Deuteronomy 3:24: “Oh, Lord God, thou hast begun to show thy servant thy greatness.”

I have walked this earth now for three score and five years.  I grew up in a Christian Home went to church almost every day of the week.  I studied in Bible Colleges and Seminaries and was a pastor and then a teacher in a Bible College.  I have been doing in-depth studies in the Word of God all my adult life and the last seven years I have been on a search for the heart of God. Yet this morning I realized I have not even begun to know God’s greatness.  This morning I could not sleep, I was very troubled in mind and soul so I went for a walk. I thought of an old song:  “O soul are you wear and troubled, no light in the darkness you see?  There’s light for a look at the Savior, and life more abundant and free.  Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”  I looked into His wonderful face, I heard Him say, “It’s ok.”  You know what, suddenly everything was ok.  I could not help but marvel that after all these years I realized I was only beginning to see the greatness of God.

Deuteronomy 3:24 records an amazing statement made by Moses: “Oh, Lord God, thou hast begun to show thy servant thy greatness.” Say what?  Isn’t the plagues of Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, the manna every day for forty years, the water from the rock and the multitudes of miracle that Moses and the people of Israel experienced and now Moses says that they are only beginning to  see the greatness of God.

The Book of Deuteronomy is really three sermons that Moses delivered to the people of Israel just before they entered the promised land.  The first sermon rehashes the 40 years it took for the people of Israel to move from Egypt to the place where they were presently at. It ends by encouraging the people to follow the law of God.  The second sermon stresses the importance of worshipping the One God and following His laws if they wish to dwell in the land He has given them.  The third sermon is a word of encouragement.  If the people of Israel should prove unfaithful and lose their land, God will restore them if they repent.

Perhaps in these three sermons we can understand what Moses meant when he said that God was just beginning to show his greatness.   I mean who could have understood the greatness of God better than Moses.  He stood before Pharaoh and watched as God made a fool of Pharaoh with His great miracles.  He watched the greatness of God’s ability to part the Red Sea allowing the people of Israel to escape and then close the sea up on their enemies. Moses saw a miracle every day for forty years as God faithfully sent manna from heaven, and gave them water from a rock.  He witnessed the healing miracles when people were bitten by poisonous snakes and just by looking at a brass serpent were instantly healed. After forty years of this Moses is now saying that God is just beginning to show His greatness?

The word used for beginning in Hebrew is hachiloth and is found in a Hithpael form. In other words it is reflexive.  It is generally accepted that this word comes from the root word halal which means to pierce, wound, slay.  In its very Semitic origins it has the idea of beginning as wounding or slaying someone was the beginning of many conflicts and blood revenge.  Still how do you make the word beginning reflexive?  You would have to say that God caused Himself to begin.  To me it seems translators were trying to put a square peg in a round hole.

I contend that hachiloth (beginning) is actually  a play on the word halah. Halah  means to adorn oneself, make oneself beautiful. This fit’s the context just as much as halal.  The verse reads: “Oh Lord God you have begun to show your servant your greatness,” but it can also read: “Oh Lord God you have adorned yourself to show your servant your greatness.

After Israel spent  forty years of wanderings in the wilderness under the judgment of God for not trusting Him and obeying Him, God is now ready to lead His people, a new generation, into the promised land.  Would God not want to adorn Himself as a new bride welcoming his people to their new home?

What I find more interesting is the word greatness. The question comes to mind, “What type of greatness is Moses talking about?”   There are many types of greatness; there is greatness in kindness, strength, beauty, splendor, kingship, etc.  Just  how is God adorning Himself in a greatness that Moses and the Children of Israel had not yet seen?

I found something interesting in reading Jewish Talmud the other day. The sages looked at the word greatness in this verse and found it came from the root word gadol which is spelled Gimel, Daleth, Lamed.  This root word can be divided into Gimel – Daleth Lamed and can be read “Gimel Dal.”   This means “Granting kindness (Gimel) to the poor (Dal).    Thus, this greatness is a granting of kindness to the poor both in a material sense and spiritual sense.  I was poor in spirit this morning and experience the great kindness of God.

The people of Israel were essentially homeless, wandering the wilderness for forty years, depending upon God to feed them (manna) and clothe them (clothes that never wore out).  They were dirt poor and now God was ready to adorn Himself and give them a home, a land flowing with milk and honey, giving them freedom to grow and prepare their own food, make their own clothes. God was a husband to the people of Israel, providing and caring for them.  Now it was time for God to be their bride, time for the people to use the gifts God had given them to build a great nation where they could show off their Bride to the world and truly glorify His Name.

Do you ever feel like I did this morning, maybe I am the only one who feels that way. I don’t know but have you ever felt like you have been wandering in the wilderness?   God has been providing every little detail, you have been depending upon Him for daily miracles to just survive?  I think what I really realized this morning is that my journey is about to end, I think God was starting to adorn Himself to be my bride, where I could enter the Promise Land and show Him to the world and truly glorify His Name.  God didn’t have to resolve my problem, He didn’t have to make things better for me, I only had to see His face and realize how beautiful he truly is.

Maybe you too are about to enter the Promised Land, perhaps it is time you stop long enough from begging and pleading with God to deliver you and look up, it may be time to consider you are about to enter a beginning a beginning where you will look up and see His wonderful face and how He has halah Himself.