Nehemiah 9:1-11, The Great God

I am not in a huge hurry to get through Nehemiah.  Let’s take time to call attention to some things about the “names” of God.

·       In Neh. 8:6 the title “the LORD, the great God” might have caught your attention.  Certainly, in the OT, there are references to God’s greatness (e.g. Ps. 48:1; 76:1; 77:13).  But this exact phrase (“great God”) is first found in Deut. 10:17: “For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe.”  What a magnificent description of the LORD, in a context where Israel is being encouraged to worship and serve the LORD alone (v12). 

o   The title appears in Ezra 5:8 and Neh. 8:6.  In Ezra, it is used by those who sought to hinder the work on the second temple in a letter they sent to oppose the work.  In Nehemiah, “Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God.” It’s used in Dan. 2:45, as Daniel interprets the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, and he used it as if it was known to the king that he was talking about the God of Israel.  “The great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this.”  These three references have connections with the exile, making me think it is a name that resonated with the Jews at that time as well as by the Gentiles.  The book of Daniel tells us why the God of Israel might have become commonly known in Babylon/Persia as “the great God.”

o   The next use is Psalm 95:3. It seems clear this Psalm of praise has Deuteronomy in mind.  Ps. 95:1 refers to the LORD as “the Rock of our salvation,” drawing on Deut. 32 (the Song of Moses).  Then, in v3, we read “For the LORD is the great God, and the great King above all gods.”  That can easily be connected to Dt. 10:17. 

o   One other OT passage with this name is Prov. 26:10: “The great God who formed everything gives the fool his hire and the transgressor his wages.”  Here He is the Creator of all things, setting Him apart from all other “gods.”

o   There are two other Biblical references to the great God and they are in the NT.  Titus 2:13: “looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”  Revelation 19:16-17: “And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.  Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice … ‘Come and gather together for the supper of the great God …’.”  Paul clearly calls Jesus the great God.  And as for Rev. 19, you can decide if it refers to the Father or Son.  The Son’s title in v16 comes from Deut. 10:17 as does the reference to the ”great God.”  It surely makes sense to me that it is the supper of the great God, Jesus, who is King of kings and Lord of lords.

We are seeing that even in the time of Israel’s exile to Babylon, God was still being honored and was being glorified even among the nations.  In today’s passage, which we will study in a couple of days, God was worshiped as the great God, even though they did not use those exact words. We see the consistent truth of Scripture that Jesus Christ was/is true Deity, the great God who created all things.  May we recognize God in this way in our own thinking.  Great God means He is KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS!