The Day of New Beginnings
El Shaddai
Gen. 17:
¶ Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless.
2 "I will establish My covenant between Me and you, And I will multiply you exceedingly."
3 Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying,
4 ¶ "As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, And you will be the father of a multitude of nations.
5 "No longer shall your name be called Abram, But your name shall be Abraham; For I will make you the father of a multitude of nations.
6 "I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come forth from you.
7 ¶ "I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you.
8 "I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God."
In these passages, God appears to Abraham and tells him He will establish a covenant with him. What precedes the announcement is God revealing Himself to Abraham as God Almighty, which, according to the Hebrew, is El Shaddai. This is very important. Before God institutes a covenant, He first reveals an aspect of His nature that will create and bring to pass the fulfillment of that covenant. Before God fulfilled His promise to Abraham, He first revealed Himself as El Shaddai, which translated means the All Sufficient One, or more accurately, the Great Breasted One. Notice how the promises to Abraham are but an extension of how God revealed Himself.
In verse two the Lord says He will multiply Abraham exceedingly. In verses four and five He changes Abraham’s name from Abram, which means Exalted Father, to Abraham, which means Father of a Multitude. Verse six has God telling Abraham that He will make him exceedingly fruitful and nations and kings will come forth from him. All these verses speak of fruitfulness and they are an expression of the Great Breasted One. By nature, Great Breasted One speaks of fruitfulness, and that is exactly what God conveys to Abraham. The revelation of the Lord to Abraham preceded the covenant and created the means by which it would be fulfilled.
Lets look at this in some other passages.
Gen. 28:
1 ¶ So Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him, and said to him, "You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.
2 "Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father; and from there take to yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother.
3 "May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples.
4 "May He also give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your descendants with you, that you may possess the land of your sojournings, which God gave to Abraham."
Isaac blesses Jacob in these passages and invokes the name El Shaddai, God Almighty. The blessing is then directly related to the revelation of the Lord that came to Abraham. "May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples.” Again, we see the revelation of El Shaddai is related to fruitfulness.
Gen. 35:
9 Then God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-aram, and He blessed him.
10 God said to him, "Your name is Jacob; You shall no longer be called Jacob, But Israel shall be your name." Thus He called him Israel.
11 God also 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 forth from you.
12 "The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give it to you, And I will give the land to your descendants after you."
13 Then God went up from him in the place where He had spoken with him.
Notice verse 11 carefully. “I am God Almighty; Be fruitful and multiply…” The Lord proclaims His name, and out of the revelation of His name comes the command, “Be fruitful and multiply.” God’s revelation to the Patriarchs was more that just telling them His name; it was creating in them the fulfillment of a covenant. His revelation to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob identified what He was going to create in them and through them.
The Scriptures are filled with prophecies of the great fruitfulness that is to come to the realm of Zion, although for a season she seems barren.
Isa. 49:
13 ¶ Shout for joy, O heavens! And rejoice, O earth! Break forth into joyful shouting, O mountains! For the LORD has comforted His people And will have compassion on His afflicted.
14 But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me, And the Lord has forgotten me."
15 "Can a woman forget her nursing child And have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.
16 "Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me.
17 "Your builders hurry; Your destroyers and devastators Will depart from you.
18 ¶ "Lift up your eyes and look around; All of them gather together, they come to you. As I live," declares the LORD, "You will surely put on all of them as jewels and bind them on as a bride.
19 "For your waste and desolate places and your destroyed land— Surely now you will be too cramped for the inhabitants, And those who swallowed you will be far away.
20 "The children of whom you were bereaved will yet say in your ears, ‘The place is too cramped for me; Make room for me that I may live here.’
21 "Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has begotten these for me, Since I have been bereaved of my children And am barren, an exile and a wanderer? And who has reared these? Behold, I was left alone; From where did these come?’"
22 Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations And set up My standard to the peoples; And they will bring your sons in their bosom, And your daughters will be carried on their shoulders.
23 "Kings will be your guardians, And their princesses your nurses. They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth And lick the dust of your feet; And you will know that I am the LORD; Those who hopefully wait for Me will not be put to shame.
All God’s promises are fulfilled in Zion, the realm of sonship. When we enter Zion we become participators with all the saints in God’s covenant to Abraham. In Rom. 4, Paul says:
16 For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,
17 ¶ (as it is written, "A FATHER OF MANY NATIONS HAVE I MADE YOU") in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.
It’s God’s intention to have a Godly seed in the earth. The promise and covenant was made with Abraham but is ultimately fulfilled in Christ. It’s only in Zion that God finds a fertile womb. The religious world is sterile. It cannot re-produce.
We are not talking about making Christians. We are not talking about leading people to the Lord. We are talking about the nature of Christ re-produced in a people. That is what constitutes sonship.
Zion is the realm of sonship. The offspring of Christ, as mentioned in Isa. 53:10, comes through the revelation of El Shaddai to a people dwelling in the spiritual realm of Zion. This is the manifestation of the Lord in His sons.
Isa. 66:
7 "Before she travailed, she brought forth; Before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy.
8 "Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons.
9 "Shall I bring to the point of birth and not give delivery?" says the LORD. "Or shall I who gives delivery shut the womb?" says your God.
10 "Be joyful with Jerusalem and rejoice for her, all you who love her; Be exceedingly glad with her, all you who mourn over her,
11 That you may nurse and be satisfied with her comforting breasts, That you may suck and be delighted with her bountiful bosom."
12 For thus says the LORD, "Behold, I extend peace to her like a river, And the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; And you will be nursed, you will be carried on the hip and fondled on the knees.
13 "As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; And you will be comforted in Jerusalem."