Moses approached the burning bush. He was instructed to remove his sandals. We can’t approach a holy God until we rid ourselves of all filthiness. The angel spoke to Moses from the bush. When Moses saw the holiness of God he “hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.”
God asked Moses to deliver his people from Egypt. Moses protested by asking, “What will I tell the people to convince them that I am chosen? Who will I tell them sent me?” God answered, “Tell them I AM THAT I AM….say to them, I AM sent you.”
It may seem strange that God answered Moses in that way. Try to imagine a flying saucer landing in your front yard. An alien climbs down out of the saucer and meets you at your front door. He is curious about you so he asks what you are? You reply, “I’m human.” He doesn’t have any concept of what a human is. So you point to your spouse or your friends and say, “I am like him.” Or you point to another and say “I’m like him.”
God answered Moses by saying I AM THAT I AM because he has no one to compare himself to. The question is presented in Exodus 15:11 “Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods?” And that question is answered in II Samuel 2:2 “There is no one holy like the LORD…”
About 1300 years later all that changed. There came a babe born in a manger in Bethlehem. He grew and lived a sinless life. God could finally point his finger to him and say, “I am like him.” John 8:20 “"If you knew me, you would know my Father also."
The Hebrew word for ‘holy’ means to cut. It’s like putting a carrot on a cutting board and cutting its stem off. It means to cut away, to be separate, to be unique. God is holy.
I’ve often climbed behind the wheel of my wife’s Honda CRV and smelled her perfume. I know she’s been there. I identify that fragrance with her. I love to smell it because it reminds me of someone I love very deeply.
There is a fragrance to God’s holiness. He is holy. Everything he touches, everywhere he goes, it’s all permeated with his holiness. His dwelling place is holy, His name is holy, the angels are holy, His son is holy, His Spirit is holy and he wants us to be holy.
His holiness is not meant to make us feel comfortable. God said in Exodus 33, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” He is not our pal. He is not our buddy. He is a God so holy that were we to see him in all of his holiness his glory would strike us dead. When his holiness came near to Isaiah he fell to his knees and said, (6:5) “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips…” The sinfulness of man is crushed by the holiness of God.
His holiness should strike a healthy fear in us. “Isaiah 8:13 “The LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread.”
When I was a boy we had a healthy fear of my father. We didn’t fear him because we hated him. We feared him because we respected him. We were in awe of his authority and his power.
We fear God because he is holy, because we have no idea what we are dealing with. We revere him because he is way beyond our understanding. Isaiah 55:8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.”
It is his holiness that demands holiness of us. 1 Peter 1:16 “Be holy, because I am holy.” We desire holiness, not because of what he can do for us, but because of who he is. He is holy.
Wow that makes you wonder if the term STANDING in the presence of God is incorrect and should be changed to bowing in the presence of God. Many times i have wondered if we really understand how vast God's holiness and glory really is, truthfully we will never fully understand but that is the understanding we need. God is so much greater than us, we shouldn't even try to compare him to something but rather just praise him.
ReplyDeleteJustin Moss