Now I Know the LORD Is Greater Than All the Gods

(Exodus 18:11) "Now I know that the LORD is great." He said: at first not even a slave could flee from Egypt, and now the Omnipresent has brought out six hundred thousand people from Egypt; therefore it is said, "that the LORD is great." Four people said four sayings such that, had another man said them, people would have laughed at him. Who are they? Moses, Jethro, Solomon, and Nebuchadnezzar. Moses said, "The Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are justice" (Deuteronomy 32:4); had another man said it they would have laughed at him, and who made this known to him? Only because it is written, "He makes known His ways to Moses" (Psalms 103:7), therefore he said, "for all His ways are justice." Solomon said, "He has made everything beautiful in its time" (Ecclesiastes 3:11); had another man said it they would have laughed at him, saying, who told this one what is beautiful and what is not? Only Solomon, whose table lacked nothing, knew what was beautiful and what was not. Rabbi Yose bar Chanina said: even bitter herbs in Tammuz and cucumbers in Nisan, Solomon's table never lacked. Nebuchadnezzar said, "And all the inhabitants of the earth are reckoned as nothing" (Daniel 4:32); had another man said it they would have laughed at him, saying, what did this man rule over, when he did not even rule over a gnat? Only Nebuchadnezzar, of whom it is said, "and also the beasts of the field I have given him to serve him" (Jeremiah 27:6), is fittingly the one to say it. Jethro said, "Now I know that the LORD is great," because he had not left any idolatry that he did not worship; therefore it is said, "that the LORD is great." Jethro grasped the reality concerning idolatry, as it is said, "that the LORD is greater than all gods." Naaman acknowledged in part, as it is said, "there is no God in all the earth except in Israel" (2 Kings 5:15). Rahab left over the empty space of the world, saying, "For the LORD your God, He is God in heaven" (Joshua 2:11). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Rahab, "You said 'on the earth below,' fine; but 'in heaven above' you said what your eyes have not seen; by your life, your son shall see what the prophets did not see," as it is said, "the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God" (Ezekiel 1:1). But Moses said, "For the LORD, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below, there is none else" (Deuteronomy 4:39): even in the empty space of the world. Rabbi Oshaya said: "Give her of the fruit of her hands" (Proverbs 31:31); the Holy One, blessed be He, said, "You testified about Me, 'there is none else'; I too testify about you, 'and there arose no prophet again in Israel like Moses' (Deuteronomy 34:10)." "For in the very matter in which they plotted against them": I knew Him before, and now all the more, since His name has been magnified in the world, for by the very scheme the Egyptians plotted to destroy Israel, the Omnipresent exacted punishment from them, as it is said, "for in the very matter" (written in the verse "Come, let us deal wisely with them").