I was listening to a sermon yesterday and the pastor was reading from Isaiah 6:1-9. In these verses the prophet Isaiah is describing a vision he had of God enthroned in heaven. I can sense Isaiah's struggle to put into human terms what the glory and majesty of the Most High King was like.
Verses 3 and 4 says, speaking of the antiphonal seraphim, "And one cried to another and said, 'Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!' And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who had cried out, and the house was filled with smoke."
The pastor pointed out that, in Hebrew, when something is stated more than once, it adds weight or importance to the statement.
God isn't just holy.
He isn't just completely holy.
He is absolutely completely holy.
Holiness is a word, and concept, that people use almost flippantly today. The word is used to add emphasis to an exclamation or to denote anything as religious.
God is neither of those.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives the definition as this: exalted and worthy of complete devotion, as one perfect in goodness and righteousness.
Wow! That doesn't sound like anyone I've ever met!
But it does sound like God.
God's holiness isn't just a lack of evil or an absence of anything impure, though that would be amazing enough. God's holiness is the opposite of that. He IS everything that is pure and true and good and righteous and lovely. James says, "...there is no variation or shadow of turning." Psalm 40:10 speaks of God's faithfulness, salvation, compassion, and truth. He is the source of His own holiness and needs no outside affirmation.
When the seraphim proclaimed God's holiness throughout all of heaven, the very structure was shaken and smoke billowed all around Isaiah. He suddenly saw himself for what he really was- filthy. Isaiah is one of the most famous prophets in the entire Bible, the one through whom came many of the prophecies about the Messiah, and he called himself filthy in the presence of God's holiness.
What do you call yourself when you're in God's holy presence? Do you hand Him your report card of good deeds and long prayers, tax-deductible donations, and impeccable church attendance? Or do you recognize that you are made of dust and instead proclaim the holiness of the One Who gives you breath?
When I finally began to grasp what God's holiness is like, it made the sacrifice of Jesus all the more precious to me. The God Who is holiness put on humanity to save me from myself. That is love I cannot comprehend. The mixture of love and holiness is a perfect balance. Though God loves us as a father and wants to have a personal relationship with us as His children, we must never forget that the One we call Father is also a consuming fire of holiness.