In the Bible, the idea of holiness, it’s really describing how God is the creative force behind the whole universe. God’s the one and only being with the power to make a world full of such beauty and life, and with all these abilities, they make God utterly unique, which is the meaning of the word “holy.” A way to think about God’s holiness is by using the sun as a metaphor, imagine the sun is holy. Let’s take this metaphor further, in that the whole area around the sun is also holy, but the very power and goodness that generates all this life, is also dangerous. The sun, if we get too close, will annihilate us and in the same way there’s this paradox at the heart of God’s own holiness, because if we are impure, his presence is dangerous to us and not because it’s bad, but because its so good.
This paradox of God’s holiness, it’s in the story of Moses and the burning bush. God tells Moses to take off his sandals, because he’s standing on holy ground and Moses covers his face in fear and God says, don’t come any closer. It’s that intensity of God’s holiness, that’s explored even more in the stories of Israel’s temple, which was the main place where God’s holy presence was located. At the center of the temple was this room called the Most Holy Place, it’s the hotspot of God’s presence. An Israelite living in the land around the temple or a priest working right in the temple, they are in proximity to God’s holy presence, which is dangerous.
In the Bible, the solution is that a person needs to become pure, ritually pure, which is a state, where a person separates themself from anything related to death. Touching things like diseased skin or dead bodies or even certain bodily fluids, all these make a person impure. Becoming ritually impure isn’t necessarily sinful, what’s wrong is waltzing into God’s presence, when a person is in an impure state. That’s why God gave the Israelites very clear instructions for knowing, when they were impure and steps to become pure, so that they could go into the temple. This idea keeps developing, we find this story by a prophet named Isaiah, and he has a vision, where he’s in the temple and he’s right in God’s presence. Isaiah is totally terrified, he’s worried about being destroyed. Then this creature called a Seraphim, it flies over with a hot coal and it sears Isaiah’s lips with the coal and says, “Your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for.” This burning coal somehow makes Isaiah pure, because normally if a person touch something impure, it transfers it’s impurity to them. But now, here’s this new idea, where a person has this coal, this very holy and pure object and it touches Isaiah and it transfers its purity to him. Isaiah is not destroyed by God’s holiness, he’s transformed by it.
There’s another development, this time from another prophet, Ezekiel. Ezekiel has this vision, where he’s standing at the temple and he sees water trickling out of it, and then that water turns into a stream, and then it grows into a deep river that starts flowing through the desert, leaving a trail of green trees behind it, and then it flows into the Dead Sea, making everything fresh and alive. Instead of becoming pure first, and then going into the temple, here, God’s holiness comes out from the temple, making things pure, bringing them to life. Jesus, he claims that he’s fulfilling all of these ancient visions, but in surprising new ways, he went around touching people, who are impure. People with skin disease, a woman with chronic bleeding or dead people, and when he touches them, their impurity should transfer over to Jesus. But instead, Jesus purity transfers to the them and actually heals their bodies, Jesus is like that holy coal in Isaiah’s vision.
Jesus claimed that he was the human embodiment of God’s own holiness, and that he and his followers were now God’s temple. So that through them, God’s holy presence would go out into the world and bring life and healing and hope. This is why, Jesus described his followers as having streams of living water, flowing out of them. The Bible ends with a final vision about God’s holiness. John, in his vision, we see the whole world made completely new. The entire earth has become God’s temple and Ezekiel’s river is there flowing out of God’s presence, immersing all of creation, removing all impurity and bringing everything back to life.
This paradox of God’s holiness, it’s in the story of Moses and the burning bush. God tells Moses to take off his sandals, because he’s standing on holy ground and Moses covers his face in fear and God says, don’t come any closer. It’s that intensity of God’s holiness, that’s explored even more in the stories of Israel’s temple, which was the main place where God’s holy presence was located. At the center of the temple was this room called the Most Holy Place, it’s the hotspot of God’s presence. An Israelite living in the land around the temple or a priest working right in the temple, they are in proximity to God’s holy presence, which is dangerous.
In the Bible, the solution is that a person needs to become pure, ritually pure, which is a state, where a person separates themself from anything related to death. Touching things like diseased skin or dead bodies or even certain bodily fluids, all these make a person impure. Becoming ritually impure isn’t necessarily sinful, what’s wrong is waltzing into God’s presence, when a person is in an impure state. That’s why God gave the Israelites very clear instructions for knowing, when they were impure and steps to become pure, so that they could go into the temple. This idea keeps developing, we find this story by a prophet named Isaiah, and he has a vision, where he’s in the temple and he’s right in God’s presence. Isaiah is totally terrified, he’s worried about being destroyed. Then this creature called a Seraphim, it flies over with a hot coal and it sears Isaiah’s lips with the coal and says, “Your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for.” This burning coal somehow makes Isaiah pure, because normally if a person touch something impure, it transfers it’s impurity to them. But now, here’s this new idea, where a person has this coal, this very holy and pure object and it touches Isaiah and it transfers its purity to him. Isaiah is not destroyed by God’s holiness, he’s transformed by it.
There’s another development, this time from another prophet, Ezekiel. Ezekiel has this vision, where he’s standing at the temple and he sees water trickling out of it, and then that water turns into a stream, and then it grows into a deep river that starts flowing through the desert, leaving a trail of green trees behind it, and then it flows into the Dead Sea, making everything fresh and alive. Instead of becoming pure first, and then going into the temple, here, God’s holiness comes out from the temple, making things pure, bringing them to life. Jesus, he claims that he’s fulfilling all of these ancient visions, but in surprising new ways, he went around touching people, who are impure. People with skin disease, a woman with chronic bleeding or dead people, and when he touches them, their impurity should transfer over to Jesus. But instead, Jesus purity transfers to the them and actually heals their bodies, Jesus is like that holy coal in Isaiah’s vision.
Jesus claimed that he was the human embodiment of God’s own holiness, and that he and his followers were now God’s temple. So that through them, God’s holy presence would go out into the world and bring life and healing and hope. This is why, Jesus described his followers as having streams of living water, flowing out of them. The Bible ends with a final vision about God’s holiness. John, in his vision, we see the whole world made completely new. The entire earth has become God’s temple and Ezekiel’s river is there flowing out of God’s presence, immersing all of creation, removing all impurity and bringing everything back to life.
