Is ‘our God greater’?

Over the terminal few months I have institute myself less and less comfortable with the song by Chris Tomlin that has the chorus:

Our God is greater, our God is stronger
God y'all are higher than any other
Our God is Healer, awesome in power
Our God, Our God…

At commencement I thought that the primary reason was that it sounded a piddling the 'My dad'southward bigger than your dad' playground taunt directed at other religions. I wonder how it would experience to sing this in, say, a Muslim majority area, or with converts from another faith in your congregation?

But on reflection I realised that there was a deeper reason. It occurred to me that it is very rare for Scripture to use comparatives (greater, potenter and then on) to depict God, even in contexts of different and competing faith perspectives. Most often Scripture uses absolutes of God, claiming not that the God of State of israel can practise things better than the gods of the other nations, but that he can do things that simply no other god tin do. I suspect this is the idea behind stories like the battle between David and Goliath—information technology is non that David's god is stronger than Goliath's, only that at that place is simply no comparison to be made. Another classic case is the mocking of idols as nothing in Is 44:

One-half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his repast, he roasts his meat and eats his fill.
He also warms himself and says, "Ah! I am warm; I come across the burn."
From the balance he makes a god, his idol; he bows downwards to it and worships.
He prays to information technology and says, "Salve me! You are my god!"

This polemical poetry follows, of grade, from several capacity in this second part of Isaiah which waxes lyrical about the incomparability of Yahweh, Israel's god who will show his power and his love by bringing them dorsum from exile—and in fact this sense of the absolute, rather than comparative, greatness of God is explored in the verses of Tomlin'south song. 'Who is like God?' the prophet cries—in Hebrew 'Mi-cha-el?'

Michael and his angels are the subject of this Sunday'southward reading from Revelation 12, a text that it is not easy to preach from. In order to do so, at that place are some important things to note:

1. The affiliate is clearly structured in iv parts:

• a strange story about a pregnant woman, a dragon, and the 'male son' to whom the woman gives nascency in vv ane to six
• a quite different style of story involving Michael and his angels in vv vii to nine
• a Christian hymn of praise, celebrating the victory that has been won, in vv x to 12
• in v 13, a return to the original story, conspicuously signalled by the repetition of the woman, her nativity to the male son, and her flying to the desert (using Exodus linguistic communication which also occurs in Is 40) for the aforementioned period. (three.5 years = 42 months = 1260 days if you have perfect months of 30 days each.)

2. The characters clearly come from the Onetime Testament. The woman stands for the people of God, experiencing oppression or suffering expressed as birthpangs, waiting to be 'delivered', in both sense of the term, by Yahweh (see Isaiah 26.17, Isaiah 66.7, Micah 4.10, Micah 5.3). The dragon is explained every bit the serpent and Satan (Gen three.13, Ezek 29.3, Job 1.vi, Zech three.1). The male person son is the expected messiah, the all-powerful one who will be the agent of God'southward rescue and delivery (Ps 2.9, Dan 10.13).

three. But what about the plot of the principal story framing this whole chapter? If I retold the gospel story starting 'At that place were three bears who lived in a wood…' or 'A girl went out in a ruddy cloak with a hood…' so you would recognise the story immediately. If you lived in the Roman province of Asia in the first century, you would immediately recognise Rev 12, considering it would remind you of this:

Python, son of Terra, was a huge dragon. He was accustomed to giving oracles on Mountain Parnassus before the fourth dimension of Apollo. He was informed by an oracle that he would be destroyed by the offspring of Leto. At that time Zeus was living with Leto. When [Zeus' wife] Hera learned of this, she decreed that Leto should give birth at a place where the sun does not reach. When Python perceived that Leto was pregnant by Zeus, he began to pursue (her) in order to kill her. But, by society of Zeus, the North Wind (Aquilo) lifted Leto up and carried her to Poseidon; Poseidon protected her, simply in lodge non to rescind Hera's decree, he carried her to the island Ortygia and covered the island with waves. When Python did non discover Leto, he returned to Parnassus. But Poseidon returned the isle Ortygia to the upper region, and it was later chosen the island of Delos. There, holding on to an olive tree, Leto gave nascency to Apollo and Artemis, to whom Haphaestus gave arrows equally a gift. 4 days after they were built-in, Apollo avenged his mother. He went to Parnassus and killed Python with arrows.

This was told as a myth in back up of regal power: the emperor was the hero Apollo and he vanquishes Python, symbolising the forces of chaos and disorder, bringing in Pax Romana. The book of Revelation inverts this: the Apollo figure is at present this male child who is to rule the nations, and the chaos monster now represents God's primeval enemy, of whom Roman dominion (in the grade of the animate being from the bounding main) is henchman. Here we accept a written case of a political cartoon, used to tell united states of america the truth almost whether Caesar is Lord or Jesus is Lord.

But the almost puzzling thing about the passage is the role of Michael in delivering the victory of the messiah. One time you know the Python/Leto story, it is clear from the first part of Rev 12 that it is the 'male son' who is the champion. Simply when it comes to delivering the knock-out blow (equally it were) in five 9, and so this messiah figure is nowhere to be seen. And nonetheless, when we reach the hymn jubilant the victory, in vv 10 and eleven, it is clear not just that the victory belongs to the messiah, but that it has been won at the cost of his own claret. Why is there such aperture at the crucial moment? It is a puzzle that baffles most commentators.

Part of the answer lies in the fact that John, writing Revelation, is drawing on unlike traditions and stories in these different sections—the Python/Leto myth at beginning and end, and Jewish tradition about Michael in the heart. But he could have easily adapted them to address this issue. No, I call back information technology is quite deliberate. John wants to avoid the idea that the male son is 'greater' than the serpent, equally if it were possible to compare the two. Like Isaiah, he wants us to say 'Mi-cha-el? Who is similar God? There is no-one with whom he compares.' Jesus' victory is so comprehensive, so far-reaching, so surprising and radical, and then gracious and life-giving, that there tin be no comparison with his antagonist, the accuser of the brethren.

Perhaps nosotros should stick with Chris Tomlin'due south verses from his vocal but—unless someone can propose an alternative chorus?

(You can read more about the estimation of Revelation, including chapter 12, in my Grove booklet.)

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