Let us consider one of the titles of God. We see this title used eight times in the
Bible and would like to briefly consider each.
·
Deut. 10:17: The first use is in today’s reading
and as is often the case, the first use of a term or phrase in the Bible should
be noted as it often gives us important contextual ideas. Moses is teaching Israel their uniqueness as
it is bound up in the Law God has given them.
This set them above all peoples
(v15). Thus Israel must walk obediently
and faithfully because the God who has done this, the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God. God’s greatness is seen in contrast to the
gods of the nations. In this sense it is
similar to the title, Most High God, which also exalts God as the highest of
all gods.
·
Psalm 95:3: This Psalm gives us the same
context, of God being the great King
above all gods. This Psalm fits
Deuteronomy is that it is also calling Israel not to be stiff-necked or hard
hearted but to worship and trust God.
·
Prov. 26:10: Strictly speaking, this passage
simply refers to the great; the term God is added for clarity. It does refer to God as Creator and thus God
over all.
·
Ezra 5:8: At least three of the eight uses of
this title of God come from post-exilic times (Psalm 95:3 may also fit that
time). The times of Ezra, Nehemiah and
Daniel were the times of the gentiles,
the beginning of the time when the nations ruled Israel. There was (and is) no Davidic king; even
after the regathering Israel is dispersed to a great extent among the
nations. But what is interesting is who
uses the term. Here it is in the letter
to Darius the king, written by the
enemies who sought to stop the building of the temple and the restoration of
Jerusalem. Perhaps they used this term
because they heard it used by Israelites.
Perhaps they knew Israel claimed their God to be greater than all
others.
·
Neh. 8:6: Here it is Ezra who used the
title. He uses it as an adjective for
the LORD as he seeks to teach the people the Law of God. They knew God to be great simply in the fact
they were back in the land and the walls were built. It was a reminder of God’s greatness over the
gods of Persia; He had actually used those pagan kings to do His will.
·
Daniel 2:45: Daniel uses the title as he
explains to Nebuchadnezzar his dream and its interpretation. In other words, Daniel reminds the Babylonian
king that Israel’s God is greater than the kings of Babylon who could not
reveal the dream to the wise men.
·
Titus 2:13: Now look at what we have here! We are in the New Testament. And it is Jesus who is the great God. We have
explained this in detail elsewhere (in our studies of Titus) that the rule of
Greek grammar makes it clear that great
God and Savior both apply to
Christ. But I suspect that some might
still want to argue this point, though there is no question. So look at the next passage …
·
Rev. 19:17: When Jesus returns to destroy the
antichrist and his army this all occurs at the
supper of the great God (other translations notwithstanding). Who is the great God? Who was it back in Deuteronomy? It was the God of gods and Lord of lords.
But who is it who returns to defeat the evil armies of earth? He has
on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS
(Rev. 19:16).
Praise the great God today, the God who is
above all other gods, the God who can use even the evil nations for His
purposes, the one and only God, our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment