We begin our study today in Genesis 17 with a view of Abraham, the first name listed in Matthew’s genealogy. Before we explore his life on a grand scale, we pause to view a scene in which God wrote a new name across his heart. Interestingly enough, God had just revealed Himself to Abraham as El-Shaddai, God Almighty, and, appropriately, we see Abraham fall on his face in response! Join us today, friend. May we be brought round to Him once again, fall face down before Him, and know we have been in His presence…

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am El-Shaddai – ‘God Almighty.’ Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life. I will make a covenant with you, by which I will guarantee to give you countless descendants.” At this, Abram fell face to the ground. Then God said to him, “This is My covenant with you; I will make you the father of a multitude of nations! What’s more, I am changing your name. It will no longer be Abram. Instead, you will be called Abraham, for you will be the father of many nations.” Genesis 17:1-5

We find Abraham (99) here, still awaiting the birth of his promised son (Gen. 15:4). 13 years prior, he had done it his way, fathering Ishmael through Sarah’s maid, Hagar. I love to think that after 13 years, Abraham must have been longing desperately for a moment like this. Suddenly, God was there. And He said “I AM El Shaddai, God Almighty!” El means “strong one” and Shaddai comes from the Hebrew word “shad,” used in scripture for a woman’s breast. We can conclude, then, that God is Shaddai because He nourishes, gives strength, and satisfies as a mother would her restless baby (Scofield Reference Notes).

This is the first time in OT scripture we see God reveal Himself in this way. I love that it follows on the heels of God’s reaffirming His covenant with Abraham, reminding him that He would be the one to bless Him with descendants… His way! What a moving portrait of God’s riches, abundant in depth for any need we could ever fathom! Precious to me that I have a God who is mighty, but also One who will draw me near His chest, love on me tenderly, and want to be the nourishment I need to settle this restless self. A Daddy in our midst, strong and mighty, yet tender His touch -- A paradox no language or tongue on earth could hope to detail!

As we study over the next months, we will encounter more people to whom God granted a new name. (Abram became Abraham, Sarai became Sarah, Jacob became Israel, etc.) In this instance, God changed Abram (exalted father) to Abraham (father of a multitude ­– Gen. 17:5). Have you ever really stopped to contemplate this? I can’t say I have. It seems so easy to accept at face value, to read right over, but I don’t want to miss just what God was doing. Dig here with me for a moment. Could it be that God granted Abram a new identity because He wanted to give Him a new story? Could it be He wanted Abraham to remember that God had a plan and that He (God) would be faithful to grant all He promised? No matter the reason, the new name remained and must have been a beautiful and tangible reminder to Abraham of his walk with God! Yes, Abraham changed, his life a new name… and it was all because of the One who gave it!

What’s more, a humble and reverent Abraham fell to his face before God! I love this about Abraham. He is always falling to his face! We see it again in Genesis 18:2 and 17:17. In those moments, He got it! He fell because He recognized WHO God was and who he was because of God… and then…  God talked to Him! How beautiful. As I read, I am convicted because I know that is what God desires for me, to fall in awe, and then to be still, to listen to, and sometimes to wait for His voice! Psalm 46:10 says “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”  When I strive in my own effort, my own strength, my own desires, (and find myself very much exhausted because of it), there is such struggle and certainly no peace. Yes, friend, I am still learning how to cease and to know, beyond all else and despite any circumstance, that HE IS GOD! In Genesis 17, Abraham got it. And I so desperately want to get it, too! I want Him as absolute authority and all of my priority. More still, I want to want Him because I know life will go as it will and will do what it does best, be so daily! And some days, I know I will just plain need a want-to for my want-to! Oddly, it is comforting to know that although Abraham fell to his face often, he didn’t always. He made mistakes just like I do, and it serves to make me ever thankful for His saving, persisting grace which is deeper, wider, and higher than any sin of mine… Wondering if you, today, sweet one, would join me in falling before Him, not because Abraham did, but simply because He is God! To cease striving and know -- How precious a gift!    

This God, this El Shaddai, is the One who Was, Is, and Is to Come! There is no other! He is eternal. He knows all. He is self-sufficient. He created on a magnificent scale with intimate detail. He knows your thoughts before you think them, He knows your goings, and His hand encloses you -- behind, before, and above (Psalm 139).  As mundane or challenging you view your life’s details, be assured He knows them. And He wants to! He is your Great I AM, sufficient for your every anything!

And this great I AM has been busy writing a story. From the first words in Genesis declaring, “In the beginning, God…” to the closing of Revelation promising “the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you,” He has been wooing His creation! Since the mark of time, it has always been about God weaving a way for us to return to Him! Flip the pages, dig deep, and you will see Him write His name all over creation, declare it in covenant after covenant, reaffirm it in the law, plead it through the prophets, proclaim it through His son, and even reassure it through His Spirit living within our hearts! And, gloriously, we will hear Him shout it one day when He returns! Yes, it really is all about Him. And if that doesn’t thrill you, chew on this... He invites us to be a part!

A magnificent plan on scale so grand, but amazingly one so remarkably simple! Just as He wrote a new name over the life of Abraham, He wants to write His in your heart!  Oh what a powerful picture of what the saving blood of Christ does when we believe! Yes, He writes a new name… not ours, but HIS!  And then, deeper still, He writes our name across His heart, never to be erased!

I had finished writing (I thought) this entry the other night, but God had more for me to say (I love when He does that)! Still unaware, I spent a sweet time on my face just like Abraham and did my very best to be still, to cease striving, and to listen. He brought to my attention 2 Corinthians 3, a passage talking about the New Covenant in Christ, and there came within that chapter several verses I knew needed to be here. They are amazing and a testimony to the plan God has for our lives! Verse 3 says we are a “letter of Christ…written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts!” Did you get that? We are His tablet, our heart’s beat for Him, and He writes so that we might be a letter, declaring Him and abounding in glory! Verses 4-5 promise that we can have confidence “through Christ toward God” and that He makes us adequate! No, friend, it is no letter we could write ourselves. It has to be HIS story. And He wants to do it HIS way, just like with Abraham. Amazingly, His Spirit lives within, the veil is removed, and we are free to stand in liberty not because of anything we have done but because of everything He did. Here we are, again, finding ourselves astounded. We have a God who loves us, who chose to, and who writes a new name over our lives when we were hopeless to ourselves…

Do you see? We are made again, a new creation with old gone (2 Corinthians 5:17)! We are Abraham’s descendants and heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3:29)! We are children of God (John 1:12; Romans 8:14-17; 1 John 3:1)! Indeed, our heritage is beautiful (Psalm 16:6)! We can fall on our faces before our Strong, Tender, Loving Daddy, and then come to our feet in Him because we belong to Him. He has inscribed our name upon His palm (Isaiah 49:16) and made our beating hearts His tablet! Just as God had a plan for Abraham, He has a plan for you! You are a letter written with Spirit to reveal His glory to the lives of so many around you. He wants to fill you with Him until you overflow onto the lives of those all around you. Truly what a privilege it is to live with a new name, to raise up after seeing Him for who He is and then to walk each day standing on the promises of God! He wants your story to be His. Tarry no longer. Cease striving and know. Fall face before Him just as Abraham did…

Let your jaw drop in awe, your heart melt with gratitude, your mind reel in complexity and your spirit still in worship. He WAS, and IS, and IS TO COME! No more to wonder, friend, for the wonder is HE IS!