Today you should read: Ezekiel 21
Chapter 21 is one of those chapters that’s hard to read and understand. Again it’s prophecy about what will come of the children of Israel and the nations that surround them. To the casual reader – it seems like more gloom and doom – and it is. God is serious about sin – especially idolatry.
You shall have no other gods before Me. Exodus 20:3
We don’t fully get the wrath of God, living this side of the cross. God poured out His anger against our sin on Jesus and we’re saved by His grace. But God is still holy and there are still consequences when we chose to live unholy lives.
God is completely and entirely holy – He can’t tolerate or look upon sin. He is separated from all that is unclean and evil. God is positively pure.
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” Isaiah 6:3
Just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:15-16
Why does this matter? This means that us as sinners have to be separated from God unless we are made holy through Jesus. This should cause us to hate our own sin (Luke 5:8).
Pastor Ray Pritchard writes that…
Before we can understand what it means to be holy, we must understand what it means to say that God is holy. In many ways holiness is God’s central attribute. One writer actually defines it this way. “Holiness is that which makes God God.”
How important is it? Holiness is the only attribute of God mentioned in triplicate. Two times the Bible tells us that God is holy, holy, holy (Is 6:3, Rev 4:8). Think about that for a moment. If God says something about his character once, that’s enough to settle it. When he says it twice, that’s emphasis. But when he says it three times, that means it’s of supreme importance. The Bible never says that God is love, love, love or mercy, mercy, mercy, or justice, justice, justice. But it does say that he is holy, holy, holy.
A.W. Tozer in The Attributes of God noted…
…that when Leonardo DaVinci painted his famous Last Supper he had little difficulty with any of it except the faces. Then he painted the faces in without too much trouble except one. He did not feel himself worthy to paint the face of Jesus. He held off and kept holding off, unwilling to approach it but knowing he must. Then in the impulsive carelessness of despair, he just painted it quickly and let it go. “There is no use,” he said. “I can’t paint Him.” I feel very much the same way about explaining the holiness of God. I think that same sense of despair is on my heart. There isn’t any use for anybody to try to explain holiness. The greatest speakers on this subject can play their oratorical harps, but it sounds tinny and unreal, and when they are through you’ve listened to music but you haven’t seen God.” Realizing then that any attempt to define “holiness” of God is fraught with potential for flaw and error, we note that the venerable Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines “holy” as “Properly, whole, entire or perfect, in a moral sense. Hence, pure in heart, temper or dispositions; free from sin and sinful affections. Applied to the Supreme Being, holy signifies perfectly pure, immaculate and complete in moral character; and man is more or less holy, as his heart is more or less sanctified, or purified from evil dispositions. We call a man holy, when his heart is conformed in some degree to the image of God, and his life is regulated by the divine precepts. Hence, holy is used as nearly synonymous with good, pious, godly.”
Take some time today and meditate on the holiness of God. Then think about yourself and your sin – you’re unholiness. Now you begin to understand the majesty of grace and forgiveness.
For God so loved the world ( __________ your name) that he gave his one and only Son… John 3:16
By: Tim Parsons — Lead Pastor
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Great post Tim! Of all the ways that His ways are mysterious and above ours, His holiness is I suppose the least fathomable to us. What an awesome God!