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.…

Although the name El Roi is only used once in the Bible, He’s always the God Who Sees me, isn’t He? In the cool of the evening, the man and his wife heard Yahweh Elohim walking around in the garden. So they hid from Yahweh Elohim among the trees in the garden. Genesis 3:8, Names of God Translation Let’s think about this. God knew they’d eaten from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He knew where they were hiding. They knew He knew. And yet they hid. Why? Fear and shame. I get it. Take a look at the picture above. I think I must have seen this or…

The second name in our study is El Roi. We go from Elohim with more than 2,000 mentions in the Bible to El Roi with only one. It occurs when The Lord appears to Hagar in the desert when she’s fleeing from Sarah. Hagar named Yahweh, who had been speaking to her, “You Are ElRoi.” She said, “This is the place where I watched the one who watches over me.”   Genesis 16:13, Names of God Translation The angel of the Lord found Hagar in the wilderness. This “angel of the Lord” is generally accepted as a theophany or Christophany, a visible manifestation of the Father or the preincarnate Christ. So to say…

All human creativity originates with  our Creator God, Elohim. Our creativity, even our ability to appreciate creation, comes from God. Seventeenth century astronomer Johannes Kepler wrote,  “I was merely thinking God’s thoughts after him.” Does Kepler sound proud? As if he was claiming equality with God? Not at all! He continues, “Since we astronomers are priests of the highest God in regard to the book of nature, it benefits us to be thoughtful, not of the glory of our minds, but rather, above all else, of the glory of God.” He acknowledged both divine creativity and divine lovingkindness in Elohim’s desire that we delight in His creation. We can only…

The first name God gives Himself can be found in Genesis 1:1 In beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the earth Elohim appears more than 2,000 times in the Bible, more than 30 times in the first chapter of Genesis alone. Elohim is the Creator, and He deemed creation very good. He delighted in His creation. He delights in us. From the very first verse, we see that Elohim created time, “in beginning;” space, “the heavens;” and matter, “the earth.” There was no “before” before the beginning. That’s when time started. There was no space, no place to put anything, before the beginning. And there was no matter, nothing, literally no thing…