God is called by many different names in Scripture, and each name reveals a different aspect of who He is. There is El Shaddai, which means “God All Sufficient”, Jehovah, which means “The Lord”, Jehovah-Shalom which means “the Lord Our Peace”, and many others.

Today I want to look briefly at the name Haggo’el, with means “The Redeemer”.

This name for God appears in numerous places in the Bible, including Job 19:25, Psalm 19:14 and Isaiah 44:6.

So what is a redeemer? Let me give you this illustration.

A boy carried his new toy boat to the edge of a river. He carefully placed it in the water and slowly let out the string to which the boat was attached. How smoothly the boat sailed! The boy sat in the warm sunshine, and he admired the little boat that he had built.

Suddenly a strong current caught the boat. The boy tried to pull it back to shore, but the string broke, and the little boat raced downstream.

The boy ran along the river’s shore as fast as he could, but the current was faster than his legs could run, and his little boat soon slipped out of sight.

He searched all afternoon for the boat. But as the sun slowly sank below the horizon it became too dark to look any longer, and the boy went sadly home.

A few days later, on the way home from school, the boy spotted a boat just like his in the window of a store. When he got closer, he could see that it was his!

The boy ran inside and found the store manager. “Mister, the boat that’s in your window? It’s mine!
I made it!”

“I’m sorry, young man, but someone else sold it to me this morning. If you want it, you’ll have to buy it for five dollars.”

The boy ran home and counted all his money. He had exactly five dollars! As fast as he could, he ran back to the store and said to the manager, “Here’s the money for my boat.” As he left the store, the boy hugged his boat and said, “Now you’re twice mine. First, I made you and now I bought you.”

What was once lost, has now been redeemed.

God is Haggo’el, the Redeemer.