{Holy With}

Spending more time in the Old Testament has proved to bring a greater understanding of the grace of God.

As I read the words I’ve read before, that so often ring with rules and standards, my perspective begins to change as I begin to look for the character of God revealed in the structure He gives to His people.

As I read Exodus and Leviticus, the theme that starts to emerge is one of holiness.  The holiness of God that demands a holy place and people becomes evident.    Further internalizing this truth begins to change the tone of the words that I am reading.  Where once commands seemed harsh and impersonal, now they seem tender and gracious.

A holy God that can only exist within a holy environment could easily pull away from humanity.  How much easier it would be to leave the people of Israel to themselves. 

But, He doesn’t.

The laws and rules and standards and structure are all for the purpose of creating a space in which God can exist.  They’re the means through which God can dwell with His people.  They’re for the purpose of relationship.

How timely, this lesson, in the midst of a season where we celebrate “God with us”.

Just as Yahweh could have easily maintained distance between Himself and the Israelites, He could have just as easily let us to ourselves and our failure at creating that holy space He needed.  But, in the story of Christmas, He went farther than He had with the Israelites.  He saw a people incapable of maintaining a holy dwelling for Him and He decided to take it all upon Himself. 

In the birth of Jesus, God Himself took on the responsibility of humanity to be live out a holy life that was worthy of a holy God.  God came to earth in the form of a baby to be our holiness.  

Only a God that pursued relationship with His people in grace from the beginning would go to such drastically gracious measures.

The centrality of the presence of God with His people is seen in Exodus 33, when Israel’s rebellion against God results in His proclamation that He won’t go with them.  The begging which ensues from Moses shows how necessary God’s presence with the people was to defining the Israelites.  Without Yahweh, the people of Yahweh would be lost.

As God often weaves things together in our lives, He does with mine in the midst of contemplating this topic.  I pick up a book I haven’t read for a while and find my place in a chapter titled “Holiness as Devotion to God” (A Fellowship of Differences, by Scott McKnight).

One of the main points of this chapter is that often we see holiness as purely something which is “separate from.”  A more accurate understanding of holiness, according to McKnight, is one which involves as “devotedness to.” 

As I think upon on this idea, I realize that our belief about what God is like is distinctly tied to what we think about holiness.  A God who is purely set-apart and far off begets a people that feel guilty separation when they fail to uphold His holy desires.  Separation yields separation.  But, a God whose holy desires come from a place of desiring to be with His people begets a people that long to live out those desires because they long to be close to the God that they love.  With-ness yields with-ness.

We see the way in which holiness and being with are joined, in the words of Yahweh in Leviticus 10:3:

“…By those who come near Me, I will be treated as holy, and before all the people I will be honored.”

Holiness is not meant for division, but rather is a way in which to be drawn together.

Let us think upon this truth as we anticipate the celebration of the birth of Jesus. 

Immanuel, God With Us, is not separate from the God of the Old Testament.  Rather, He is the further revelation of the God who has always pursued being with His people.

And let our response be the only fitting one: devotion, which draws us even nearer to Him.