Gen. 28:1-4, 10-21; 35:11, El Shaddai

When you read of Almighty God (Gen. 17:1) or God Almighty (Gen. 28:3) you are reading God’s name, El Shaddai.  When you read of the Almighty you are reading His title, Shaddai.  This is the name by which God was revealed to the Fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Ex. 6:3).  The first use of this name is in Gen. 17:1: 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.

Shaddai is used thirty-one times in Job by all of the speakers.  Shaddai is used with El seven times: Gen. 17:1; 28:3; 35:11; 43:14; 48:3; Ex. 6:3; and Ezek. 10:5. Strong defines Shaddai as “burly, powerful, impregnable.”  The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the OT, translated Shaddai with the Greek term Pantokrator meaning all-powerful.  That is the strongest argument in favor of the definition and translation “Almighty” that is common in English translations.

This name is special for believers.  He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty (Ps. 91:1).  Believers have a nearness to the Almighty.  Yet, Elihu, one of Job’s “friends”, spoke of God as distant from us: As for the Almighty, we cannot find Him (Job 37:23).  God Himself asked Job, shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him (Job 40:2). 

In his declarations to the Moabite king, the shameful prophet Balaam twice used the name Shaddai, describing himself as seeing the vision of the Almighty (Num. 24:4,16).  Naomi also uses the name twice in a similar use: the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me, and the Almighty has afflicted me (Ruth 1:20-21).  What we see is that people often feel distant from El Shaddai since He is all-powerful.

There is a man who grew closer to God Almighty.  That man was Jacob.  Because his brother Esau was out to kill him, Jacob was sent to Padan Aram.  Before he left, his father Isaac blessed him, using the name El Shaddai (Gen. 28:3).  Isaac knew El Shaddai; but did Jacob?

  On the first night of his journey he stayed at Bethel.  He had a dream in which God spoke to him as the God of your fathers (28:13).  God promised to Jacob what He had promised to Abraham and Isaac: many descendants and a land.  But God did not reveal Himself to Jacob as El Shaddai until over twenty years later, when Jacob returned to Bethel to worship.  God again promised Jacob many descendants and a land that would be his.  But God did it as El Shaddai (35:11).

What was the difference?  Jacob now knew God’s greatness personally.  God had sustained him, blessed him, and protected him from Esau.  El Shaddai was, indeed, the God known by Abraham and Isaac.  But now Jacob knew El Shaddai.  Is El Shaddai your God?  Or is He only the God of your ancestors?