Hmmmmm.........

As I was researching the name El Shaddai, I discovered something interesting.  The name El Shaddai is used 48 times in the Old Testament.  That's in the KJV.  In the New American Standard translation, it is actually used 61 times.  That's an interesting bit of trivia.  But this is what I find really interesting......it's used most frequently in the Book of Job!  Hmmmmm.......

I'm sure we all remember the story of Job.....how he lost everything......how his wife told him to curse God and die.....how his so-called friends gave him such "wise" counsel about everything he had done wrong to deserve such treatment.  We may even be hesitant to study Job's story too much in case some of Job's difficulties might rub off on us!!  But isn't it interesting that Job's story is the portion of Scripture where God has divinely inspired the writer to use that particular name.  Isn't it interesting that it is in Job's life where we read most often about God as all powerful and all sufficient!  Hmmmmm.......  Maybe that's one of the lessons we are to learn from Job......that no matter how bad things get, God is sufficient!  God is powerful!  God is enough!

You and I may not have experienced anything as traumatic as Job did.  But we can probably all look back  at times in our lives when we experienced God's power and sufficiency to bring us through a tough time.  As we begin another week together, maybe it's a good time to look back.  And remember.  And give God thanks and praise for how He brought us through.  That's a good word, isn't it - "through".  Think about that today.  And worship El Shaddai!