El Shaddai

So thankful for another Sunday morning where we were able to come together and worship the Holy Name Of God. A warm welcome to all the guests who are here with us. We’re so grateful you are here. We pray for God’s blessings upon your life as you worship the Lord with us this morning. We have been going through this series on the names of God, and the last couple of weeks, we have talked about the fact that our God is Elohim, the Creator, the one who sustains everything by the power of His word. Last week, we talked about the fact that He is our Adonai, the one who is the Lord of Life, the one we should surrender our life to, and He has absolutely complete lordship over our lives, and He is the only rightful one that we should subject ourselves to, denying ourselves and following after Him. This morning, let’s turn our Bibles to the Book of Genesis 17:1-2

Genesis 17:1-2: “When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘I am God Almighty [El Shaddai]; walk before me and be blameless. I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.'”

What we are focusing on this morning is this name of God that does not appear much in the scriptures, El Shaddai. In fact, in the entire Bible, you only find it seven times. You find it in the Book of Genesis and then again in the Book of Ezekiel. El Shaddai may be a name that was made famous by the song El Shaddai written in the ’90s. We all used to sing it for PYCD competitions, and I remember that every person that used to compete used to sing El Shaddai, seemingly not knowing what it really meant.

So, what does El Shaddai mean? In fact, there’s a lot of debate out there as to what this word means. Here’s what I can tell you: we all know what “El” means, talking about God who is Almighty. Some say that the word El Shaddai means an Almighty God who is more than enough. The next and probable rightful way of looking at this word is this: it is that Almighty God who is faithful like a mountain by His strength but yet still has the heart of a mother.

Now, why would have these two different explanations for this, and I think this beautifully captures the meaning of the word El Shaddai. See, the word “Shaddai” that is used in Hebrew has two meanings to it. One has the meaning of a mountain, if you can picture a mountain, and that shows stability, strength, that’s what our God is. But it also has another very intimate meaning to it, the meaning of the breast or the breast of a woman, that is literally what it means. But He’s talking about the intimate way in which God relates to His people. So if I could summarize both of these meanings together, this is what you come up with: Almighty God with a mountain-like strength and the heart of a mother.

And I can tell you this morning, when you put those two things together, the fact that your God is strong as a mountain yet He has the heart of a mother, we can say with confidence this morning, my God is more than enough to meet every need of my life because combining that with the almighty strength of God is the tender heart of a mother. And I am here to tell you, my God is able to meet all of your needs; He is more than enough for your life, and that’s the El Shaddai that we worship and focus on this morning as you go to the Book of Genesis, we see the various ways in which God would use this word when He spoke to His people.

In Genesis 28:3, we read the words of Isaac speaking to his son Jacob as he’s about to leave on that journey to his uncle’s place and this is what Isaac says to him, “May El Shaddai bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples.”

In Genesis 17, the passage that we read, the Bible says to us that Abram was 99 years old when El Shaddai appeared to him and says, “You walk before me blameless and faithful. Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m not only going to give you one child, I’m going to make you a multitude of nations. I’m going to increase your numbers.” And that promise came to him. How is it possible for God to make such a promise to a man who was 99 years old and a woman, his wife, who was 89 years old? Here’s the reason why: He is El Shaddai. He can do whatever he says he can do. He is more than enough to meet every need, even when it seems impossible to you. Your God is more than enough, and we have to believe that this morning. That’s why God says, “I am El Shaddai.”

Here’s a man who’s running away from home. He has absolutely no idea what is going to happen to his life. He’s going to a land he has never been to before, to meet an uncle he has never met before. If you have uncles you’ve never met before, you have no idea what kind of uncle it’s going to be. He could be really nice or it could be really mean. It could be a really pleasant stay. As we could see, this uncle was nice and cunning and cheating all at the same time. But here is the promise of God: “I will increase your numbers until you become a community of people because I am El Shaddai, a God who is more than enough.” This stayed in the mind of Jacob, I’m sure, as he went through so many years of laboring, trying to get the woman that he really wanted. He probably remembered, “My God, it was your promise that you’re El Shaddai. Why am I just laboring away in slavery in the hands of this uncle?”

Then you come to Genesis 35:11, and he’s on the way back. He has left his uncle’s house and he’s coming back, and he’s about to meet Esau. And then he says, and God says to him again, “I am El Shaddai. Be fruitful and increase in number.” I want you to pay attention to the word that is being repeated in every single one of these verses. When God spoke to Abraham, he said the same thing: increase in numbers. When Isaac spoke to Jacob, he said to him, “I’m El Shaddai. Increase in number. You will increase the number.” Here again, what is God doing? He is re-emphasizing and reinforcing the promise that he’s making from generation to generation. God is repeating the same thing again, reminding them, he is more than enough for Abraham, he is more than enough for Isaac, he is more than enough for Jacob, he is more than enough for your appachen, he is more than enough for your daddy, he is more than enough for you in your life. God is the faithful God through all generations. We read that this morning, didn’t we? From Psalm 33:11, “God is faithful through all generations, more than enough for every generation.” And here, God says to him, “A nation and a community of nations will come out of you, and you will become a multitude of nations.”

And God continues, and he goes through the troubles that he goes through with the children. And we all know what he does. When you come to Genesis 43:14, Jacob is a very troubled man in his mind. Joseph is dead, Benjamin is now being held captive by an unknown king, although in Egypt, he has no idea it is Joseph he is talking about. But he comes to Genesis 43:14. It’s a word that he uses as he sends the rest of the brothers off to get Benjamin back. He says, “And may El Shaddai grant you mercy before the man so that he will let your other brother and Benjamin come back with you.” See, by this time, all this talk of a multitude of nations coming out and everything is very distant from the mind of Jacob. The only thing he is immediately concerned about is that Joseph is gone, let not Benjamin also not be lost right before I die, and he is pleading with God and he’s saying to them, “But let El Shaddai come with you so that you will be able to bring back my son and the other one who is held captive by him, come back with you.” And that’s exactly what God did.

But he continues. When you come to the Book of Genesis 48:3-4, here is Jacob saying his goodbye to Joseph, and the final words of Jacob to Joseph. And he says to him, “God Almighty, El Shaddai,” he says, “appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and there he blessed and said to me, ‘I am going to make you fruitful and increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.'” Again, he is emphasizing to Joseph the fact that El Shaddai has promised and El Shaddai has brought him thus far. But he’s also minding Joseph one more thing. God not only promised to increase our numbers. Egypt is not our final home. God has given us the land back there. That is supposed to be our eternal destiny because that is what El Shaddai has promised. All throughout the Book of Genesis, we see time and time again in the life of Abraham, in the life of Isaac, in the life of Jacob, in Jacob’s word to Joseph, God reiterating over and over again that he is a God who is more than enough.

When you come to Exodus 1:6-7, we see the fulfillment of the promises of God. Every time God said El Shaddai, “I will increase your number,” look at what Exodus 1:6-7 says about what God did. And by the word of God reads like this, “Now Joseph and all of his brothers and all that generation died.” Remember, the only constant in this world is God. If the coming of the Lord tarries, I will die, you will die, every single person sitting here won’t be here 100 years from now, unless you live to be the oldest person in the world. And so, because our children aren’t here, so Joseph and all of his brothers and all that generation died. But El Shaddai has not forgotten his promise to his people. See, God’s promise to us, God’s words to us, is not limited to one generation or the other. Even long after man’s time on Earth has gone, a God who is eternal does not forget his promises. He continues to fulfill it, even long after it is gone. That is why your faithfulness today will pay dividends on the face of the Earth even long after you are gone from the face of the Earth. As I often tell you, what is the greatest legacy you can leave behind as you leave this earth? It is a blessing to the next generation. It is a blessing to the generation after that. As you walk blamelessly before him, as you walk in faithfulness towards him, you will receive promises from God. You may not see it with your own eyes, but generations coming on will see the goodness of God in the land of the living. Because, as my God is not a forgetful God, my God remembers his promises, my God does everything perfectly. And generations may come and go, my God will always make sure that his word that he promised has come to pass.

I love this verse. Joseph is gone, Jacob is gone, all the brothers are gone. God doesn’t think, “I made promises to them, they are gone, they are not here to ask me, how come you haven’t fulfilled a promise yet? I don’t really need to do it because there’s nobody really to hold me accountable.” That’s how we might think. But no, God doesn’t think like that. Look what God does. The Israelites were exceedingly fruitful. Remember, that was the word that God repeated over and over again in Genesis, “You will increase and be fruitful.” And here Moses writes and says, “They became exceedingly fruitful. They multiplied greatly.” Remember God’s promise, “You will multiply greatly.” Not only that, “They increased in numbers.” Remember, that’s what God said, “You will increase in number.” And then God says, “They became so numerous that the land was filled with them.” Wow! Oh, this morning, can you believe that if God has promised something, he will bring it to fruition because he keeps his promises?

What are some of the things that we can learn from this El Shaddai? First thing is this, El Shaddai, the God that we worship, is the ultimate Overcomer for whom nothing is impossible. I told you, the word El Shaddai means mountain. There’s another awesome meaning to that, that he overcomes things. He is the Overcomer, and there is nothing that is impossible for him because there is no limit to his power. I told you, other than the Book of Genesis, there’s only one reference to El Shaddai in the Bible, that is in the Book of Ezekiel 10:5. There, the prophet of God is seeing the vision of God, and he says this, “The sound of the wings of the cherubim could be heard as far away as the outer core,” describing what he’s seeing in the heavenly vision. And then he compares that to something else, he says, “It is like the voice of El Shaddai when he speaks.” Wow! Who can describe the power of almighty God? He says, “It is like the voice of El Shaddai when he speaks.” His voice is so powerful. Because everything that he says, he means something by it. He doesn’t speak in a void, nor does he speak meaninglessly. Everything that he says has a purpose behind it, and he makes sure that everything that he says, he brings to the past. So in spite of any troubles that we face in our life, we remain confident as long as this El Shaddai is with you.

Look at what the Apostle Paul says to us in 2 Corinthians 4:7 -8. He is describing the struggle of a Christian living on the face of the Earth. He says this, “We have this treasure in jars of clay.” That’s what we are, jars of clay. Every single one of us are jars of clay. But God has poured out this treasure into our lives, his Holy Spirit into our lives, just to show that his all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. See, why did God give us this power in the jars of clay? The jars of clay cannot do anything on its own, you know why? Because it can easily crumble and be destroyed. But inside the jars of clay is an all-surpassing power that is able to accomplish things by the jars of clay that no one can imagine. So in the jars of clay is doing something, don’t praise the jars of clay. Praise the power that is inside the jars of clay. The jars of clay cannot do anything. Pastor Sanil did not buy you a church. The Lord Almighty, El Shaddai, who is more than enough, is the one that we are, we have this church to call our own. It is not the work of any man, nor man should be praised beyond what they should be recognized. It is God and God alone that you always get the glory because I am a jar of clay, you are a jar of clay. We have this all-surpassing power that is from God, that is in us, so that man should recognize this is not the work of bad, but it’s the work of God. When God does things, he leaves no doubt as to who is at work. You know why? There should not be any doubt in your mind as to who was behind it. My God does not do anything halfway. My God does not do anything in a half-casted way. My God does things in such a way that there will be no doubt in your mind that he is the El Shaddai who was more than enough to meet your every need.

When God heals you, you will know that God heals you. God doesn’t just heal you a little bit and say, a little bit of the tumor is gone. When God heals you and no standing will be able to find anything of the cancer left because God had done it. Even after chemo and radiation, you can find traces of cancer inside the body of a person if you look closely enough. When my God heals, there is no trace left. You know why? My El Shaddai needs to get all the glory at all times because he is a mountain of strength and an almighty God.

Then the Apostle Paul says, “We are hard-pressed on every side.” And if you think all of our troubles and problems are over, no, it’s not. We’re living in a world. We are going to be hard-pressed on every side. But something is different about us. Even though we are jars of clay, we are not crushed. Because there is a power in us of the El Shaddai that upholds him by the power of His might. He continues, and he says, “We are perplexed because we are human beings, but we don’t despair because it’s with us. We are persecuted. Yes, we are beaten, thrown into jail. Look at all the things that Apostle Paul went through. But he says, even when I’m thrown into the jail, I am not worried because I am not abandoned in the midst of the jail, oh, because my El Shaddai is with me. I am with you always till the end of the age.” His promise, he has said it, and he will not go back on it. Continuing on, he says, “I am not struck down, but I am not destroyed.” This is the testimony of our life, isn’t it? This is the testimony of our church, isn’t it? Hard-pressed on every side, perplexed, but not destroyed, struck down, not destroyed. Why? Because God is a faithful God who overcomes everything, and nothing is impossible to him.

Secondly, he’s not only our overcomer, as I’ve told you before, he is the promise keeper who is more than enough to meet our every need. He is the promise keeper who is more than enough to meet our every need. He does it. The way that people keep promises is sometimes so funny. The story is told of a man who, all his life, every time he got paid, took twenty dollars out of his paycheck and put it under his mattress. Then he got sick and it was about to die. As he was dying, he said to his wife, “I want you to promise one thing.” “Promise what?” she asked. “I want you to promise that when I’m dead, you will take my money from under the mattress and put it in my casket, so that I can take it all with me.” He died, and the wife kept her promise. Do you want to know how she kept her promise? She went in and got all that money the day he died, and went to the bank, and deposited it, and wrote out a check in his name and put it in his casket. The promise, he got the money. See, this is the way sometimes the world keeps his promise. Did I keep the promise? Yes, but did you do exactly what you said? No, you did not.

My God is a promise-keeping God. He does not change his mind, he does not change his word. The Bible tells us all the time, “Your God is not a man that he should lie. My God is not like the son of man that he should change his mind. Does he not make a promise not keep it? Absolutely no. If he makes a promise, he will keep it.” And he is a wonderful God who is able to do that.

Remember what I said at the beginning. El Shaddai is the almighty God, strong as a mountain, but with the heart of a mother as well. The Bible tells us about that, isn’t it? I have so many verses I could repeat this morning about the tender, caring, loving nature of God, but Isaiah 49:15 comes to my mind so beautifully. It is this, “Can a mother forget her nursing child?” I want you to think about that question this morning. Can a mother forget her nursing child? That child is completely dependent upon that mother. Everything that a child needs for survival comes from the body of that mother. If that mother were to forget that child, that child would not survive. And the question is asked of God, “Can a mother forget her nursing child?” And then God asks us, “Can she feel no love for the child she has born?” If that is imaginable for you, then God goes further. “But even if that were possible, I would not forget you. Even if that were possible, I would not forget you.” Mothers can make all the difference, can they not?

It is said that Thomas Edison, you know, the famous inventor, when he was a young kid, his teacher sent him home with a note that said, “Your child is dumb, we cannot do anything for him.” Mrs. Edison wrote back, “You do not understand my boy. I will teach him myself.” I think he turned out just alright. See, the mom, the mother, knows her child better than any teacher because that child came out of her own womb, nursing on her. There is a closeness to the heart of a mother and a child that is the most intimate relationship on the face of the Earth. It is said that from the womb to the tomb, the person that cares for you the most is the mother that has birthed you. And God has the question, “Even if a mother forgets her child, I will not forget you.”

This morning, you might be sitting here thinking, “My problems are unknown to my God. Why would the god of the universe care about the little concerns that I have? The things that matter to my heart, no one understands.” I want to tell you this morning, with all the confidence that God’s word gives to me, your pastor may not understand you, your father may not understand you, your mother may not understand you, your brother, your sister, your closest friend may not understand the deepest longings of your heart. But there is a God who created you, who loves you more than that, cares for you more than that. His love is the most tender love in the world. It is the most affectionate love in the world. He does not forget you.

Years ago, a young mother was making her way across the hills of South Wales, carrying her tiny baby in her arms when she was overtaken by a blinding blizzard. She never reached her destination, and when the blizzard had subsided, her body was found by searchers beneath a mound of snow. But they discovered that before her death, she had taken off all of her outer clothing and wrapped it about her baby. When they unwrapped the child, to their great surprise and joy, they found that the baby was alive and well. See, the mother had sacrificed her own body and life to save that child. Such is the love of that mother.

If you’re wondering what happened to that baby boy, here’s what happened. Years later, that child became the Prime Minister of Great Britain. His name was David Lloyd George. One of England’s greatest statesmen was alive because a mom sacrificed her life for that child. See, this is what God is telling us to remember. Yes, he is the almighty God, but he has a heart that is so tender, that he keeps his promises to us, and he does not forget us because he has the tenderness and the love of the heart of a mother towards you and me. What a great God, what a great God. Yes, he is more than enough for every situation that you face in your life. He’s more than enough for our church. He is more than enough for you as a person. He is more than enough for every single family that is here trusting in him. He will never let you down, for he is the Overcomer, the promise-keeping God who keeps his promises for generations to come.

Let’s look to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are El Shaddai, a God with a mountain-like strength, but with the heart as tender and loving as the heart of a mother. We love you, God, for you have become our God, and every blessing that we have, we owe it to you because time and time again, you have proven that you’re more than enough. I pray that you be real in the life of everyone that is here, God. Satan is a liar. He will try to convince us that God has forgotten us, God doesn’t care about us, God doesn’t love us. In the midst of that, I pray that the word of God that was spoken this morning will ring true in the hearts of every listener, that God is El Shaddai, a God who is more than enough to meet our every need. We love you, God. We thank you for proving that again this week in the life of our church. We give you the glory that is due unto your name. In the name of the Lord Jesus that we pray.