EL SHADDAI - Almighty God

Genesis 17 opens with Abram at 99 years old, long after the first promise, long after the famine, Egypt, the lie about Sarai, the mess with Hagar, and thirteen years of waiting. Yahweh appears and names himself El Shaddai, Almighty God, the God whose promise is not cancelled by Abram’s failures and whose covenant does not depend on Abram having a clean record. The impossible is sitting right in the middle of the story: a 100 year old man, a 90 year old woman, and a promised son still not born.

El Shaddai means almighty, powerful, able, impregnable, the mighty God who can lay waste to what opposes his purpose. God is more than enough and all sufficient, but Genesis 17 presses the bigger point first: he is omnipotent. The name does not make God into a soft religious idea or some strange image of many breasts. The name reveals the God who has the power to keep covenant, multiply descendants, give land, bless nations, and bring laughter out of dead bodies.

Genesis 17 also joins the promise to a command: “Walk before me and be blameless.” Walking before the Lord means worship, awareness, learning, and knowing. Worship is not merely attending a service, because worship is honoring the Lord. Awareness remembers that God sees, God knows, and God is present when temptation talks. Learning keeps a believer from treating Christianity like fire insurance, because Jesus calls the weary to take his yoke and learn of him. Knowing God is not shaking the hand that shook the hand of somebody important. God calls men and women to know him personally, because he is as close as the mention of his name.

Blamelessness does not mean Abraham never messed up. Abraham lied, delayed, wimped out, and tried to help God out. Blamelessness means a life of repentance, an about face that turns not only from sin but to the Lord. The victory is not mainly in the “nots” and “don’ts,” but in the “dos”: walk before him, turn back when blameable, and trust the covenant making God.

God’s covenant reaches its deepest meaning at the cross, where God holds himself responsible to fulfill what he promises. El Shaddai remains faithful even when his people are faithless, not as a license to sin, but as a covenant of forgiveness. The devil is not God’s opposite. Evil has opposers, but God has no equal. El Shaddai is the Almighty God who still shows himself strong, heals, provides, delivers, and calls his people to stop checking themselves off the list.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. El Shaddai keeps impossible promises. God names himself Almighty God right when the promise looks humanly ridiculous. Abraham is almost 100, Sarah is 90, and the covenant son still has not come, but the promise is not built on their bodies being strong. The impossible becomes possible because El Shaddai has power enough to do what he said. [04:46]
• 2. Failure does not void covenant. Abraham’s story has delay, fear, lying, and trying to help God out, yet Yahweh remains true to his word. Repentance matters because covenant mercy is not a license to keep wandering, but a way back onto the narrow road. God’s faithfulness is not fragile, and that truth gives courage to turn again. [23:31]
• 3. Walking means knowing God personally. Walking before the Lord is not religious distance or secondhand spirituality. God calls his people beyond knowing about him, beyond clergy and laity language, into real relationship with him. A person is as close to God as that person truly wants to be, because he is as close as the mention of his name. [17:32]
• 4. Repentance turns toward the Lord. Blamelessness is not presented as sinless performance, because Abraham himself was not flawless. Repentance is an about face, not merely turning from sin but turning to God. The Christian life gains strength in the “dos”: walk before him, be blameless, and return when blameable. [20:44]
• 5. Darkness is not God’s opposite. El Shaddai has opposers, but he has no equal. Fear gives the devil a bigger microphone than he deserves, but Almighty God is not locked in a yin yang struggle with evil. A curse without cause cannot land, and God’s people have reason to pray with mercy, not panic.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [00:21] - Abram’s First Promise
• [01:46] - Melchizedek and Covenant Mercy
• [03:21] - God Reveals El Shaddai
• [05:23] - Genesis 17 and the Covenant
• [07:45] - Sarah Included in the Promise
• [09:57] - El Shaddai Means Almighty God
• [13:24] - Walk Before the Lord
• [14:32] - Worship, Awareness, Learning, Knowing
• [19:17] - Be Blameless Through Repentance
• [22:42] - God Makes and Keeps Covenant
• [24:26] - El Shaddai Through Scripture
• [29:53] - No Opposite to Almighty God
• [34:39] - Jesus, Mighty God
• [41:51] - Prayer to El Shaddai

Bible Reading

Genesis 17:1-8
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. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly." Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: "As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God." [05:13]

Genesis 17:15-22
Then God said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her." Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, "Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?" And Abraham said to God, "Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!" Then God said: "No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year." Then He finished talking with him, and God went up from Abraham. [07:38]

2 Timothy 2:13
If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself. [23:58]

1 Thessalonians 5:24
He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. [23:31]

Observation questions

1. In Genesis 17:1-8, what does God say about himself, and what does he command Abraham to do before repeating the covenant promises? [05:13]
2. In Genesis 17:15-22, what details make the promised birth of Isaac seem humanly impossible, and how does Abraham respond when he hears it?
3. What are some specific promises God repeats in this chapter to Abraham and Sarah, not just about a son, but about nations, kings, land, and covenant?
4. What words are used to describe walking before the Lord: worship, awareness, learning, and knowing? [14:32]

Interpretation questions

1. God reveals himself as Almighty God right when Abraham and Sarah are too old to produce the promised son. What does that timing show about the kind of situations in which God often displays his power? [04:46]
2. “Walk before me and be blameless” is given to a man who had already lied, delayed, and tried to force the promise. How should blamelessness be understood in light of Abraham’s actual life? [19:33]
3. God says, “My covenant I will establish with Isaac,” even though Abraham suggests Ishmael instead. What does that reveal about the difference between God’s promise and human attempts to help God out? [08:07]
4. If God remains faithful even when his people are faithless, how can that truth lead someone back to repentance without becoming an excuse for careless living? [24:01]

Application questions

1. Where does life feel most impossible right now—family, health, provision, obedience, waiting, or something else? What would it look like to bring that area before El Shaddai instead of quietly giving up? [35:13]
2. Abraham’s story includes fear, delay, and trying to manage things on his own. Which of those patterns feels most familiar right now, and what might repentance look like in a concrete way this week? [20:44]
3. Walking before the Lord includes worship, awareness, learning, and knowing. Which of those four feels weakest right now, and what is one simple step that could help strengthen it in daily life? [46:01]
4. A person is as close to God as that person truly wants to be. What tends to keep distance in that relationship—distraction, shame, passivity, wrong ideas about God, or something else? [19:03]
5. The victory in the Christian life is not mainly in the “nots” and “don’ts,” but in the “dos.” What is one positive act of obedience the Lord may be putting in front of you right now? [21:14]
6. Some people keep checking themselves off the list because of past sin or present failure. Has shame been making it hard to ask God for help, healing, or provision? What would it mean to come back to him as covenant-making and covenant-keeping God? [42:31]
7. Almighty God has opposers, but no equal. Where has fear been giving darkness too much attention in your thinking, and how can faith in God’s power reshape the way you pray about that situation? [29:53]