Originally posted: 2/28/2020
Substantiate: “to establish by proof or competent evidence.”
Supremacy: “the state of being supreme, highest in rank or authority, paramount, sovereign, chief.”
The Arameans were so sure they had God all figured out. They had placed Him neatly in the box they had constructed, convinced they could fit Him into a prefabricated category, the way they had categorized their own gods.
“Their gods are gods of the mountains, therefore they were stronger than we…” (20:23).
And yes, the Arameans would concede the God of Israel had some power, but surely not beyond His realm of jurisdiction. So together they concocted their strategy, persuaded He would be defeated and proven the weaker god; if only they could battle Him on their own turf.
“…but rather let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we will be stronger than they… 25 and muster an army like the army that you have lost, horse for horse, and chariot for chariot. Then we will fight against them in the plain, and surely we will be stronger than they,” (20:23, 25).
And once again, God would demonstrate Himself as the One True Living and All-Powerful God. He would rise to their feckless challenge and Substantiate His Supremacy.
Consider Him Who Substantiates His Supremacy
Then a man of God came near and spoke to the king of Israel and said, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because the Arameans have said, “The LORD is a god of the mountains, but He is not a god of the valleys,” therefore I will give all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the LORD,’” (20:28).
- He Substantiates His Supremacy through His Inspired Word.
- Then a man of God came near and spoke to the king of Israel and said, “Thus says the Lord,”
- He Substantiates His Supremacy through His Omniscience.
- ‘Because the Arameans have said, “The LORD is a god of the mountains, but He is not a god of the valleys,”
- He Substantiates His Supremacy through His Omnipotence.
- “therefore I will give all this great multitude into your hand,”
- He Substantiates His Supremacy through His Grace Extended.
- “and you shall know that I am the LORD.’”
- He Substantiates His Supremacy through His Son.
- In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, (John 1:1).
- God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. 3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power, (Hebrews 1:1-3).
How do we respond to Him Who Substantiates His Supremacy?
I never cease to be amazed by His grace extended in His endless revelation of His sovereignty and strength. For as He Substantiates His Supremacy before the most wicked king in all of the northern kingdom’s history, He offers the blessed opportunity to know the Truth; that even the likes of Ahab would be granted the privilege to repent and turn, “and you shall know that I am the LORD.”
Time and time again, He would extend His Grace through His Presence and Power to His rebellious children, that they would know He is the LORD and be given the opportunity to bow in repentance and faith.
Do you see His heart? He Substantiates His Supremacy that we would seek Him with all we are, and grope for Him to find Him!
and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, 27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; (Acts 17:26-27).
He Substantiates His Supremacy… for us! That we would find Him; that through His Inspired Word we would grow to know He is the LORD, Omniscient, Omnipotent, Extending His Grace through Jesus!
- Let us fervently seek Him daily, that we may grow to know Him Who Substantiates His Supremacy through His Inspired Word.
- For to us God revealed them through the Spirit;… 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, 13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words, (1 Corinthians 2:10, 12-13).
- All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; (2 Timothy 3:16).
- Let us willingly come to Him in all humility and honesty, that we may grow to know Him Who Substantiates His Supremacy through His Omniscience.
- O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar.
3 You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, O Lord, You know it all, (Psalm 139:1-4). - But Jesus, knowing what they were thinking in their heart… (Luke 9:47).
- And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do, (Hebrews 4:13).
- O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
- Let us steadfastly trust His will; that we may grow to know Him Who Substantiates His Supremacy through His Omnipotence.
- “For His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
And His kingdom endures from generation to generation.
35 All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
But He does according to His will in the host of heaven
And among the inhabitants of earth;
And no one can ward off His hand
Or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’” (Daniel 4:34-35). - He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him, (Colossians 1:15-16).
- “For His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
- Let us live gratefully dependent, that we may grow to know Him Who Substantiates His Supremacy through His Grace Extended.
- For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast, (Ephesians 2:8-9).
- And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed; (2 Corinthians 9:8).
- Let us live in obedience and reverence, that we may grow to know Him Who Substantiates His Supremacy through His Son, Jesus.
- Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father, (Philippians 2:8-11).
- He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 18 He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. 19 For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, 20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross… (Colossians 1:17-20).
Oh, that we would grow in our unquenchable hunger to daily come to Him, not through our own attempts or works, but in submissive faith, that we would know Him Who Substantiates His Supremacy, and that He would be exalted in our lives.
“Cease striving and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth,” (Psalm 46:10).