Good Morning. 

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless.” (Genesis 17:1)

When God spoke this to Abram, in Hebrew He referred to Himself as El Shaddai, meaning, “The God who is sufficient.” Later Moses was told, “I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty (El Shaddai)” (Exodus 6:3). It is important to consider that in light of what He told Abram to do —“Walk before me and be blameless.” In other versions of the Scriptures the word used is “perfect.”

The Hebrew word translated as “blameless, perfect” is תמים tammim. It is the word used to identify that which is whole and lacking nothing. It describes the lamb that was to be slaughtered at Passover and it is the word used to describe a chaste bride who is without spot or wrinkle. In other words, the Almighty was calling Abram to walk in the same way we are being called to walk in anticipation of being joined to our Bridegroom. But how does one attain this perfection?

We know that it is impossible to do this in our corruptible flesh and that is why we must first be born again. Still, that is just the beginning and, therefore, we must be empowered by the Spirit of God to walk upright before Him and be tammim. The point is that we can’t do this in and of ourselves — we need help. We need the help that can only come from the “God who is sufficient.” We can’t do much to attain this goal on our own but we can do “all things through Messiah who strengthens me.”

Blessings and Shalom,  

Bill  

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