04 Sep Understanding the Holiness of God
by Thuthu Khumalo
I was watching an interview between Candace Owens and Amber Rose, where at the end of the interview Candace enquires to Amber about her faith. I found Amber’s response so interesting. I keep thinking about how she said she could never be Christian because the Christian God is scary to her and how when she sees a Bible, she gets scared. It had me thinking a lot about what the Holiness of God means to us as His creation.
I found it so fascinating that Amber Rose was able to reason that way about God, because I think that reasoning came from an understanding that He is a Holy God, which is something that should drive you to fear Him. However, it is extremely unfortunate that she has not come to know Him as a loving Father yet. (Side note: How incredible that He is both those things at once and more? )
Anyway, I want to share a bit about my revelation of His Holiness which came from reading the book of Exodus, specifically chapter 19. The chapter speaks of the time when the Lord God was about to descend on to Mount Sinai to give the 10 commandments. Moses and Israel had to consecrate themselves for His coming and were given very specific instructions on how they were to conduct themselves at His coming and the whole reason for that was not just because He is God but because He is Holy.
“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes. And let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, ‘Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. Not a hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot with an arrow; whether man or beast, he shall not live.’ When the trumpet sounds long, they shall come near the mountain.”
And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to gaze at the Lord, and many of them perish. Also let the priests who come near the Lord consecrate themselves, lest the Lord break out against them.”
But Moses said to the Lord, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai; for You warned us, saying, ‘Set bounds around the mountain and consecrate it.’ ”
Then the Lord said to him, “Away! Get down and then come up, you and Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest He break out against them.””
Exodus 19:10-13, 21-24 NKJV
When I read “lest He break out against them” which is repeated twice in this chapter I thought of the phenomena that we as humans experience called trypophobia (an aversion or repulsion to objects like honeycombs and sponges that have repetitive patterns or clusters of small holes). When you have that phobia, you cannot stop the repulsion to these objects, it happens automatically because you cannot remove the phobia from yourself. It led me to understand that because of our fallen nature, God will literally HAVE TO retaliate in our presence. His Holiness is who He is, and will always be.
So although the coming of God in Exodus was glorious, because of the fact that He is a Holy God, there was still no way the people could hear His Word and see His true glory. Do you know how He rectifies that?
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John 1:14 NKJV
He had mercy on us in this way. When He made a way for us to hear His Word and behold His glory through Jesus Christ. Not only that, but if you read about how God established His relations with the children of Israel, you will find out that there was only one way to make peace with God if you had sinned against Him:
“In fact, according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.”
Hebrews 9:22 NLT
This reconciliation with God that we have through the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ means that when He comes again, unlike in Exodus, we will be able to stand before Him as Holy people, just as He is Holy.
God Bless you guys! I love you!
P:S: if you don’t mind I would like to prescribe that you read the book of Exodus as well as the book of Hebrews. Preferably Hebrews first and then Exodus straight after. Comment with your reflections!
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This was a Guest Post written by Thuthu Khumalo. You can find more of her content on ‘We Will Love’ via WordPress, Instagram, Facebook or YouTube
“I have placed my hope in the Resurrected Christ and the Son of God. How do I walk with Him not just in hope and faith, but in love? What does it even mean to love one another, just as He loved us?”
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Angela Chiaberta
Posted at 11:46h, 16 SeptemberI love this piece! I think us Christians can sometimes go the other way, and forget about His Holiness, so we start being too flippant in our relationship with Him, treating Him more as our best friend and sidekick to our lives, which is of course, the worst thing we could do. As you say, what makes Him so amazing, is that He is both Holy and to be feared, as well as so loving and so close thanks to the work of Jesus making us Holy. We must never forget that perfect balance, and live out our relationship with Him accordingly.