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Holy

Prologue

“Holy” is not a word that we use in our day-to-day conversations, so it is easy for it to be a totally abstract concept to us, and for to miss its meaning entirely. This study is to bring to life what holiness really means, and what it means for God to be holy.

What does it mean?

In the Bible, to be holy is broadly to be unique or set apart. Some related words (or synonymns) are “sanctify” and “consecrate”. Across scripture, several things/places/people are referred to as holy.

So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. Genesis 2:3
Then he said to me, “The north chambers and the south chambers opposite the yard are the holy chambers, where the priests who approach the LORD shall eat the most holy offerings. There they shall put the most holy offerings—the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering—for the place is holy. Ezekiel 42:13
Too long, please open your Bible Leviticus 8: 10-12
Too long, please open your Bible Exodus 3: 1-6

God’s holiness

God’s holiness is a way of talking about God’s character and nature as the most unique, powerful, beautiful, and good being in all the universe.

God’s holiness is connected to:

His role as creator and author of all life

In that day man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will look on the Holy One of Israel. Isaiah 17:7
Too long, please open your Bible Isaiah 6: 1-3
“I am the LORD, your Holy One, The Creator of Israel, your King.” Isaiah 43:15

His role as Israel’s deliverer

For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. Isaiah 54:5
Thus says the LORD your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, “For your sake I have sent to Babylon, And will bring them all down as fugitives, Even the Chaldeans, into the ships in which they rejoice. Isaiah 43:14
‘For I am the LORD who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God; thus you shall be holy, for I am holy.’ ” Exodus 11:45

His character as the source of all purity and moral goodness

‘For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. And you shall not make yourselves unclean with any of the swarming things that swarm on the earth. Exodus 11:44
For neither Israel nor Judah has been forsaken By his God, the LORD of hosts, Although their land is full of guilt Before the Holy One of Israel. Isaiah 51:5
They tested God again and again and provoked the Holy One of Israel. Psalm 78:41

Experiences with God’s presence

Moses & the burning bush

Too long, please open your Bible Exodus 3: 1-6

The first thing to notice is that the space around God’s presence is called holy.

Due to the fact that Moses is in proximity to God’s presence, the appropriate response was to take off his shoes.

There was something about the bottom of his shoes that would not be fit to come with him into that space of God’s absolute power and purity. It was most likely dirt which would have come from stepping on animal waste and just walking around in general.

Israel at Sinai

Too long, please open your Bible Exodus 19: 10-25

It is on this mountain that God tells them that He wants to live with them in a sacred tent, and as we learn, nobody could just walk in there. There were strict regulations on who could go in, and at varying degrees of proximity to the center, the requirements were different.

Leviticus

The book of Leviticus is essential in resolving the paradox of being in God’s presence and sharing God’s attribute of purity, justice, truth, purity, e.t.c when it’s so dangerous. The book outlines the systems that God gave them so that they could live with God’s presence in their midst.

Too long, please open your Bible Leviticus 11: 44-45

Categories of Israel’s regulations

Israel’s regulations that helped them show honour the fact that God lived in their midst can be divided into two broad categories

Ritual purity

There were certain rituals that God gave them that were connected to them being ritually pure, i.e being fit to fellowship in the temple. These rituals were related to their associations with elements that represent death, mortality or decay. Contact with such elements (e.g bodily reproductive fluids, scale disease, dead bodies) made them ritually impure but they were not inherently sinful. The only time that there is a charge of sin based on this, is when someone comes into God’s presence despite being ritually impure.

“The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp. Leviticus 13: 45-46
Too long, please open your Bible Leviticus 15

Moral purity

Israel was also called to honour God’s presence through moral purity. This category covers Israel’s sexual behaviour, generosity, business practices and healthy relationships with their neighbours.

Too long, please open your Bible Leviticus 18: 6-30
Too long, please open your Bible Leviticus 20: 1-3

Responding to God’s holiness

Too long, please open your Bible Isaiah 6: 1-7

Something that is consistent with people who encountered God’s presence either through the temple or via a supernatural experience is a great awareness of their weakness, uncleanness, and powerlessness.

It is also worthy of note that God is the one who takes responsibility for Isaiah’s purification.

Too long, please open your Bible Leviticus 11: 44-45

If people had to live in a certain way because they were going to meet with God, how much more we, who are the temple of God?

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. 1 Corinthians 6: 18-20
Too long, please open your Bible 1 Peter 2: 1-12