The Names of God

I'm doing a personal devotion on the names of God right now. It's been awesome because it's revealing Who God is in so many different ways. I'm half-way through the book and here are the names I've learned:

ELOHIM: God the Creator

EL ELYON: God Most High

EL ROI: The God Who Sees

EL SHADDAI: God Almightly, All Sufficient One

ADONAI: The Lord

JEHOVAH: The Self-Existent One

JEHOVAH-JIREH: The Lord Will Provide

JEHOVAH-RAPHA: The Lord Who Heals


The thing that strikes me about the names (note: plural) of God is that there really is not one that suffices in a description of our Great God. There is El Elyon, which is God Most High, but that does not convey the compassion displayed in El Roi, the God who is so intimately involved in our lives that He sees us. El Shaddai, God Almighty, shows God's awesome (in the true sense of the word) omnipotence, His mighty omniscience, while Jehovah Jireh and Jehovah Rapha make the Almighty nature of God so much more personal by His provision and healing us.

He is beyond one name. He is God, but there is so much more to His nature that we had to come up with a host of names to describe Him to all generations. Our God is so great that we need so many words to describe Him.

Doing this study in conjunction with the study at church has been a wonderful opportunity to not only learn the names of God through a devotion, but to see the names play out in the Old Testament. I cannot imagine needing El Shaddai more than when the prophets were speaking the very words of God to rebellious Israel. I am not sure one can identify Jehovah Jireh better than when Elijah was fed by the ravens or when the widow's food miraculously lasted. When God revealed Himself to Hannah, she needed to know that there was a God who saw her misery as a barren woman (and would heal her as Jehovah Rapha). So many times God reveals Himself to humankind as a exactly what we need. The amazing thing is that God continues this even now.