El Elyon

“Blessed be Abram of God Most High (El Elyon), Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High (El Elyon), Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” Genesis 14:19-20

Simply put, El is God. It is an abbreviation of a more common name of God, Elohim. While Elohim is usually used alone (Genesis 1:1), the abbreviation El is often combined with another word to further describe an attribute of God. One of these combinations used in the Old Testament is El Elyon - or God Most High.

This is an important concept to understand about the God you serve; He is above everything. There may be some high things in your life giving you trouble, but He is Most High. You will never find an issue in this life that goes over His head. Psalm 113:6 gives us an illustration of El Elyon; He’s the One who “bends down to look at the heavens.”

Exodus 18:11 shows us another look at El Elyon: “Now I know that the Yahweh is greater than all the gods; for in the very thing in which they behaved proudly, He was above them.” This was just after the exodus from Egypt. Israel was delivered from a king who declared himself a god on high. But when Yahweh showed up, He showed Himself to be the Most High, far above the throne of Pharaoh!

2 Samuel 22:14 tells us that when the Most High speaks, His voice thunders and scatters the enemy. The word of the Most High scatters the enemies that try to scatter His people!

Psalm 21:7 tells us that we can trust in the mercy of the Most High.

Psalm 47:2 says that the Most High is King over all the earth.

Psalm 91, one of the two most familiar Psalms in the Bible, only applies to those who dwell in the secret place of the Most High.

“El Elyon” speaks of God’s incredible power. It stretches far beyond what we can imagine. Think about this for a minute; every plant, every animal, every cell, every star, and everything else in this universe came out of His power and remains under His control! Every person that has ever walked on this planet was put here by His power and according to His plan. Every kingdom that has ever ruled was established by Him.

Then we move into the New Testament and see Jesus. Philippians 2:9-11 says this about our Savior: “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” You see, Jesus is the Most High God!

The eternal power, the creative and sustaining presence in the universe, the complete victory over enemies and everything else that we’ve already ascribed to El elyon is given to Jesus in Colossians 1:13-18. Read this carefully:

He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love (victory - 2 Samuel 22:14), in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins (mercy - Psalm 21:7). He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth (Possessor of heaven and earth - Genesis 14:19), visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers (far above the kings of this world - Psalm 47:2). All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

Jesus, our Savior and Redeemer, the One who loved us so much that He laid down His life - He is El Elyon, God Most High! He is on your side!....Your problem doesn’t look so big now, does it?