed to Moses, the first human being that God introduced Himself to was Abraham.

When He did, He referred to Himself with a descriptive name of His character. Let’s read it in Genesis 17, verses one through two: "When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, 'I am El Shaddai'—translated here 'Almighty God'—'walk before me and be blameless, and I will make my covenant between me and you and will multiply you exceedingly.'"

Here God says, "I am El Shaddai, I am the Almighty God." This is the name that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob used when speaking to their sons about this God that they were following. He was El Shaddai. It is very interesting to note that later on in Exodus, when God reveals His formal name to Moses, He alludes to El Shaddai.

This is what He says in Exodus 6, verses two and three: "And God spoke to Moses and said to him, 'I am the Lord'—here, this is His name, 'I am that I am' name—'I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as El Shaddai, but by my name, I am that I am, I was not known to them.'"

God did not reveal His true name until Moses, but He revealed a glimpse of His character in the name El Shaddai. Wow. Through the Bible, we are privileged to learn from all of these revelations of God through His name and through these descriptive names. He is El Shaddai, God Almighty, whose name is the one who was, who is, and is to come.

As you take a little break this weekend, worship Him, the Almighty God, El Shaddai. With that, I wish you Shabbat Shalom.

Guest (Male): We hope you have enjoyed this episode of Out of Zion with Susan Michael. Be sure to subscribe to Out of Zion now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Pray.com, Salem 1 Place, Salem Life Audio. Out of Zion with Susan Michael is a production of ICEJ USA. All rights reserved.