Through the last three weeks, we have learned many names for God that tell us of His power and characteristics. We’ve learned that He provides for all of our needs, that He fights for us and protects us, and that He is powerful enough to do anything. Today we get to close out our series by diving into more about His power.
El Shaddai
Almighty – The All-Powerful God
‘And God said to him, “I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body. ‘
El Shaddai speaks of God as the ultimate Master, Ruler, and the Sufficient One. Not only is our God powerful enough to rule, master, and destroy anything and everything, but He is also sufficient. He is sufficient in power, sufficient in love, sufficient for all of our needs. El Shaddai is sufficient enough that we can do anything with and through Him.
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Even when we feel insufficient for the tasks God puts in front of us, we can rest in the assurance that where we lack He does not. El Shaddai is all-sufficient. He is our Master. We can rest in Him and be at peace in His guidance and instruction. Even when we are faced with seemingly impossible circumstances, He provides His people with everything we need. His power is all-powerful and all-sufficient. His power is sufficient for and over everything.
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El Elyon or Elaha’ ‘Illaya
God Most High – Exalted One
‘And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. ‘
El Elyon tells us of God’s exaltation over Heaven and Earth. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the word “exalt” means “to raise in rank, power or character; to elevate by praise or in estimation; to glorify, elevate or intensify”. El Elyon is the Exalted One. He is the Most High, the one glorified, praised, and elevated above everything and everyone. He is the very highest of spiritual beings.
‘ He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time. But the court shall sit in judgment, and his dominion shall be taken away, to be consumed and destroyed to the end. And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; his kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.”
God Most High is used by Daniel as he prophesies the final judgment. He acknowledges God’s exalted status over the world and all that is in it. El Elyon is who will deliver the world from its enemies and rule over His kingdom forever. Everyone across the whole world will serve and obey God Most High.
Adonai
Lord – Master
‘ The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,’
Adonai speaks to the possession relationship between God and us; God possesses us, and we are possessed by Him. Adonai means master or owner. He is the owner of the world and everything in it.
Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
No matter where we are, what we do, how far we stray or deny Him, we are His people and He loves us. As our owner, He will always be with us and will chase after us to bring us home to His presence.
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HaTsaddiq or Dikaios
The Lord Our Righteousness – Righteous One
‘In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’ ‘
HaTsaddiq is the righteous provider of justice. People like to take it upon themselves to “serve justice” to people they think deserve to be judged. I’m not talking about our legal systems, as God tells us in Romans 13 that we must “submit to governing authorities”. We think we have the authority to determine who deserves punishment, or we think authority is not doing a good enough job, and we take it upon ourselves to inflict the punishments and judgments we think people deserve. When someone hurts us, we lash out. When a loved one gets hurt, we attack the injurer. When we get angry, we hold grudges. When we don’t like the way someone acts, we talk unkindly. When we don’t like the way someone dresses, we mock and tease. We gossip, bully, harass, judge, and hurt people.
There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor?
HaTsaddiq, the [Lord] Our Righteousness, is the only one with the authority to judge any of us. Our job is to spread love – that is the second commandment God gave us to lead the way we live. We are called to love, and leave the judgment to God, the Righteous One, Almighty, All-Knowing, All-Powerful Master.
‘The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” ‘
God overflows with love for His people, but He is also the One who created everything and possesses everything in Heaven and on earth. It is His responsibility to inflict justice and to provide for our needs. He is highly esteemed above everything else that ever existed and has the power to do anything.
Many years of my life felt like an all-out war. Not in the sense, we think of when we talk about war, but we are all fighting a war against the unseen spiritual realm. Our world is incredibly broken and sinful, and filled with temptation and darkness at every turn. Growing up I always felt very alone. There was an apartment I lived in when I was very young, and there I was left on my own a lot of the time, or in the care of people who had no business caring for a small child.
I used to sneak out of the apartment and would find myself wandering in the woods behind the complex, and eventually, I found a beautiful haven. There in the forest was a willow tree that billowed over a small pond with two little footbridges on either end. Lily pads, frogs, birds, and rodents had made their homes there and were surprisingly unalarmed by my tiny human presence. This place became my safe place. As time went on, this place became vital for my own survival. It was a place no one knew about, at a time when no one good in my life knew the bad that was happening to me.
At that point in my life, there were a couple of people, one very young and one much older, who found me to be an easy target. I felt helpless and scared, and so I would run off into the woods, to the safety of that willow tree, for protection and peace. Looking back, and I think even then, I knew that Yahweh was there with me, bringing me into a safe place, hiding me away, and giving me comfort and peace even if only for a little while. God knew what was happening, He knew what I needed, and He provided for me. This safe haven, protection, peace, and all the ways God carried me through that chapter are exactly the aspects of God we are going to talk about today.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
When armies go to war they bring their banner, declaring which side they are fighting for, the nation they are protecting and that supports them. The banner is a way to declare that the nation or kingdom whose banner is being displayed is under protection. In Exodus, the Israelites went to war with the Amalekites at Rephidim, and the Israelites at that time were still wandering the wilderness after escaping slavery in Egypt. They were not warriors; they were farmers, herdsmen, recently-freed slaves. These people were fighting to survive in a harsh world, but they had something the armies they faced lacked. The Israelites had the banner of the Lord with them.
While the Lord was present with them, He was protecting them. They fought for their survival while trusting the Lord to protect them and make a way through the turmoil and fighting. Once this battle against the Amalekites was won Moses declared “The Lord is my Banner”, saying that God was with them, protecting them and that the Israelites were fighting for and with the Lord.
Jehovah Nissi is with us in all the battles we face and He wants us to declare Him as our banner. With the Lord as our banner, we declare that not only do we trust Him to protect us, but that we are committed to Him also. The Lord is my Banner, the Lord protects, the Lord is with me always, no matter what I face. I have no reason to fear or be anxious, and I will declare my allegiance to Him no matter what I face.
‘Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.” ‘
‘Now this man used to go up year by year from his city to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests of the Lord . ‘
Imagine being in the worst place you’ve been in your life. The place you felt like the darkness was consuming you and you had no way out. You feel like there is no “better life” for you, and like you are totally on your own and out of ammunition to keep fighting on. Now imagine a light peeking into that lonely darkness. You notice it, and as you look toward it, the light grows a little bigger as you ask yourself “Where did it come from? Should I follow it? Is this the way out?”
It gets brighter, and you can’t help but be drawn to it, even though it feels like it is easier to stay right there and just give in to the darkness. But it just keeps getting bigger. It is consuming the darkness around you until the darkness is only an ant-sized speck behind you. The warmth of the light is like a hug and surrounds you like armor.
This light is what the love of Jehovah Sabaoth is like. With Jehovah Sabaoth, we never fight our battles alone. We have the creator of everything fighting for and with us, providing us with His protection and mercy. All armies, forces, and agencies are under His leadership or dominion. He has the power to win any war, any battle, any enemy. He can overcome any darkness that is overcoming us. In Him, we have the protection of Heaven’s Armies to carry us out of and through any of the rotten places we find ourselves in.
‘For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. ‘
‘Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, The Lord Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites. ‘
In the church I was raised in we would always say “peace be with you” as a way of saying goodbye at the end of the service. As a kid I would roll my eyes every single time, thinking “yeh, right”. We were taught that with God we can feel unexplainable peace in times of trouble, and again I would roll my eyes. My life was so full of chaos and loneliness I could not imagine that peace was possible.
Growing up in a nation at war, with veteran and active-duty military in my family, planning my own future fighting that same war the term “peace” as I knew it held such a different meaning to me than the peace we receive from Yahweh Shalom.
When I was 16 I experienced a hip injury that would stay with me the rest of my life, a constant reminder of the assault that injured me. I had been preparing to join the Army before my senior year of High School, but I was injured before I could complete the process. This rocked my world. Not only had I experienced something terrible that hurt me, now my future was being permanently altered because of it.
I was angry and began some massive self-reflection. While regaining the ability to walk I remember laying there on the couch, day in and day out, feeling very alone. After a few months God had humbled me immensely and I started to understand what it means to have His peace.
Over the years I struggled a lot to find peace with what had happened and the physical ailments I live with every day. I got to a point where I understood that I’d been going down a very dangerous path and in order to heal I needed Yahweh Shalom. As I began giving myself over to Him, I started to find peace in the pain and memories. The nightmares didn’t come as often, I started doing things I enjoyed again, and with His help, I started to heal.
This peace says yes, I am broken, and yes, my past is scary, but I am not alone, and God can heal my heart and help me grow stronger, I can forgive, move forward, and not let the weight of my past, my sins, my struggles hold me down. This is the peace felt when God lifts all the weight of sin from your shoulders and you feel like you can truly breathe for the first time in your life.
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
It took a really long time for me to really trust that God would provide for me. In a single moment five years ago Jehovah-Jireh spoke so clearly and powerfully to me “I will provide the way, just trust me” and I committed my entire welfare into the trust He would provide. Over the last five years, I went from an abusive marriage to a single mother barely able to make it by, to a woman with faith as I’d never known possible.
As I started trusting Jehovah-Jireh more and more, He provided so graciously. I found safety, healing, peace, joy, freedom, and I was in a stronger place financially as well. I went from incredible debt to incredible freedom through my complete surrender to Yahweh Yireh. I learned that no matter what I face, no matter the uncertainties, no matter what I think I am lacking, I know without question that He will always provide for my needs – and He will always provide for yours, too.
“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Our God is such an amazing God. He has such immense, immeasurable love for His people and when we focus on Him, we lack nothing. He is a peace-bringer, commander of Heaven’s armies, and the ultimate provider. Come back next week to find out more about who our God is.
Think of a time you met someone new. What is usually the first thing we do? We find out their name. As we develop relationships with people we often give them “nicknames” that hold a special significance about them or that speaks to our specific relationship. Sometimes people have many nicknames between different relationships, or they use a different nickname depending on a situation or setting. Those names are personal, and when we learn someone’s name or give them meaningful nicknames we learn a little bit more about who they are and we develop a closer bond.
God also has many names, and through knowing those names we get to learn more about Him and build a closer relationship with Him. Each name has its own significance and power. None of His names are empty or pointless. Here we get to dive into several of His names that tell us about His eternal glory and power, and so much more. We get to learn that Our God is forever; no beginning, and most importantly no end.
Attiq Yomin (Aramaic)
Ancient of Days – God is Active in History
‘”As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire.’
In the book of Daniel, God shows Daniel a vision of an old man in white, sitting powerfully on his throne. The man was not God, or even what God looks like, but it was meant to impress God’s dignity and power upon Daniel.
‘As I looked, this horn made war with the saints and prevailed over them, until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given for the saints of the Most High, and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom. ‘
Daniel called the impression of God Ancient of Days, or in the original Aramaic, Attiq Yomin. This means Ancient One, and tells us of how God is present in all of time and judge over all of time and creation. God is the everlastingly supreme authority.
El Roi
The God Who See – Responder of Needs
‘So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” ‘
El Roi is Hebrew for the God Who Sees. It expresses that God responds to our needs, and that He knows everything about us, our lives, and our circumstances throughout our past, present and even our future. The God Who Sees knows exactly what we need even before we do and will always provide for us in the ways and timing He knows is best. He will always be there with you, watching over you, and preparing the way for you.
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El Olam
Eternal, Everlasting God
‘Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called there on the name of the Lord , the Everlasting God. ‘
Sometimes it is really difficult to feel like anyone could understand what we are going through. It feels like no one else could ever have possibly been through it, and no one could possible know what is ahead for us. I have certainly felt like there is no way anyone could know the hurt I’ve experienced, and like there was no end in sight for the suffering. Fortunately for us, though, all of that is a lie Satan likes to tell us so that we don’t know the truth about El Olam.
‘ May his name endure forever [Olam], his fame continue as long as the sun! May people be blessed in him, all nations call him blessed! Blessed be the Lord , the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. Blessed be his glorious name forever [Olam]; may the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and Amen!’
Our God, El Olam, is forever. He is eternal; everlasting. There is no beginning and no end to Him. He exists in all of time, and with that His love, grace and mercy lasts forever. He has seen everything, experienced it all Himself, and lays out the path for each of us. There is hope in the future He has laid out for us. We are never alone because El Olam is constant forever.
Qedosh Yisra’el
The Holy One of Israel – Set-apart God of Israel
‘ But now thus says the Lord , he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you.’
People are pretty broken. We carry lots of baggage, hold onto a lot of guilt and shame, and fight every day not to fall into depression and despair. It is so hard to find a place we belong. Growing up I was the complete outcast. No one liked me, my “friends” were cruel, and I suffered immensely while trying to figure out my own place in the world. I didn’t think I belonged anywhere, and so I didn’t want to be anywhere. But rather than my life slipping away by my own hand, The Holy One of Israel grabbed hold of my heart and told me “I love you, I made you, and you have a purpose.”
In my own deep, dark hole God found me and pulled me out through the muck. It was a very long, difficult journey, and still is, but I learned through that struggle that God saves us, redeems us, and carries us through our pain and suffering. That is Qedosh Yisra’el. When we give in to Him, we find salvation. When we fight Him, hate Him, reject Him we do not get to know this truth about Him.
‘ Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord , they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.’
‘Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” ‘
You ever catch yourself talking about the choices of others? Who they choose to love? How they choose to live? What they choose to eat? What they do for work? The money they make? The things they have? The mistakes they’ve done? We do it all the time. We judge others, while we sit here with our own choices, our own mistakes, our own baggage. Do we have a right to judge? Nope! That is not our job, nor is it our responsibility – and that’s a hefty responsibility.
Shapat is the Judge. Our God is the leader who pronounces judgment. That is His job. He carries that burden. When we take it upon ourselves to judge others we are not loving others as God calls us to (1 Peter 4:8, Philippians 2:3-4, Matthew 5:43-48, 1 John 4:7-21, and more). God carries out judgment while our role is to live faithfully by His commands.
‘ For the Lord loves justice; he will not forsake his saints. They are preserved forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.’
There is so much to know about Our Amazing God. He is an incredible, never-ending provider who serves as our comforter and our judge. I cannot wait to keep diving into more of who God is next week as we continue our Names of God series. Don’t forget to check it out!
Throughout our Names of God series, we will touch on many of these names and why they are important. Knowing and understanding the different names for God is so valuable in developing an even stronger relationship with Him. Through knowing His names, we get to learn more aboutthe truth of who He is.
Elohim
God the Creator
‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.’
Elohim is God the Creator. He created everything; Heaven, earth, plants, animals, people, oceans, mountains, and everything in between. God the Creator is all-powerful.
‘ The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.’
Elohim comes from two Hebrew words; El, meaning strength and unlimited power, and allah, meaning to keep a promise. God is the all-powerful creator and keeper of promises, and God makes us a lot of very important promises.
By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
God the Father is one of the most familiar names for God. It is a reference to God as the Father in the Holy Trinity; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God is our Father in Heaven. He cares for us as His children. God the Father disciplines, provides, and guides. God the Father is our powerful protective parent. He is the disciplinarian who corrects us and works to set us on the right path with love and compassion.
Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Not only is God our Heavenly Father, but His name Abba Father is a name given by only two people in scripture; Jesus and the apostle Paul. This name indicates the deep, compassionate parent-child relationship we have with Abba Father. He loves us as a Father loves his children, and wants us to come to Him for refuge, guidance, and nurturing. Abba Father shows us the deep compassion He has for us, and though we are messed up, broken people He never disowns us. He loves us deeply and adopts us as His children.
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
This name for God is the most personal name that He assigned Himself. It is a name that speaks to His goodness and sovereignty. There are a couple of translations for LORD, though. This is all capital meaning Yahweh in Hebrew and Jehovah in Latin. It directly means The Self-Existent One who has always been and will always be. In the Jewish culture, this name is so sacred it is scarcely said. When using this name for God, we recognize the almighty strength and power He has in our lives.
Yahweh Rohi means Yahweh Cherishes; the LORD is my Shepherd. Yahweh Rohi provides for our needs. Not only that but He takes pleasure in providing for us. With Yahweh Rohi we shall not lack anything we need. He loves and cherishes the opportunity to bless His children and give them what they need.
The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
God is a loving, powerful, protective Father who provides for and loves His children deeply and unconditionally. There is no end to His love and help. There is so much more to learn through His many other names as well, which we will dive into through our May series “Names of God”. Don’t miss it in the coming 3 weeks!
I am a wife, mom, writer, crafter, and above all, a Child of God. I love to study the Bible, fellowship with other Christians, and serve God. I am thrilled to invite you to join me in seeking to satisfy our thirsty souls with the Living Water of Christ, which is what Water On Thirsty Land is here to do.
