Every day an email shows up in my inbox from the Miriam Webster folks teaching me a new word for the day. Most of the time, the word has more than one definition.When we say that God is Holy, we often are trying to describe His flawlessness, His perfection, His purity. This is definitely an important part of God's Holy nature. Here's another part of the definition.
Holiness in the Bible literally means "Set Apart". Another way to think about this is that God is "Other" or completely different than we are. This idea of Holiness shows up when God says things like, "My ways aren't your ways, my thoughts aren't your thoughts...".
I think this understaning of Holiness plays out pretty well in the story of the Golden Calf and what follows. (Read Exodus chapters 19, 20, 32 & 33)
God tells the people not to make an idol.
They agree that they won't.
Then they do.
So God kills people (and/or tells Moses to kill people).
About 3000 of them for breaking their word.
Sounds harsh to me.
Where was the second chance for those people?
The "Next time you'll really be in trouble" speech?
God doesn't handle this the way that you and I would.
But then, you and I aren't God.
We make promises we don't mean, set boundaries we don't enforce, and rationalize why things like that are ok.
God is different. Holy.
When He says something, He means it.
When He makes a promises, He keeps it.
Last weekend Greg mentioned that we tend to focus on God's mercy and grace. Which is good, since we all need them pretty much everyday.
What if we thought more about His Holiness?
What if we thought more about a God who is not only perfect, but who means what He says?
Who consistently keeps His promises and expects us to do the same?
Would it change the way we thought about our choices and actions?
"Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty. Who was, and is, and who is coming." - Revelation 4:8
1 comment:
The Bible tells us to not to trust in our own understanding, and yet many times we do not obey parts of the Bible because we do not agree with them.
The golden calf story is a prime example of people doing something which seems reasonable to them, but was in direct disobedience to God and we see where that got them.
In the popular devotional "My Utmost for His Highest" Oswald Chamber asked the question (I'm paraphrasing) "How long has it been since you made a conscious choice to do something (or not do something) for the pure simple reason of obedience to God. It's a question I try to ask myself periodically.
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