In Luke 11:28, what is The Word of The Most High?
“But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it” Luke 11:28
God Most High, or sometimes LORD Most High, are terms used throughout the Bible to describe God the Father, Creator of heaven and earth. “I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me.” Psalm 57:2
The Hebrew words most often translated “God Most High” are Elohim (or El) Elyown, which literally means “the most God” (Genesis 14:22; Psalm 78:35). In the title LORD Most High, the Hebrew words are Elohim Yahweh. We describe objects of exaltation as being “higher” than we are: higher in rank, in title, in beauty, in position, or in intelligence. Even authority is referred to in terms of height, from top-level management down to the common worker. Height conveys the idea of superiority in power, strength, and authority. God Most High or LORD Most High means that there is no god, idol, or created being that should be worshiped or exalted above God, the LORD, because He is superior in every way.
“I thought it good to shew the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought toward me.” Daniel 4:2
The term Most High God is translated from the Hebrew words Yahweh Illay, which mean “the highest LORD.” In other places, the Hebrew word al or el is used alone to mean “God Most High”. In New Testament Greek, the words Theou hypsistou (Luke 8:28; Hebrews 7:1) are translated “Most High God.” The clear implication in all the terms used to describe God is that He is the highest possible object of our worship. Man-made gods cannot compete with Him on any level and therefore should not be worshiped (Deuteronomy 27:13; Revelation 9:20).
When God first revealed the name by which He would be called, He told Moses that He was “I AM that I AM” (Exodus 3:14), from which we get the name Yahweh, sometimes translated “Jehovah.” God’s self-description means that the Lord is incomparable and self-sufficient (Asiety). He simply IS. He is not similar to anything or anyone.
Dagon was the chief deity of the Philistines, and the worship of this pagan god dates back the third millennium BC. According to ancient mythology, Dagon was the father of Baal. He was the fish god (dag in Hebrew means “fish”), and he was represented as a half-man, half-fish creature. This image furthered an evolutionary belief that both men and fish had evolved together from the primal waters. Dagon was similar to many other idols in that he personified natural forces that had supposedly produced all things.
There are three places where Dagon is mentioned in the Bible. The first is Judges 16:23, where Dagon was the god of the Philistines. The Philistines offered “a great sacrifice” to Dagon, believing that their idol had delivered Samson into their hands. 1 Chronicles 10:10 mentions a temple of Dagon in which the head of King Saul was fastened. Then, in 1 Samuel 5, Dagon is brought to humiliation by the True God of the Israelites.
The Philistines had captured the Ark of the Covenant, and they “carried the ark into Dagon’s temple and set it beside Dagon. When the people of [the city of] Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! They took Dagon and put him back in his place. But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained. That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor any others who enter Dagon’s temple at Ashdod step on the threshold. The Lord’s hand was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity; he brought devastation on them and afflicted them with tumors. When the people of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, ‘The ark of the God of Israel must not stay here with us, because his hand is heavy on us and on Dagon our god’” (1 Samuel 5:2–7).
This is one of the more funny passages in the Bible. The account in 1 Samuel 6, the Philistines’ attempt to solve their dilemma — with golden rats and golden tumors (or, as some translations put it, “golden hemorrhoids.”
Dagon figures into the story of Jonah, as well, although the deity is not mentioned by name in Jonah’s book. The Assyrians in Nineveh, to whom Jonah was sent as a missionary, worshiped Dagon and his female counterpart, the fish goddess Nanshe. Jonah did not go straight to Nineveh but had to be brought there via miraculous means. The transportation God provided for Jonah — a great fish — would have been full of meaning for the Ninevites. The Ninevites, who worshiped a fish god, were impressed with Jonah’s story of the great fish swallowing him; they gave Jonah their attention and repented of their sin.
