Page 8 - Fundamentals Ebook Final

for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, but
the LORD has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi,
since the LORD has witnessed against me and the Almighty has
afflicted me?” Now if you have an NIV or a New American
Standard Bible, you will notice in the margin for the word
“Almighty” that it says “Shaddai” or “El Shaddai”. The Hebrew
word for God in this translation is “El Shaddai”.

What does the word El Shaddai mean? Let me paraphrase it. It is
one of the most marvelous titles of God. It is the word that means
“the God who is more than enough; the all-sufficient One”. Isn’t it
an amazing thing that Elimelech and Naomi go away because God
and Bethlehem was not enough? And when she comes back, she
says, “I have come to know God as the God who is more than
enough; the El Shaddai.” All of that suffering that God allowed in
the land of Moab, all of that hardship, the tears that they faced, the
graves that they had to go to, all of that was designed to show them
that God is more than enough.

Sometimes we might feel like when we are away from Bethlehem,
that maybe God hates us, and He has washed His hands of us, and
He is just standing there with a big rod waiting to beat us because
we are away from Bethlehem. But it is not that way at all. What
God is doing instead is engineering our situation and our
circumstances so that we will finally come to the place where we
know He is enough.

When we come to the place that we call Him El Shaddai, we will
come crawling back to Bethlehem. And when we come crawling
back to Bethlehem, we have crawled over the threshold which is the
beginning of a life that is an oasis, a life that is filled with joy and
relationship and produces a Savior for the world. That is why God
does that in our lives. Every forward step in your life in helplessness
is a forward step in the knowledge of God and in the knowledge of
His Word.