Greatness of God
The Greatness of God
The sheer supremacy of God and the glory which should be ascribed to Him by puny mankind is a constant theme throughout Scripture. It was well expressed by David, King of Israel:
"Blessed be thou, 0 LORD, the God of Israel our Father, for ever and ever. Thine, 0 LORD, is the greatness: and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty, for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, 0 LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all" (1 Chronicles 29:10,11).
Greatness ... power ... glory ... victory ... majesty ... all in heaven and earth ... kingdom ... exalted ... head over all. We do well to read slowly through these terms to appreciate David's profound sense of the majestic supremacy of God. It was shared by the Apostle Paul, as we have seen.
This deep conviction of God's supreme majesty is shared by all the faithful of Old Testament times. Now we should not neglect the Old Testament, for in it are revealed the foundations of the character of God, basic truths about Him which are confirmed and expanded in the New Testament. Furthermore it was to Israel that was granted the great revelation of God's supremacy over all the gods of mankind in the stirring events of their Exodus from Egypt. The Israelites saw the effects of the plagues upon the Egyptians and witnessed their own deliverance at the crossing of the Red Sea. Moses put it very strikingly 40 years later:
"For ask now of the days that are past ... whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is? ... Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live? Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials (R.V. margin), by signs, and by wonders ... according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?" (Deuteronomy 4:32-34).
Upon this open demonstration of His power and salvation on their behalf, God based His appeal for their service towards Him:
"Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar (special) treasure unto me from among all peoples ... " (Exodus 19:4,5).
Notice particularly here that God's appeal for faith in Himself was solidly based not upon His moral excellence (of which He would give plenty of evidence later on), but upon the demonstration of His supremacy over the greatest pagan system on earth at the time (the Egyptian). This is reinforced when God reveals through Moses His Law for Israel, for the very first clause begins:
"I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage" (Exodus 20:2).
Then follow the Ten Commandments, the kernel of God's Law for them.
The authority comes first; the moral teaching follows. It is impossible to dispense with this order. Strikingly, Jesus adopts the same position. The words he spoke, he said, were not his own, but his Father's. In prayer to God, he addresses Him as "Father, Lord of heaven and earth" (Matthew 11:25). Though God was a Father to all who sought Him, yet He remained "Lord of heaven and earth". Unhappily it has to be said that these priorities have been widely ignored in our days, even by many who would regard themselves as followers of Jesus Christ.