EL Elyon God Most High
(Illus)
As a young boy I would compare things I had with things my friends had, which was better? ‘My bike is fast’ I would say to my friend who would reply, ‘my bike is faster’. This would draw out the inevitable response from me, ‘my bike is fastest’. ‘Lets have a race.’
These comparative games would even involve our fathers, ‘my dad is strong’, ‘well my Dad is stronger’. Eventually one of us would say, if our Dad’s fought, my Dad would win because he’s the strongest.
-we like to play these comparative word competitions because we want to know who scored the MOST goals or who ran the FASTEST or who had the MOST hits in baseball.
-Who is the best, we all want to know!! Who IS the BEST!!
Q Who then is the best God, who is the strongest God, who is the most powerful God, who is the highest God?
-well, there is a name for that God, El Elyon, God most High,
MOST HIGH
This name of God, El Elyon, God most high, is not meaning that of all the gods that our God, YHWH, is the best. Nay, nay. There are no other gods that are real, that are alive or active. There never were or never will be. It is God alone, He is El Elyon, God most high. There are no comparables to our God, there is no equal or equivalent, nothing is akin to our God à He is the MOST.
And God is MOST HIGH,
-high is not a strange way to express God. If I where to ask you where is God, you would most likely point up. Point up to heaven, way up there, high.
-in our very perception of God we sense He is High, Most High. Not in terms of elevation is God high but in terms of position God is high, God is the highest, He is Most High, El Elyon. There is no god beside Him.
-we lift our voices up to sing to the Most High God.
-we pray to our Father in Heaven, on high.
-we raise our praising hands upward to God, on high
-we even lift our eyes skyward when we gesture that we are looking to God or for God.
- do you know this Most High God, you can know this God
-we start to understand who God is, by what He has done (read the Bible), by the Names ascribed to God in the Bible and by believing that God is, God really exists, and that Jesus Christ is God’s only Son who died for our personal sin in order to ‘save’ us.
-this salvation is available to all who would believe but it is understood to mean you just don’t believe but that you also follow God. Belief without action is in reality no belief at all.
El Elyon, God Most High, is used 24 x in the Bible, 18 x in the OT and 6 x in the NT where possessed people, demons and angels used the name, God Most High.
In the Old Testament we have a prideful king calling out Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego out of the fiery furnace where no harm was done to them. The king had made an image of himself, it was huge and all the people were to bow down to this high pride filled image. 3 young men didn’t kneel for they knew God Most High forbade such worship of an idol.
Listen to the rest of the story as written in Daniel 3.
“Look! I (Nebuchadnezzar) see four men untied and walking about in the middle of the fire unharmed, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods!” 26 Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the furnace of blazing fire; he said, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, come out, you servants of the Most High God, and come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego came out of the middle of the fire. 27 The satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king’s counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had no effect on the bodies of these men, nor was the hair of their heads singed, nor were their trousers damaged, nor had even the smell of fire touched them.
-it was El Elyon, the God Most High and not Nebuchadnezzar who was Most High
Later on Nebuchadnezzar’s son, Belshazzar, was filled with pride like his father and eventually, God had enough when he used the holy temple’s cups to drink their wine. God Most High wrote a message on the wall in Hebrew that Daniel could interpret. Daniel 5 listen to Daniel speaking to Belshazzar.
18 O king, the Most High God granted sovereignty, greatness, honor, and majesty to Nebuchadnezzar your father. 19 Now because of the greatness which He granted him, all the peoples, nations, and populations of all languages trembled and feared in his presence; whomever he wished, he killed, and whomever he wished, he spared alive; and whomever he wished he elevated, and whomever he wished he humbled. 20 But when his heart was arrogant and his spirit became so overbearing that he behaved presumptuously, he was deposed from his royal throne, and his dignity was taken away from him. 21 He was also driven away from mankind, and his heart was made like that of animals, and his dwelling place was with the wild donkeys. He was given grass to eat like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he recognized that the Most High God is ruler over the realm of mankind, and that He sets over it whomever He wishes. 22 Yet you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this, 23 but you have risen up against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your nobles, your wives, and your concubines have been drinking wine out of them; and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see, nor hear, nor understand. But the God in whose hand are your life-breath and all your ways, you have not glorified. 24 Then the hand was sent from Him and this inscription was written out.
25 “Now this is the inscription that was written:
‘Menē, Menē, Tekēl, Upharsin.’
26 This is the interpretation of the message: ‘Menē’—God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it. 27 ‘Tekēl’—you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient. 28 ‘Perēs’—your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
God is -God Most High, whether it’s kings or pharaohs or presidents or prime ministers God is El Elyon, He is God Most High and He is over all.
God is our God Most High, we must make this personal
My God Most High Eli Elyon
For people who believe, Christians, there is great comfort and security in knowing God Most High because it means that the God in whom we trust, He is sovereign, in control and is for us in every circumstance we find ourselves in, in every tear and pain we have, in valleys and mountain tops. He, God Most High, is all powerful, ever present and gracious, He is compassionate and is faithfully loving towards His people.
David is basking in this Most High God’s security and breaks out into a song and refers to 6 God names that are precious to him, including El Elyon.
(read in English first then again with the Hebrew)
Psalm 91:1 He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High (EL ELYON), shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty (EL SHADDAI); (2) I will say of the LORD (YHWH), He is my refuge (Mak kas^ a lanu) and my fortress (YHWH Mazud); my God (ELOHIM); in Him will I trust.
David further says when he is hiding from King Saul, he pleads with God and he trusts in God
Psalm 57:2 (read with emotion)
Be gracious to me, God, be gracious to me, For my soul takes refuge in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge Until destruction passes by. 2 I will cry to God Most High, (El Elyon) To God who accomplishes all things for me.
First reference to El Elyon, God Most High
Gen 14
18 And Melchizedek the king of Salem brought out bread and wine; now he was a priest of God Most High. 19 And he blessed Abram and said,
“Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth;
And blessed be God Most High,
Abram uses the same name when he responds to King of Sodom
“I have sworn to the Lord God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth,
David writes
Psalm 78:35
And they remembered that God was their rock, And the Most High God their Redeemer.
Psalm 97:9
For You are the Lord Most High over all the earth; You are exalted far above all gods.
From these aforementioned verses we see that God Most High is:
Our Redeemer
Our Rock
Our Refuge
Possesses all of heaven and earth
Hears our prayers and pleas as David believed
Our fortress
That YHWH is El Elyon and He is exalted, above all others
He is God Most High
The demon possessed man in Mark 5:7 used this term, Most High God, when he met Jesus, in fact, he ran towards Jesus, fell down and worshipped Jesus and then: “ shouting with a loud voice, he said, “What business do You have with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!”
The angel who announced to Mary about Jesus’s birth used this ancient name of God;
Luke 1:32 He (Jesus) will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David;
-an interesting scene in Acts 16 finds a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination following Paul and Silas. She keeps yelling out repeatedly as they walked: (vs 17)
“These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you a way of salvation.”
-we too are the servants of the God Most High, so let us serve El Elyon
-we too, like David, can call out with trust, in our dire circumstances, and believe that El Elyon hears and will be our refuge and rock
-we too need to have reverential fear of God as Melchizedek and Abram had
-God Most High wants us to respond to Him with faith and with faithful obedience because He is God and there is none other.
-let me express what God Most High needs to be to you
God Most High in your heart, in your life
This is the thrill of a lifetime, to know God and to follow God Most High.
May 14, 2023
