El Shadday - God Almighty | Carolyn E. Jacobs

If you listened to Christian music in the ’80s, the name El Shadday probably brings to mind fond memories of the Amy Grant song.

El shaddai, el shaddaiEl-elyon na adonaiAge to age You’re still the same By the power of the name

You sang it in your head, didn’t you? It’s a great song.

El Shadday translates to God Almighty or God Most Powerful. If you were raised in church, that seems like a big no-brainer. He’s the most powerful because He’s the only God.

But what did the name mean to Abram? God first refers to Himself as El Shadday, אֵל שַׁדַּי, in Genesis 17. Abram is ninety-nine years old. God promised him an heir, but he still doesn’t have one. He took matters into his own hands with Hagar, and God said, “Not so fast.” He’d been promised a great reward – an abundance of descendants like the stars in the sky.

Yet Sarai’s arms are still empty.

So now God shows up and tells Abram His name is God Almighty. He tells Abram to walk before Him with integrity, and He’ll multiply Abram exceedingly. It’s a familiar story. We’re all Monday morning quarterbacks. God kept His promise.

A little background.

Terah, Abraham’s father, was born only 220 years after the flood. Shem, one of Noah’s sons, outlived him. The Bereshit Rabbah describes a startling story involving Nimrod, Terah, Abraham, and Haran. Spoiler alert – it involves a fiery furnace.

Surely Terah was witness to the building of the Tower of Babel. He must have seen God thwart Nimrod. and yet he chose to worship idols.

From Shem to Nimrod, that covers the spectrum of faithfulness to God, doesn’t it?

Joshua tells us Terah worshipped other gods.

Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: From ancient times your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates River, namely, Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods. – Joshua 24:2

The Midrash tells us Terah was a seller of idols. Some accounts say he was a priest at the ziggurat in Ur. In Mesopotamia at that time, there were as many as 3,000 gods.

But Abram put no faith in them. Abram served Elohim and came to know Him as El Shadday.

But if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served, which were beyond the Euphrates River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. – Joshua 24:15

The framework for this study comes from Ann Spangler’s Praying the Names of God for 52 Weeks. (But the rabbit trails are all mine! I don’t want to put words in her mouth.)