We administer Grace and apply truth to ourselves

[5] Some translators render Shaddai “the almighty”; others, “the thunderer”; but it properly signifies “the tempter” or “tester,” and “the benefactor after the temptations” or “trials,” as is evident from the book of Job, which mentions “Shaddai” so frequently because Job was in trials or temptations; as may be seen from the following passages: Behold, happy is the man whom God chastiseth; and reject not thou the chastening of Shaddai (Job 5:17). The arrows of Shaddai are with me, the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me (Job 6:4). He shall forsake the fear of Shaddai (Job 6:14). I will speak to Shaddai, and I desire to contend with God (Job 13:3). He hath stretched out his hand against God, and strengtheneth himself against Shaddai (Job 15:25). His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the fury of Shaddai (Job 21:20). Shaddai, thou shalt not find him out; he is great in power, and in judgment, and in the greatness of righteousness. He will not afflict (Job 37:23). Also in Joel: Alas for the day! For the day of Jehovah is near, and as devastation from Shaddai shall it come (Joel 1:15). The same may also be seen from the word shaddai itself, which signifies vastation, and thus temptation, for temptation is a kind of vastation. But as this name took its rise from nations in Syria, he is not called “Elohim Shaddai,” but “El Shaddai”; and in Job simply “Shaddai,” and “El” or “God” is named separately. [6] As after temptations there is consolation, those people also attributed the good resulting from them to the same Shaddai (as in Job 22:17, 23, 25-26); as well as the understanding of truth, which also results from temptations (Job 32:8; 33:4). And as Shaddai was thus esteemed as the god of truth-for vastation, temptation, chastening, and rebuking, are not of good, but of truth-and because the Lord was represented by him before Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the name was retained even in the prophets; but in them by “Shaddai” is meant truth. As in Ezekiel: I heard the voice of the wings of the cherubim, like the voice of many waters, like the voice of Shaddai, when they went; the voice of tumult, like the voice of a camp (Ezek. 1:24). The court was filled with the brightness of the glory of Jehovah; and the voice of the wings of the cherubim was heard even to the outer court, as the voice of God Shaddai when he speaketh (Ezek. 10:4-5); where “Jehovah” denotes good, and “Shaddai” truth. In the internal sense of the Word “wings” in like manner signify things that belong to truth. [7] Moreover Isaac and Jacob also make mention of the God Shaddai in a similar sense, that is, as of one who tempts, and delivers from temptation, and afterwards confers benefits. When Jacob was fleeing because of Esau, Isaac said to him, God Shaddai bless thee, and make thee fruitful and multiply thee (Gen. 28:3). And when the sons of Jacob were about to go into Egypt to buy corn, and when they feared Joseph so greatly, Jacob said to them, God Shaddai give you mercies before the man, that he may release unto you your other brother, and Benjamin (Gen. 43:14). Jacob, then called Israel, blessing Joseph, who had been in the evils of temptations, or trials, more than his brethren, and had been delivered from them, said, By the God of thy father, and he shall help thee, and with Shaddai, and he shall bless thee (Gen. 49:25). All this shows why the Lord was at first willing to be represented by the god Shaddai whom Abram worshiped, and why he said “I am God Shaddai”; as in like manner he afterwards said to Jacob, “I am God Shaddai; be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 35:11); and a further reason was that in what goes before, temptations were treated of in the internal sense. [8] The worship of Shaddai among those people originated from the fact that, as was the case with a certain nation that of the Lord’s Divine mercy will be spoken of in what follows, so with those who were of the ancient church, there were often heard spirits who reproved them and who also afterwards comforted them. The spirits who reproved them were perceived at the left side, beneath the arm. Angels were present at such times, at the head, who governed the spirits and moderated the reproof. And as there was nothing that was said to them by the spirits which they did not regard as Divine, they named the reproving spirit “Shaddai”; and because he afterwards administered consolation, they called him “the god Shaddai.” The men at that time, as also the Jews, because they did not understand the internal sense of the Word, were in the religious belief that all evil and thus all temptation, like all good and thus all consolation, come from God; but that it is not so, may be seen in volume 1 (n. 245, 592, 696, 1093, 1874, 1875). Thank you, Lord Jesus. Amen