Author: Author | 3/19/2017 9:45:11 PM
Jehovah-M'Kaddesh
"The Lord WHO SANCTIFIES US"
(Exodus 10:28)
The most striking feature of God in Scripture; the most fundamental, solemn and impressive attribute is His holiness. The most important lesson we are taught about God in the Old Testament is about His holiness.
It has been said about Switzerland that it one of the most beautiful countries in the world. But, the most striking feature is the Alps. One cannot appreciate the beauty of Switzerland without observing the Swiss Alps, it is the main feature of its beauty. So it is with the holiness of God. We cannot come to know Him or appreciate His beauty or worship Him in spirit and in truth unless we learn to appreciate His holiness.
In Leviticus 20:8 God calls himself Jehovah-M'Kaddesh. This is often overlooked as one of His names because it is not transliterated in our Bibles (i.e. the actual Hebrew name is not spelled out phonetically). Instead the phrase is simply translated, I am the Lord who sanctifies you, or makes you holy, or sets you apart as holy.
The term "sanctify" is translated - DEDICATE, CONSECRATE, HALLOW, AND HOLY. It's primary meaning is "to set apart." When God speaks of sanctifying His people, it means that He separates them from the world unto Himself. The word "sanctify," as it is used in the Bible, is applied to: (1) times and seasons - i.e. the Sabbath, the great feast days of Israel, the Day of Atonement, etc.; (2) places -the camp of Israel, the city of Jerusalem, the tabernacle, the temple, etc.; (3) things - dishes, cups, etc. used in temple worship; and (4) people - cf. Jeremiah the prophet who was "sanctified" from his birth [Jer. 1:5]; also, Old Testament Israel and Christians in the New testament are said to be sanctified as the people of God.
The main point involved in all these applications of the word "sanctify" is contact with God! The Sabbath was holy because God rested in it. The temple and the sanctuary was called holy because it was the place where God dwelt.
JEHOVAH HIMSELF IS HOLY!
The key verse in Leviticus is Lev. 19:2 - the Lord said to Moses, "speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: 'Be holy because I, the Lord your God am holy.'" God is holy in two respects; (1) with regard to His nature and being in comparison with all others; (2) with regard to His moral character.
Re: His Nature and Being
The overriding idea with regard to His nature and being is the idea of His transcendence. Scripture makes it plain that God is in a class by Himself. He is "wholly other," distinctly different than all others and this in the sense that he is vastly superior and above all others in every respect. The fortieth chapter of Isaiah provides an excellent example of this. Verse 10 says, See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and his arm rules for him, ...
Verse 12 says, Who has measured the waters in the hallow of His hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?
Verses 13 and 14 describe the fact that God has never needed to consult with another and He never gained knowledge or understanding from another. He Himself is all-knowing! Verse 17 says, Before Him all the nations are as nothing.
Then in verses 18 and 25 we read these words: To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal? says the holy one. Verse 26 invites everyone to lift their eyes to the heavens and realize that it is God who has created all that exists, all of the stars and the planets and all of the heavenly bodies.
The point is that God is "holy" or "separate" in the sense that there is none other like Him. In Isaiah 46:9, the Lord says of Himself, I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. Also, as the Apostle Paul says in Romans 11:36 .. from him, and through him and to him are all things. He alone is the source of our being and the one who sustains us and our world and holds us in a state of existence. And, ultimately, all things return to Him and all conscious beings will be accountable to Him alone! We must see Him as "holy" in this transcendent sense!
Re: His Moral Character
God is also holy in the sense that He is righteous, moral, faithful and just. This moral purity far exceeds and surpasses all other beings. He is the very embodiment of moral perfection!
The sixth chapter of Isaiah provides a classic example of this aspect of God's holiness. Here we are told that Isaiah was given a vision of the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above him were angelic beings called seraphs. These holy angels continually surround the throne of God calling to one another: holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.
Two things are very telling about the holiness of God in this passage: (1) in the presence of His awesome holiness, even the Seraphim, themselves creatures of great purity, cover their eyes and are afraid to look upon Him; (2) Isaiah himself is forever changed as he is utterly humbled by God's holiness and made to realize his own comparative uncleanness. In this condition he is the happy recipient of God's empowerment and his grace (I Peter 5:5).
In the "Song of Moses" sung by those who had been victorious over the beast and his image..., it is said of God,... You alone are holy. God is utterly separate and apart from all others. We need to learn to appreciate His holiness!
The Greatest Issue of All Time!
Dr. James Montgomery Boice, in his commentary on Psalm 83, says this is the greatest issue of all time... For the great issue in religion - indeed, the great issue of life - is not whether or not we worship "a" god, that is, whether or not we are religious rather than being atheists, but whether we know the true God Who has revealed Himself in history: (1) in the Old Testament to the Jews at the Exodus and at Sinai; and (2) in the New Testament to us in the person of Jesus Christ. And whether we obey Him!
In other words, to recognize the holiness of God means to recognize His exclusive right to our worship. This great truth is implicit in the first of the Ten Commandments: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery [which corresponds to and represents our former bondage to sin]. You shall have no other gods before me...I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God... (Exodus 20:2-3 & 5). This is the law above all laws which the Lord Jesus called the first and greatest commandment: Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength (cf. Matthew 22:37-38). All of the other commandments follow naturally from it.
As Christians, therefore, we must recognize that we are called to persuade others that the first duty of every human being is to honor and venerate the one true God. It is in this way that we function as the preserving "salt" of the world (Matthew 5:13). Boice quotes Professor Robert L. Wilken writing on the first commandment, who says, ...without the worship of God, society disintegrates into an amoral aggregate of competing, self-centered interests destructive of the commonwealth. Only God can give ultimate purpose to our lives and direction to our society. The first commandment is not just a text to be memorized in catechism class; it is the theological basis for a just and humane society.
God desires to impart something of His holiness to those He has redeemed:
Remember, in Leviticus 19:2 God said: Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy. This is clearly God's specific purpose which He seeks to accomplish in those He redeems. I Thessalonians 4:3 says, It is God's will that you should be sanctified .... In I Peter 1:15-16, we read: ... 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." (Here Peter actually quotes Leviticus 19:2.)
This is a high honor for us which has greater significance when we recognize that the holiness of God which He seeks to impart to the redeemed is also His beauty! When the psalmist expresses his desire to behold the beauty of the Lord, it is in the house of the LORD, His Temple, the place of His holy presence that he expects to do so (Psalm 27:4). Then, in Psalm 90:17 (KM, the Psalmist says, Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. Finally, in Psalm 29:2 (KJV), we are told to worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
We are told in Colossians 1:15 that the Lord Jesus is the image of the invisible God. He perfectly manifested the glory and the beauty of the Father. And it is in and through Him that we are sanctified (I Cor. 1:30, Hebrews 10:10). We are sanctified positionally as we are brought into union with Christ (Romans 6). His perfect righteousness is imputed to our account (II Corinthians 5:21). When God the Father looks upon us He sees the perfect righteousness of Christ in which we are clothed (cf. Genesis 3:21, Isaiah 61:10, Isaiah 64:6, Galatians 3:27, Rev. 19:8, etc.).
However, there is also a practical aspect of our sanctification which is a process. Viewed in this way, our sanctification is not a completed or accomplished act which happens all at once. It is rather a process which goes on as long as we live. The object of this process is to conform us to the image of Christ in the beauty of His holiness (Romans 8:29, Galatians 4:19, etc.). This is to be accomplished in us through a process of putting off old sin habit patterns and replacing them with godly behavior patterns through the enablement of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:17-32, Colossians 3:5-10, etc.), In John 17:17, the Lord Jesus indicated that this aspect of our sanctification is accomplished through the Word of God (cf. also II Peter 1:3-4).
Jesus is our Jehovah-M'Kaddesh!
In Ephesians 1:4, we are told, ...he [the Father] chose us in him [Christ] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. Due to the entrance of sin into the world, the image of God in which Adam was created has been corrupted in mankind (Genesis 1:26). However, God's purpose in Christ [the last Adam and the head of the new redeemed humanity, I Cor. 15:45] is to restore that image in us by conforming us to the likeness of Christ (Romans 8:29). The new man which we are made to be in Christ is Created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:24). We are told in Hebrews 12:10 that even the chastening of the Lord in our lives is for our good, that we may share in his holiness. This is extremely important because verse 14 says, without holiness no one will see the Lord.
Just as God was Jehovah-M'Kaddesh [the Lord who sanctifies you] to Israel in the Old Testament, the Lord Jesus is the lord who sanctifies us in the New Testament. Peter even quotes the words God spoke to Israel in the Old Testament and applies them to the Church in the New Testament: ...you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light (I Peter 2:9).
This is the glorious destiny of the Church, because ...Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing of water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless (Ephesians 5:25b-27).
Let no one who calls himself or herself a Christian think that holiness is an optional thing. The Apostle John told us, ...every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure (I John 3:3). The desire of our heart, therefore, should be to share in the beauty of His holiness because we know it is His will for us and because we want to please Him.. If we claim to know the lord, we must know Him as Jehovah-M'Kaddesh, the Lord who sanctifies us!