We are asking Jesus for one person from each parish to pray 5 decades of the Holy Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet with us daily. Please pray that these people join us in spreading Divine Mercy. In addition if you feel lead by the Holy Spirit to join us; are blessed by this Apostolate and are able please consider giving a $1 a month to help us do works of mercy as a group. Individually we are limited, together we are unlimited in our potential. God bless, Todd
El-Shaddai is a Hebrew word meaning "Almighty God". It is first revealed in Genesis 17:1-2, "And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto Him, I am the Almighty God (El-Shaddai); walk before me, and be thou perfect (Jesus did this as Abraham's seed). And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly."
El-Shaddai fulfills His promise in the miraculous birth of Isaac, to a man 100 years old and to a woman 90 years old and barren. El-Shaddai cuts covenant with Abram and His seed (Jesus) through which all families of the earth are blessed. El-Shaddai watches over His covenant to fulfill it to a thousand generations. El-Shaddai is the covenant name of God that Abram, Isaac, and Jacob knew. El-Shaddai is a covenant God!
In El-Shaddai, we see the ever faithfulness of God. In the name of El-Shaddai, we see the ever sufficient, the ever mindful, all powerful God of the universe making a way of redemption for a fallen race. As El-Shaddai, the covenant is cut between God and man and God (Abram and Jesus).
El-Shaddai carries with it the implied meaning that the name is for a God of creation. A God who can create heaven and earth, and there is no other like Him. This is a name to be revered and held in awe of. This is the God of covenant and the God above all other gods! He reveals himself by His deeds. He has all power and there is no other like Him. Yet, this all powerful and merciful God chooses to commit himself to the preservation of a sinful and rebellious race being us.
The name Shaddai also means "one who nourished and satisfies", implying that El-Shaddai is more than enough to meet our needs. He sheds abroad His grace and gives us abundantly beyond what we can ask or think. Paul writes in Phillipians chapter 4:19-20, "But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now unto God and our Father be glory forever and ever, Amen." El-Shaddai is fulfilled in Christ Jesus.
Again Paul writes in Ephesians 3:14-21, "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church of Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen."
Paul clearly established that El-Shaddai is fulfilled in the actions of Jesus and what He has done for us. God in the person of Jesus has become for us El-Shaddai! No wonder Abraham believed God's promise even though he was old and not able to father children in the natural sense of things. He saw God as El-Shaddai and had a covenant with the creator of the universe.
Thus in El-Shaddai, God reveals Himself as the all powerful, all sufficient, all loving (hesed) God of covenant who will be all that we ever need. As El-Shaddai He says to Abram in Genesis 15:1, "...Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." For Abraham, El-Shaddai was not only his God, He was his covenant partner and friend. When El-Shaddai asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, Abraham believed that God could raise this lad from the dead just as He had brought him from Sarah's dead womb. El-Shaddai reveals Himself as savior and provider on that mountain and reveals Himself to Abraham that day as Jehovah-Jireh (Jehovah provider).
It is as El-Shaddai, Abraham's covenant partner, that God becomes obligated to offer His only son Jesus, in sacrifice for His covenant obligation to Abraham's descendants! Here we see the love of God expressed by His actions, as the great name El-Shaddai implies.
This is an excerpt from the ebook Covenant of Mercy and Blessing, it is yours free simply look at the index and go to that page on this site. Todd
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