Holiness

We all know the word “holy.” We know the tabernacle God instructed Moses and the Israelites to build was a holy place and it had some holy furniture in it. In fact, as we were reminded recently in a Sunday sermon, the Ark of the Covenant was so holy that a well-meaning man who wanted to protect the Ark from damage was struck dead when he touched it. We also know the call of the seraphim in Isaiah 6: “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!”

We are familiar with the word. We think we have a pretty good idea of what it means. But, do we really know what it means? We can look it up in a lexicon or dictionary and come up with vague concepts that we recognize as related to the Lord and not to us but fall short of helping us to actually understand the meaning. We fall back on the confident notion that the word is focused on something about God, which means we will never really grasp what it means. We’ve all been there.

Recently I was reading a book that included a chapter with the title, “Sacred Space.” The author was writing about the concept of holiness and how it is expressed in the sacred space of the tabernacle, the temple, and through rituals. He wrote:

“Many of the strange laws and practices of the Old Testament are grounded in the need to teach people that God is unlike everything else. In his nature and character, he is unique; he is completely other than humanity and anything else.”

Hmmm. “Completely other.” Maybe this guy was on to something. Another quotation from the book seemed insightful:

“God wasn’t content to simply give Israelites an intellectual explanation of holiness. He wanted the concept of his otherness to permeate life in ancient Israel. The Bible tells us this was accomplished through rituals (symbolic acts) and by rules for approaching sacred areas.”

Those sacred areas are in contrast to the ordinary space we occupy. He explained that rituals reflect the fact that God is “Other.” He is not like us. Then came the statement that stopped me in my tracks:

“God is the polar opposite of ordinary.”

I read that sentence again. I went back and read the paragraph again. I went back to the beginning of the chapter and read it again.

We are very familiar with the concept of “ordinary.” We see it every day. We live it every day. But God is not “ordinary.” He is something outside or beyond “ordinary.” Herein lies our problem for understanding this concept of “holy:” we have no concept of anything that is not “ordinary.” Everything we know and experience is “ordinary.”

If only we had something—anything—that communicates what it means to be outside the realm of “ordinary!” That would be something that would help us with understanding something that is not “ordinary.”

Thankfully, God has provided us with something that fits the bill: God sent His Son into the world. This Son had a divine nature that set Him apart from every other person. Another way of saying this is that this Son was not ordinary. He was “the polar opposite of ordinary.”

Jesus—that not-ordinary Son—demonstrated to His disciples amazing expressions of His exceptional nature. They saw people healed. They saw the dead raised. They saw dangerously violent storms instantly calmed with a simple command. They saw Him walking on water. They saw one of the disciples walking on water. They heard teaching that stretched their minds. They heard Him predict His death. They argued that the prediction of His death was not even possible. Then they saw it happen. Then they heard and saw that He had been raised from death. Everything they knew about Him pointed to the fact that He was not ordinary. When they were enlightened by His teaching after His resurrection, the scriptures came alive and they understood who He was. Their teaching that arose from their new understanding began to change the world.

This is the same Lord Jesus Christ that we serve today. He was the only person ever to walk on this humble planet who was not ordinary. He was the polar opposite of ordinary. Revel in that truth. Commit yourself to knowing and serving Him.

Jay Swisher

(Quotations are from Supernatural by Michael S. Heiser)

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