The answer is so specific. When the pagan world was set free from it's bondage to the gods, it was set free through a specific name, the name of Yeshua, Jesus. The name stood out among the gods. Romans 14:11) In Hebrew it means "The Lord is salvation.". For the pagan world it meant that there was one God and only one who could actually bring freedom and bring redemption. (John 8:36)
Yeshua, Jesus, was unique among the Gods in every way. He did not exist in a mythological world of fantasy and imagination but in real time and real space, in the flesh-and-blood realm of historical reality. He did not walk the mythological regions of the underworld, the fields of Elysium, or the halls of Valhalla, but the dry and dusty roads of first-century Judea. The gospel message of His death and resurrection was not based on a recurring mythological cycle but on the historical accounting of those who witnessed it and who neither expected it to happen nor understood it when it did - but whose lives were then radically transformed by it. (Philippians 2)
In his song of praise to God, Moses asked, "Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods?" (Exodus 15)There had never been one among the gods like Yeshua, Jesus of Nazareth. There had never been one among the gods with a message so wholly centered on so radical a love. (John 15:13) There had never been one among the gods who told His followers that they were to love even their enemies and forgive those who persecuted them. (Matthew 5:43-45)
There had never been one among the gods who was called the "Friend of sinners," nor one who had so loved and reached out to the outcast, the rejected, the broke, and the lost. There had never been one among the gods who could say to the world, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," and "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest," and have such words ring true. (John 14:6; Matthew 11:28-30)Nor had there ever been one among the gods who not only spoke of so radical a love but who actually lived and died as its embodiment.
The uniqueness of Yeshua, Jesus, was not confined to the ancient world. His influence and impact on the world would exceed and outlast that of every other leader, ruler, power, nation, and empire. He would become the central figure of our planet. Every moment of human history, every event that took place on earth, would be marked and dated by its relation to His birth.
More Reflection: Philippians 2; Acts 4:12; Ephesians 1:21; John 3:16-17; Psalm 138:2; Psalm 148:13; Matthew 28:18; John 1:1; Isaiah 9:6; Genesis 1:1; 1 Peter 3:22; John 20:31; John 14:13; John 6:47-48; Matthew 1:21; 1 John 4:14; Revelation 19:16; Acts 10:38; Colossians 2:9; Titus 3:5-7; Colossians 1:16; Ephesians 4:10;
Note: Text taken from Cahn, The Return of the Gods. Scripture References added.
Great read!