Shadayim vs. Shaddai - God and the Female Form

I want to address a theological controversy surrounding the topic of breasts. The Hebrew word for breasts is shadayim. Shadayim sounds a lot like the Hebrew word for God Almighty—El Shaddai. El is the generic word for god, that is often identified by a lower-case g. But when combined with Shaddai, it becomes God Almighty.

Here’s where it gets interesting. Some believe that the root of Shaddai is shad—breast.

We get a hint of this in Genesis 17:1–2, which is the first time El Shaddai is seen in Scripture, when God promises childless Abram that he will father many children; “Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before Me, and be blameless. I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly.”

We see the breast connection between shad and Shaddai when Jacob gives his blessing to Joseph, “From the God of your father who helps you, and by the Almighty (Shaddai) who blesses you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb” (Genesis 49:25).

I believe there is a connection between shad and Shaddai. Some think the connection refers to the mother or nurturing side of God. I categorically disagree. To argue that God doesn’t possess mothering qualities, limits a limitless God. But the fatal flaw with the God-as-Mother portrayal as is simple. Portraying God as a mother or woman and identifying God as “she” is simply not biblical and never found in Scripture. God never uses a feminine pronoun to describe Himself. Plus, Jesus came as a red-blooded man. I believe that Shaddai might be connected to shad, but it’s much a much simpler answer than theologians want to admit.

One look at the Bible’s many sexually explicit characters, human observation, and personal experience leads to a specific solution. El Shaddai, God Almighty is the only One we should worship.

But we men have a propensity to worship the female form instead of the God Almighty. Let me explain. Men, we are tempted to meditate on shadayim, breasts, more than El Shaddai, God Almighty. This unrighteous fixation on the female body has led many good men down a dark path away from their bride to find pleasure in the breasts of another woman, whether flesh and blood or digital.

In other words, good men of the Bible and in personal experience shows that men are tempted to worship shadayim more than Shaddai. If I were to ask 100 Jesus following men how much time they spend looking at or dreaming about breasts and other elicit things, compared to looking into the Word and dreaming about ways to worship and serve Jesus, I think we’d be shocked to discover that many Christian men functionally worship shadayim more than Shaddai. If I were to ask you, what would you admit to?

El Shaddai, God Almighty, is the only one worthy of our mental fixations, not the fleshly mountains of shadayim.