Most people think holy means to be morally good or pious. In the original Hebrew, it means “to separate.” To set aside for a specific purpose. To be in a class by oneself. The Rolls Royce is the pinnacle of exclusive cars. This begins to give us a better concept of the word holy.
God is the only being with enough wisdom, knowledge, power, and creativity to create such a magnificent universe as we live in. This makes Him holy.
Holiness means to separate, to put or be in a separate category. God is utterly unique. He is in a category far beyond anyone or anything else. No one is his equal. No one is as pure as he is. He is perfect in all His ways. David wrote in Psalm 18:30 “God! perfect is His way, The saying of Jehovah is tried, A shield is He to all those trusting in Him.” That one word – GOD! Says so much. He is the standard all other beings and things are judged by.
Part of what makes God unique, separate, holy, is His power. Think of what power creativity and energy is in the universe. The blazing sun at just the right distance from the earth to warm it to give it light and to the cause things to grow. Yet even from this distance if we look at the sun it can blind us cause damage to our eyes.
God‘s Power and energy can be understood on a small scale by the sun. It is beneficial. We need it. We will die without it. But there are rules and guidelines by which we must live in relationship to it to be able to stay safe.
God is love and God is light. God is also pure. His purity is like a consuming fire that purifies all iniquity and impurity by burning it up. Therefore, God had to set guidelines by which sinful man could safely approach Him.
So, let’s take a look through the Bible at how God has made a way for us to have a relationship with Him and be able to experience His presence where there is fulness of joy.
In Genesis 1 we see God’s intent. He created paradise out of chaos. Then when everything was perfect, He created man in His image, to be His family and bear His image in this world. In Genesis 3 we see that God comes daily to walk and talk with Adam & Eve but they hid because they had sinned.
Enoch is mentioned in Genesis 5 as one who “walked faithfully with God.” Because of his faithful walk with God, Enoch did not experience death but was caught up to God. Enoch succeeded in God’s purpose.
Abraham was known for his kindness and as a friend of God. Abraham had faith in God. Abraham is known as the father of faith. Faith pleases God. He walked in the ways of God. God made a great nation of chosen people through Abraham.
Hundreds of years later, Moses, a descendent of Abraham has an encounter with God in the desert. He saw a bush burning. “When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called out to him from within the bush, “Moses, Moses!” “Here I am,” he answered. 5“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Exodus 3:4-5
The intensity of God‘s holiness was fire on the bush and purity on the ground. Moses was told how to approach God.
In Exodus 26, the tabernacle was given to demonstrate this intensity of God‘s holiness even more. The Holy of Holies or Most Holy Place was a separate place inside the tabernacle. Only the High Priest could enter this sacred place and then only on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. In order for the High Priest to enter the presence of God, he had to be pure. The high priest went through weeks of purification both body, clothing, and soul as well as making blood sacrifices for all sin. Anyone entering the Holy of Holies with sin or impurity would die. A rope was tied around his ankle so they could pull his dead body out if he was unholy.
These descendants of Abraham, the Israelite people, were chosen to be a separate people just for God. Their entire lives centered around God. They set up camp around the temple. They watched God through the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. When God moved, they moved. When God stayed, they stayed. God was teaching the nation of Israel how to be separate, to be set apart from the sin which is to be holy.
God gave them commandments to be morally pure. But in Leviticus, He also gave them commandments to be ritually pure. He told them to be holy as I am holy. These ways of living taught them to avoid dead things. Leviticus 19:2 God is the Living God. He is the God of the living. There is no death in heaven and dead things on earth defile us physically.
By following God‘s precepts and statutes the people learned to live a healthy lifestyle, a pure lifestyle. They lived longer lives because they were healthier. They did not have the diseases at other nations around them because of their rituals of purification. They were pure and singular in their devotion to God morally as well. God call them to the whole package of godly living.
The statutes guidelines taught the Israelites to know when they were in pure and also how to purify themselves before entering God’s presence in the temple again.
Then some 600 years later we find the story of Isaiah who has a vision of being in God’s Holy Presence.
Isaiah 6:1-7 1In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted; and the train of His robe filled the temple. 2Above Him stood seraphim, each having six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3And they were calling out to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts;
all the earth is full of His glory.”
4At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke.
5Then I said: “Woe is me, for I am ruined,
because I am a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips;
for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts.”
6Then one of the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a glowing coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7And with it he touched my mouth and said:
“Now that this has touched your lips, your iniquity is removed and your sin is atoned for.”
Isaiah knows he has not done the preparation to be in God‘s presence. He is terrified of dying because he is ritually impure.
Then a Seraphim takes a burning coal from the altar. He brings the hot coal over to Isaiah. He places the hot coal on Isaiah’s lips.
Your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for.
Up to this point in scripture mankind has been made ritually impure and defiled by things he encounters. Death transfers its impurity to the one it touches. But here God is showing Isaiah a new concept. This burning purified holy coal from the altar of God is now transferring the purity and holiness of God to Isaiah.
Isaiah is not destroyed by God‘s holiness. Rather he is transformed by his holiness.
Then in Ezekiel God reveals another aspect of His holiness to come in the future. Ezekiel has a vision where he standing at the temple. He saw water trickling out from the temple. The trickle becomes ankle deep, knee deep, waist deep, neck deep and then becomes a deep river that starts flowing through the desert. It leaves a trail of green trees and lush foliage all around it then it flows to the Dead Sea making everything fresh and alive.
God is restating His original intent: rather than man becoming pure through rituals to come into His Presence, His holiness and purity will begin to flow from the temple out into the world making things pure and bringing them to life.
When Jesus begins his ministry, he claims to fulfill all these ancient visions in a surprising new way. Jesus went around touching the diseased, the lepers, the woman with the issue of blood, raising the dead and others who were impure. He gives them life and health rather than their impurity defiling him. His purity gave them life and purity. Jesus is like the holy coal in Isaiah’s vision.
Jesus also claimed that he was the embodiment of God‘s holiness. And that God‘s holiness now lived in him and his followers. Jesus said in John 7:38 Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said: ‘Streams of living water will flow from within him.’” Jesus and his disciples begin the fulfillment of Ezekiel’s vision. The purity of God in them brought life to those who are unclean, defiled, and diseased.
As Jesus disciples this is our mission too. We carry his purity his holiness and impart it to others as we walk through life.
Gods plans and purposes are fulfilled in the book of revelation. John sees that the whole earth is made new and has become God’s temple. The river of God which Ezekiel saw is there, flowing from the throne of God and immersing all of creation. It is removing all impurity and bringing everything back to life.
We will be immersed in His presence and holiness. God will dwell with His people forever and ever! Amen.
Revelation 22:1-5 1Then the angel showed me a river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2down the middle of the main street of the city. On either side of the river stood a tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit and yielding a fresh crop for each month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
3No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be within the city, and His servants will worship Him. 4They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. 5There will be no more night in the city, and they will have no need for the light of a lamp or of the sun. For the Lord God will shine on them, and they will reign forever and ever.
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