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Chapter 1  Part II

God’s Pre-Eminence

Sections

See also:

• [God’s] Holiness

A failure of many of us in the church today is that we have an inadequate view of God, failing to fully appreciate his pre-eminence. All Christians need to understand and be mindful of God’s surpassing greatness and incomparable capabilities – notably his power, knowledge and wisdom.

God’s Greatness

God is great and awesome

[Moses, to the Israelites:] For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God who is unbiased and takes no bribe, …   Deuteronomy 10:17 NET

God is greater than all others

[Jesus:] My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them from my Father’s hand.   John 10:29 NET

There is no one like God

[Jeremiah:] No one is like you, O Lord. You are great. Your name is powerful. 7Everyone fears you, O King of the Nations. This is what you deserve. No one is like you among all the wise people in the nations in all their kingdoms.   Jeremiah 10:6-7 GW

God is beyond our comprehension

Yes, God is great – beyond our knowledge! The number of his years is unsearchable.   Job 36:26 NET

Can you discover the essence of God? Can you find out the perfection of the Almighty? 8It is higher than the heavens – what can you do? It is deeper than Sheol – what can you know? 9Its measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.   Job 11:7-9 NET

The extent of God’s being and attributes are far beyond our understanding.

God’s Power

God’s power is incomparable and unlimited

He [Jehoshaphat] prayed: “O Lord God of our ancestors, you are the God who lives in heaven and rules over all the kingdoms of the nations. You possess strength and power; no one can stand against you.   2 Chronicles 20:6 NET

[Paul, speaking of God:] You will also know the unlimited greatness of his power as it works with might and strength for us, the believers.   Ephesians 1:19 GW

God can do all things – nothing is too hard

[Job, to God:] I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.   Job 42:2 ESV

[The angel Gabriel, to Mary:] Your relative Elizabeth is also going to have a son, even though she is old. No one thought she could ever have a baby, but in three months she will have a son. 37Nothing is impossible for God!   Luke 1:36-37 CEV

God performs awesome deeds

[Isaiah, to God:] When you performed awesome deeds that took us by surprise, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.   Isaiah 64:3 NET

God’s Knowledge and Wisdom

God knows everything

God is greater than our conscience and knows all things.   1 John 3:20b NET

God sees all people, seeing and knowing all that they do

The Lord watches from heaven; he sees all people. 14From the place where he lives he looks carefully at all the earth’s inhabitants. 15He is the one who forms every human heart, and takes note of all their actions.   Psalms 33:13-15 NET

God knows people’s minds

This is what the Lord says: ‘This is what you are thinking, O house of Israel; I know what goes through your minds.   Ezekiel 11:5b NET

God knows the future

[God, to Israel:] From the beginning I revealed the end. From long ago I told you things that had not yet happened, saying, “My plan will stand, and I’ll do everything I intended to do.”   Isaiah 46:10 GW

God has incredible wisdom

Our Lord is great and has awesome power; there is no limit to his wisdom.   Psalms 147:5 NET

God’s Name

God declared his name to be the “Lord”

Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with Moses, and the Lord called out his name: the Lord.   Exodus 34:5 NCV™

Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” 15God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.   Exodus 3:13-15 ESV

“Lord” (v. 15) can be derived from “I AM” (v. 14). For the actual Hebrew that is rendered as “Lord” is “YHWH” (most likely pronounced “Yahweh”) and it “is derived from the verb HAYAH, to be” (NASB text note) to which “I AM” is also related. Note that “I AM WHO I AM” (v. 14) may well have the sense: “I will be who I will be”. This title and its shortened form “I AM” (v. 14) appear to express God’s unchanging nature, self-existence, self-determination and omnipresence.

Pray for persecuted Christians