El Olam is the Hebrew name for the God who has no beginning and no end, the God for whom one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like one day. His plans stand firm forever, plans to give you a future full of hope.
Olam is a Hebrew word that occurs more than four hundred times in the Hebrew Scriptures. It is translated as “eternal,” “everlasting,” “forever,” “lasting,” “ever,” or “ancient.” It refers to the fullness of the experience of time or space. The title El Olam (EL o-LAM), meaning “Eternal God” or “Everlasting God,” appears only four times in Scripture. The word is applied to God and his laws, promises, covenant, and kingdom.
When you pray to the Everlasting God, you are praying to the God whose Son is called the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He is the God whose love endures forever.
Praying to El Olam
My neighborhood in Michigan is full of trees—beech, birch, black walnut, maple, sassafras, pine, poplar, sycamore, elm, oak, and the occasional willow. But as far as I know there are no tamarisk trees.
Tamarisk, it seems, grow best in challenging soils, like the arid, saline soils of the Middle East. Why does the Bible take pains to note that Abraham planted a tamarisk tree by a well where he worshiped the Everlasting God? (see Genesis 21: 25-34)
First of all, wells were extraordinarily valuable in a land where not a drop of water falls from May to October. No wonder people fought over them. In this case Abraham had dug a well to care for his family and flocks. But interlopers had seized it. Hoping to settle the matter, he complained to Abimelech, the local strong man, and the two came to an agreement in which Abraham retained ownership of the well. As soon as the deal was inked, he planted a tamarisk tree right next to the well.
A little research reveals some interesting things about the tamarisk tree. First of all it’s a water hog. So Abraham must have thought this was a pretty good well, one that had a vast reservoir of water. Second, tamarisk trees grow quickly, as much as a foot per month in springtime, providing shade by acting as a natural umbrella. As the tree grows it produces flowers in dense masses, with each flower producing thousands of seeds to propagate more trees. Also, the tamarisk is tough to kill. It seems impervious to disease and insects and can easily re-sprout after being cut down or burned. By depositing salt into the surface soil, it also tends to wipe out competing plants.
So the tamarisk tree seems like a fitting symbol, thriving in soil that would challenge most other plants and establishing itself as the hardiest of trees. Perhaps Abraham planted it purposely to remind himself and others of the qualities of El Olam, the Everlasting God, the one who cannot be displaced by other gods, and whose purpose and plans hold firm forever.
