Deuteronomy 3:24

My Notes

What Does Deuteronomy 3:24 Mean?

"O Lord GOD, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what God is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might?" Moses' prayer is a RESPONSE to witnessed greatness: You have BEGUN to show. The greatness isn't FULLY displayed. It's BEGUN — the showing has started but not finished. And Moses' response is a RHETORICAL QUESTION that expects the answer 'NOBODY': what God can do what You do? The question is the worship. The asking is the praising. The impossibility of the answer IS the declaration of uniqueness.

The phrase "thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness" (attah hachillota lehar'ot et avdekha et godlekha — You have begun to cause Your servant to see Your greatness) makes the revelation INITIAL and INCOMPLETE: God has BEGUN (hachillota — started, commenced, initiated) to show. The showing has STARTED. It hasn't FINISHED. After forty years of miracles — plagues, Red Sea, manna, water from rock, Sinai, pillar of cloud — Moses says: You've only BEGUN. Everything I've seen is the BEGINNING. The introduction. The first chapter. The FULL display hasn't arrived yet.

The "what God is there in heaven or in earth" (mi El bashamayim uva'aretz — who is a god in the heavens or on the earth) searches the ENTIRE COSMOS and finds NO EQUAL: the question surveys HEAVEN (the divine realm) and EARTH (the human realm) and asks: WHO can match You? The answer is: nobody. In heaven — no rival deity. On earth — no comparable power. The search is COMPREHENSIVE. The result is EMPTY. The uniqueness is TOTAL.

Reflection Questions

• 1.What beginning of God's greatness have you seen — and does it make you ask 'who compares'?
• 2.What does forty years of miracles being the BEGINNING teach about the scale of what you haven't seen yet?
• 3.How does searching heaven AND earth and finding no equal describe God's total uniqueness?
• 4.What works and might have you witnessed that make the 'who can do according to' question rhetorical?

Devotional

You have BEGUN to show Your greatness. BEGUN. After forty years of miracles — everything Moses has seen is just the BEGINNING. The full display hasn't arrived. And Moses asks: what God in heaven or earth can do what YOU do? The answer is: nobody. The question IS the worship.

The 'thou hast BEGUN to show' makes forty years of miracles the INTRODUCTION: the plagues? The BEGINNING. The Red Sea? The BEGINNING. Manna for forty years? The BEGINNING. The revelation of God's greatness that has consumed Moses' ENTIRE LEADERSHIP career is — in Moses' assessment — the STARTING-POINT. The introduction. The overture. If everything Moses has seen is just the BEGINNING, what does the FULLNESS look like?

The 'thy greatness and thy mighty hand' names WHAT has been shown: GREATNESS (godlekha — the magnitude, the largeness, the weight of who God is) and MIGHTY HAND (yadeka hachazaqah — Your strong hand, the hand that acted in Egypt, the hand that parted the sea). The greatness is the CHARACTER. The mighty hand is the ACTION. Both have been shown — partially. Both await the FULL display. Moses has seen the beginning of both.

The 'what God in heaven or in earth' surveys the COSMOS for competitors: the question searches ABOVE (heaven — the realm of spiritual beings, of angels, of claimed deities) and BELOW (earth — the realm of human power, of earthly kings, of worldly might). The search finds NOTHING. No heavenly being matches. No earthly power compares. The works and the might are UNPARALLELED — in the ENTIRE creation, no competitor exists.

What 'beginning' of God's greatness have you seen — and does the beginning make you ask 'who can compare?'

Commentary

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Cross References

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