Names for God: Devotions From Time of GraceSample

El Shaddai Perhaps you know the words "El Shaddai" as the title to an Amy Grant song. Written by Michael Card in 1981, the song gained huge popularity for both, including several Dove awards (i.e., a Christian music industry Grammy). Pronounced Ale-Shud-DYE, the words are drawn from God’s self-description at an intensely dramatic moment in Abraham’s life. “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty [Hebrew: El Shaddai]; walk before me faithfully and be blameless” (Genesis 17:1). The word "Shaddai" appears to refer to a mountain, which was quite appropriate since on that hill, Mt. Moriah, God instructed Abraham to slay his son Isaac as a sacrifice to him. Pained and crushed in heart, Abraham moved to obey, but God stopped him before he used the knife, providing for the sacrifice a nearby ram whose horns were caught in a thicket. Second Chronicles 3:1 tells us that it was that very site where the magnificent temple of Solomon was later constructed. El Shaddai does indeed seem to like mountains as locations for some of his significant acts in human history. It was on Mt. Sinai that he gave the law to Moses. It was on Mt. Carmel that the LORD demonstrated forcefully that the Canaanite god Baal was a fraud and Baal’s prophets were too. And it was on Mt. Calvary that the Son of God died to make us sons and daughters of God.