What does it mean that God is Almighty?
God calls Himself "Almighty" for the first time when He appears to Abraham, a childless man of ninety-nine, and asks him to walk before Him. The name carries two ideas that commentators weigh differently — raw power, and endless supply — and both change how a person lives with God.
The Name Behind the Word
"Almighty" translates a Hebrew name, and its exact force has long been discussed. One writer sets out both readings and refuses to lose either:
The Christian's FriendThe first mention of this is found in Genesis 17:1... that is, EL SHADDAI — God Almighty. But the meaning of the word El is said to be strength, omnipotence; and Shaddai is thought by some to signify the same thing, while others prefer the rendering of all-sufficient or self-sufficiency. The combination of the two words will, in either case, import divine attributes, since omnipotence and all-sufficiency can only be found in God.
Almighty in Resources
Several commentators press the second sense: not power considered on its own, but power held ready for someone who has nothing else.
G. V. WigramShaddai means almighty in resources rather than almighty in the abstract; and that was well proved by Abraham, by Israel, and may be by every homeless pilgrim now. "Almighty in resources" — is He your God?
Abraham heard the name at the exact point where his own body could produce nothing:
J. G. BellettIt was "God Almighty," that is, God the all-sufficient One, who was revealed to the patriarchs. Abraham and Sarah were dead as to their bodies; but "I am the Almighty God," says the Lord, and their faith owned it. "I have resources to meet the dead state of your bodies," was the language of God, and His servant bowed his head.
Tested By The Impossible
The name was not left as a title. It was proved when Sarah laughed at the promise of a son, and God answered her with a question.
F. B. HoleThe Almighty power of God came out in the birth of Isaac, which was a humanly impossible thing. When at the announcement of his birth Sarah laughed in unbelief the Lord said, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" Can a living child be produced from parents as good as dead? Here clearly was the supreme test. Can life be brought out of death? It was brought out. Isaac was born. God is the ALMIGHTY.
Why It Comes With A Command
Notice that the name arrives attached to an instruction. Commentators read that instruction as the natural answer to what has just been revealed.
J. N. DarbyThere are three great names in which God reveals Himself to man. Firstly, to Abraham, in Genesis 17: "I am the Almighty God [El Shaddai], walk before me and be thou perfect." It was like saying, I am the Almighty: therefore trust in Me. What is called perfection is a response to the character in which God is revealed to us.
Bigger Than The Powers Against Us
The New Testament word for "Almighty" is measured against the titles given to hostile spiritual powers, and it is deliberately larger:
F. B. HoleIn Ephesians 6:12 the devil and his hosts are called "the rulers of the darkness of this world" — the Greek word for ruler being kosmokrator, or literally, "world-ruler"; that is, they are the rulers of this kosmos — this ordered world system. But in 2 Corinthians 6:18 God speaks of Himself as "the Almighty," the Greek word being Pantokrator, that is, the ruler of the "all-things" — the "universe" — and not merely this little "kosmos" in which we move and suffer.
The Day The Power Is Displayed
Right now that power is largely unseen, and the world runs on human will. The book of Revelation shows the moment that ends, when heaven shouts that the Almighty reigns.
Frederick W. GrantThe response of the multitude shows what it is: "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns." The power that was always His He is now going to put forth. Judgment is to return to righteousness. Man's day is at an end, with all the confusion that his will has wrought.
The Almighty Who Says "Father"
The same title reappears in a promise of relationship, and one writer applies it straight to a believer under pressure:
J. T. MawsonCommit your whole case to Him. He knows and sympathises, and He will not permit you to be overburdened; not a feather's weight more than you are able to bear joyfully will be put upon you, and though you may be reduced as to material comforts, you will be greatly enlarged in the knowledge of Himself, who is the Lord Almighty, and who has said: "I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters" (2 Cor. 6:18). So you will prove for yourself that it is possible to be without anxiety.
Summary
- Meaning — "Almighty" renders El Shaddai; commentators differ on whether the stress falls on omnipotence or on all-sufficiency, and both belong only to God.
- Resources — the emphasis is on power held in reserve for the needy, "almighty in resources rather than almighty in the abstract," proved on a homeless pilgrim.
- Proof — Isaac's birth tested it at the hardest point: can life come out of death? It did.
- Response — the name asks something back: trust Him, and walk before Him, since what is called perfection answers the character in which God reveals Himself.
- Reach — He is Pantokrator, ruler of all things, not merely of this world system; and the power that was always His will be publicly put forth when the Almighty reigns.