Holiness

I have been reading a book on the holiness of God for a paper for my Isaiah class. Somethings stood out to me, so I figured I’d share them here. The book is The Holiness of God in the Book of Isaiah by Joseph Espinoza. It struck me that in the Israelites temple cult, the holiness of persons or objects was not so much about something inherent in the object itself, but in its relationship to God. Be holy, for I am holy, (Lev 11:44,45) is something I often hear quoted in relation to ethical living, and certainly that is part of holiness from Isaiahs confession of sin in Isaiah 6, but there is so much more to it than that. I have heard holiness described as seperation, but this, too, falls short of describing it. In talking about Isaiah 6, the book quotes John Oswalt: As in Exod. 24:10, where the pavement under Gods feet is described, so here the description of Gods appearance can rise no higher than the hem of His robe. It is as through words break down when one attempts to depict God Himself. Holiness is intertwined with the character of God Himself, in all His glory and wisdom and beauty and goodness. In light of this, our call to holiness is a much greater thing. It is more about being conformed to Gods character than about being seperated from sin (though the latter will be the natural result of the former). It is about being wholly devoted to God.

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