El Shaddai

Did you know that names are important to God? Names are important because they convey a message.
Think about your own name. Do you know its meaning? Take mine for example, Cheryll, means graceful. Although not evident now, I was a dancer for years and that requires an amount of natural gracefulness. My daughter Kristin’s name was prophetic of my salvation. Her name means Christian, follower of Christ and her middle name Renee means born again. It was for this child I started attending church again and pursuing Christ. My daughter Melanie Dawn’s name means darkness and gentleness and Dawn of course means the break of morning, the light after the darkness. We really didn’t know that when we named her. She was my melancholy sweet girl and Mel has the most gentle voice and personality you will ever meet. But she also lights the dawn when there is darkness in my life, she has the ability to bring the light and hope of tomorrow to me. My daughter Amy Nicole was named after the godly missionary, Amy Carmichael. Our prayer was that she would have the character and passion for Jesus that Amma had. Her name means beloved and victorious. I am thankful that I did not know when she was born how she would have to be victorious. Amy has had to face and conquer things that as a parent you hope and pray never come to your child. But she is victorious and passionate about Christ. Then there is Matthew. We named him that knowing full well that the name means Gift of Jehovah. Because he was just that, God’s idea, not mine. And you know how God’s ideas are higher and better than ours? Well, yeah, that’s my boy. He was the easiest going kid and still to this day is a gift to my heart straight from my Father’s heart. Then there is Crystal. We adopted Crystal when she was 12 and we were prepared for the drama that adopting an older child is suppose to come with. But really there has been very little and mostly because her personality is so sparkly bright, she is our Crystal, and in truth she is a diamond, because she has come through the fire and pressure of life that no little one should have to endure and still she shines and sparkles with sincerity of heart and clear bright joy. And then there is Timothy. One who honors God. We hope that his name carries some of who we are as well as being demonstrated in Tim’s life. What more could we ask for as parents?

I share that in hope that you will see that speaking a name carries a meaning, it has weight when we call someone “follower of Christ” or “gentle darkness and light” “beloved victory”, “gift of God”, “brilliant gem”, and “one who honors God”.

When we speak to God His name also carries weight and the impact of what we say is felt in ways we may not understand or recognize. There are well over 55 names and titles for God in the Bible. Some of them you would recognize immediately, others you may not have heard before.

For me, as a woman, the name El Shaddai has carried great comfort and promise. The name is translated God Almighty. A short study of the Hebrew words offers something much deeper than those words imply in English. Step with me into deeper water for a moment.

Our God presents himself to us as Father, a name that should speak of protection, of tender love, and of authority. Have you noticed that fathers usually do not need to shout or raise their voice very often? There is something in the authority of his voice that causes the child to listen and give heed. And so it is with our Father. He whispers to us in a still small voice and we can miss it if we do not learn to heed it. God presents himself to us in masculine terms so that we begin to understand the authority that lies behind it.

But the word shaddai in Hebrew is a feminine form and is derived from the same word as breast. It literally means to shed forth. Shed forth what? Think about the connection for a minute.

Did you know that mother’s milk is so perfectly suited to her infant’s needs that the child does not need anything else for nourishment for the first 12 months of life! It provides immunity, it feeds perfectly, it comforts. It sheds forth all that the child needs as the mother holds her baby and nurses the child. Her baby needs her. And God chose this root word to represent Himself in the name God Almighty.

When I think Almighty, I think of powerful, magnificence, complete control and authority. But God connected the name to the tender love of a young mother for her infant, the gentle flow of protection and provision that comes as a natural result of becoming a mom, because He sees us with that kind of tenderness. We are His precious little ones and He treasures us like a new mother treasures the perfection of her little one. His provision for us flows like mother’s milk in connection to our needs. Listen to the language of your Father toward you:
For he that touches you touches the apple of my eye. (Zech. 2:8)
I have carved you into the palms of my hand and your walls are continually before me. (Is. 49: 16)
Before you were born I knew you. (Ps. 139:15-16)
He keeps a record of our sorrow and our tears (ps. 56:8)
His child (1John 3:1)
A royal priesthood, a holy nation (1 Peter 2:9)
Loved (John 3:16)
The Bible says he rejoices over his people.
He Inhabits the praise of his people.
He delights in his people.
Over and over we are shown that he loves us and in the passage in Isaiah quoted above, he says even if a mother forgets her suckling child, he will not forget us. We are his, created by his hand, and bought with the blood of The Son.

And in the gentle language of scripture for those who will look, he has given us a name that indicates that while we relate to Him as our Father, he has the tenderness of a mother also and understands women, for in the spirit there is neither male nor female (Gal. 3:28; Matt. 22:30).