“Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the LORD He is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else” (Deuteronomy 4:39).
It is the standard cliché among modern intellectuals that Jehovah, the God of Israel, was nothing but a tribal “god,” like Dagon of the Philistines or Baal of the Zidonians. Nothing could be further from the truth, of course. As our text proclaims: “Jehovah [or Yahweh] is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else!”
This statement is found in what has been called the “valedictory address” of Moses. In fact, most of the book of Deuteronomy (meaning “second law”) consists of Moses’ exhortations and reminders to the children of Israel as they were about to enter the Promised Land. The great burden of his message was that the God of Israel was not like other gods, for they were nothing but nature gods, mere personifications of natural forces, energized to some degree by demonic spirits. “Jehovah, He is God!” He is the Creator of Heaven and Earth, and the various forces of nature, even of the spirits the heathen were worshiping.
“Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD’s thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is” (Deuteronomy 10:14), Moses reminded them. Then, in even stronger language he said: “For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward” (Deuteronomy 10:17). One cannot gain God’s favor either by position or by purchase, but only by obedient faith.
This God of Israel is maker of Heaven and Earth! Therefore, said Moses, “ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock, His work is perfect: for all His ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He” (Deuteronomy 32:3,4). HMM
