One of the attributes of God not often considered is His transcendence. When we say that the God of the Bible is transcendent, we mean that He is high and lifted up far above our human comprehension. We can study God as He reveals Himself in His Word. We can love God as far as we are able. We can even know God in an intimate, personal relationship through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. But we can still never fully understand God because He is transcendent—superior above all things.
In the Old Testament Scriptures, there is a name for God that acknowledges His transcendence. The title is אֵל עֶלְיוֹן (El Elyon). Literally in Hebrew, the expression means “the Highest high One.” This title describes the God of the Bible as far above all other gods, far above the heavens, and far above human comprehension.
In modern Israel, the national airline is called El Al. It is a special combination of two particles which, fittingly for an airline, means “toward the heights.” But long before man ever learned aviation, God was already the ultimate El Elyon. Even with all the innovations of the Space Age and the marvels of jet aircraft, advanced satellites, and space travel, modern man can only scratch the surface of an immense universe where God reigns supreme.
The title as used by Melchizedek
The Lord first used the title אֵל עֶלְיוֹן (El Elyon) to describe Himself in Genesis 14. In this chapter is recorded the remarkable meeting between Abram, who in Genesis 17 was renamed Abraham, and Melchizedek, the king of Salem. In this passage, Abram was returning from his victory over the combined kings of the east. This victory included the rescue of his nephew, Lot, from captivity.
As Abram returned homeward, Melchizedek came out to meet him. This unique priestly king is called “the priest of the most high God [El Elyon]” (Genesis 14:18, emphasis added). Many Bible scholars view Melchizedek as a type of Christ, if not a preincarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Himself. When Melchizedek blessed Abram, he said, “Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand” (Genesis 14:19–20, emphasis added).
This title for God surpasses all national borders and language groups. The Most High cannot be described in words nor can He be understood by logic. He is not the God of Israel alone, but the God of Melchizedek too—the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
The title as used by Balaam
The second time in the Biblical record that the transcendent name of God, El Elyon, was used was by the Moabite prophet Balaam. Like Melchizedek, Balaam was not an Israelite. However, unlike Melchizedek the priest of righteousness, Balaam was a disobedient and selfish prophet. Yet God used Balaam as a tool in His hands to bless the families of Israel in the mountains of Moab. In spite of the Moabite king’s efforts to convince Balaam to curse Israel, the prophet could not! He could only bless the nation that God had chosen as His own inheritance.
Balaam’s prophecy contained the reference to the “Star out of Jacob” (Numbers 24:17). In the verse immediately before the reference to the “Star out of Jacob,” Balaam said, “He hath said, which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the most High, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open” (Numbers 24:16, emphasis added). Balaam acknowledged that the knowledge he had to bless Israel was not his own knowledge; it was the transcendent knowledge of the Most High, the vision of the Almighty. No man can know God unless God reveals Himself to them, as He did to Balaam.
The title as used by Moses
Moses used the title “Most High” in his “song” (verse 44) that is recorded in Deuteronomy 32. Known as the “Song of Moses,” it was given to the Israelites so that they could sing it throughout their generations and by it remember the works and character of their mighty God.
In Hebrew poetic form and in a notation intended for the words to be sung, Moses himself sang, “Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee. When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the LORD’S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye” (Deuteronomy 32:7–10, emphasis added).
We cannot fully understand our transcendent God Who is El Elyon, Most High, but we can know Him, love Him, serve Him, and sing praises to Him. He is above all human understanding and comprehension, but His portion is His people and He has made His children “the apple of His eye” (Deuteronomy 32:10).
