- Name 9 of 70The Everlasting God (El Olam)
- HebrewEl Olam
- In plain wordsThe Everlasting God, God of all time
- Where to find itGenesis 21:33, at the well of Beer-sheba
El Olam means "the Everlasting God." It is the name Abraham used at Beer-sheba, in the dry south of the land of Canaan, after he settled an argument over a well and planted a tree. The King James Bible says he called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God
(Genesis 21:33). It is a name about time, and about a God who has more of it than we do.
A fight over water in Philistine country
By this point in Abraham's life, the great waiting was over. Isaac, the son promised for so long, had been born at last. But Abraham was still a foreigner. He lived in land controlled by a local king named Abimelech, and he did not own a single field of the country God had promised to his family.
One day Abimelech came to see him, bringing Phichol, the commander of his army. That sounds threatening, but the visit was actually a compliment. The king said God is with thee in all that thou doest
(Genesis 21:22), and he asked Abraham to swear to deal honestly with him and his family.
Abraham agreed, then raised a complaint. Abimelech's servants had seized one of his wells. In that hot, dry region, a well was not a small thing. It meant water for people and animals, and water meant life. Abimelech said he had never heard of it.
So Abraham did something careful. He gave the king sheep and oxen, and the two men made a covenant, a formal agreement. Then he set aside seven young female lambs and explained what they were for.
And he said, For these seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that they may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well. Wherefore he called that place Beer-sheba; because there they sware both of them.
Genesis 21:30-31
When Abimelech accepted the lambs, he was publicly admitting that the well belonged to Abraham. Beer means well, and sheba can be connected with both "seven" and "oath," so the name Beer-sheba is usually explained as "well of the oath." Today the ruins of an ancient town there, Tel Beer Sheba in southern Israel, are part of a UNESCO World Heritage site called the Biblical Tels.
A tree, a prayer and a new name
After the soldiers left, Abraham did two quiet things.
And Abraham planted a grove in Beer-sheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God.
Genesis 21:33
The King James says "grove." The Hebrew word is eshel, which Strong's defines as a tamarisk tree, and by extension a grove of trees. Many Bible readers picture a single tamarisk, a tough tree that can survive in dry ground.
Think about what that picture says. Abraham was well over a hundred years old. God had promised that his family would one day fill this land, but that would take hundreds of years. His son was still a child. All Abraham legally had was one well. People that age usually think about what is running out. Abraham put a young tree in the ground and worshiped the God whose life is long enough to keep every promise. The very next verse adds that Abraham sojourned in the Philistines' land many days
. To sojourn is to live somewhere as a guest. He stayed, and he waited, with El Olam.
Olam: the word for time out of sight
El is the familiar short word for God. Olam is the word that makes this name special. Strong's says its basic idea is something hidden, like the point far down a road where it disappears from view. From there it came to mean time so long that no one can see the end of it, in either direction: the far past or the far future. The King James translates olam with words such as "ever," "everlasting," "old" and "perpetual."
So El Olam means the God of all the time there is. Stand at any moment in history, look as far back as you can and as far ahead as you can, and God is already there. He did not start, and He will not stop.
Compare that with Abraham's own position. He was a man with a limited number of years, living on a promise that needed centuries. He could not see the end of it, so he trusted the One who could.
King James verses about the everlasting God
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
Psalm 90:2
This psalm is called a prayer of Moses. "From everlasting to everlasting" uses the word olam twice, once looking back and once looking forward. Before the oldest mountain existed, God was already God.
Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
Isaiah 40:28
Isaiah wrote this to people who were worn out and felt forgotten. His point is simple: the God who never ends also never gets tired. A few verses later he promises that those who wait on the LORD will renew their strength.
The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them.
Deuteronomy 33:27
Moses spoke this blessing near the end of his own life. A refuge is a safe place to run to. The picture of "everlasting arms" underneath you means that when everything else gives way, there is still something solid below.
The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
Jeremiah 31:3
God's love lasts as long as God does. There is no date on the calendar when it runs out.
Planting trees you may never sit under
Most of life is measured in short bites. We check the time, the weather, the test score, the account balance. If something has not happened by this year, it is easy to decide it never will. El Olam pulls the camera back. God works on a longer timeline than ours, and He is not late just because we are impatient.
Abraham's tree is a picture for anyone doing something that will outlast them. A grandmother praying for grandchildren who are not born yet is planting a tree. So is a coach pouring into kids, a volunteer teaching a Bible class, or a young person choosing habits now that will shape the next fifty years. You may never sit in the shade. The everlasting God will still be there when it grows.
The name also takes the panic out of waiting. If God has all the time there is, then a delay is not the same as a no.
- Name one worry that will not matter a hundred years from now, and hand it to El Olam.
- Plant something, a real seed or a kind habit, as a reminder that God's promises take time to grow.
- Read Psalm 90 slowly and notice how short human life looks next to God's.
El Olam is name 9 in the book, right after El Shaddai, the Almighty God. The next name comes from the day Abraham stood before God and pleaded for a city: the Judge of all the earth. For more names like this one, see the Hebrew names of God.
