Opus 2025-350: Is That Another Squirrel I See?

I feel another tangent coming on.  I’m already trying to understand the concept of the law in the Bible.  I’m wondering about the word “righteousness”.  Are covenants permanent and unconditional or are they conditional?  I’ve got a lot of questions and today I may be getting another one if I can remember why I started down this path.  Only time will tell if it keeps coming back to my mind.

My question today for myself, and indirectly for you is, “What does it mean to be holy?”

I come to this as I was thinking about the attributes of God.  On my list, the first one I have is that God is holy.  It seems like a good place to start a list of attributes of God.  I think we all assume God is holy.  This took me to contemplate Isaiah coming before God and seeing the seraphims as they sang out,

Isaiah 6:3 (KJV) And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.

What surprised me when I looked into it is that there are only two places where you have this triple holy.  The other is in Revelation 4:8.  I thought the formula was more common than that.  From there I looked up the word in the Greek and Hebrew.  The definitions of the Greek and Hebrew words is almost identical, so I think I can assume that they mean the same thing.

So what does it mean to be holy?  Or what does holy mean?  It is the same meaning I think but might depend on how you ask the question. The list of definitions in both the Old Testament and the New have to do with being separate.  I would have thought the root would be clean or pure but, no, it means set apart.  I can see that in regard to God Himself.  He is above creation.  Yet, at the same time He is involved in creation because He is involved with us.

We are expected to be holy.  We see that expressed in terms of being apart in a verse like this,

(2Co 6:17 KJV)  Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

I would imagine this is part of the thinking of the Amish.  Not knowing any Amish I am just guessing.  I was raised in a denomination that considered itself of the holiness school and I know it is part of their thinking.  It was certainly part of what God wanted for Israel when they moved into the Promised Land.

It must be possible or God would not expect it.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-445: Is Glory Survivable

One of the concepts that we find throughout the Old Testament, is the way in which God communicated that sinful man could not come into His presence without being consumed.  We see it in Moses as he asked God if he could see his glory.

(Exo 33:18 KJV)  And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.

(Exo 33:20 KJV)  And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

We see it and Isaiah as he came into the presence of God.

(Isa 6:5 KJV)  Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.

At the same time, we seem to have Adam and Eve being face-to-face with God, and having no problem.  What was the difference?  Adam and Eve face God before sin came into the world.  Moses and Isaiah lived when sin reigned.

I assume that in eternity we will be in the presence of God and will glory in that moment.  But it will be so marvelous that I expect to spend a couple million years just basking in His Holiness.  It sounds boring now, but I think it will be more than enough to make it hard to sleep.  The rabbit trail of my brain today is asking would we be able to come in the presence of God now having been washed by the blood of Jesus, and filled with the Holy Spirit.

Just asking for a friend.

Happy New Year.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-033: The Ultimate UFO

There is a long list of Theophanies starting in the Garden of Eden.  Some are a voice from heaven, dream or vision.  Do those qualify as theophanies?  A theophony is the appearance of Jehovah in some sort of observable form.  He can appear as a man.  He appeared as a burning bush.  He spoke out of a storm.  The point is that God is spirit and His presence is so holy that it would kill anyone who saw Him directly.

We see this clearly in a conversation Moses had with God in Exodus 33.  God tells Moses,

(Exo 33:20 KJV)  And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

This is why Isaiah was panicked,

(Isa 6:5 KJV)  Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.

We have numerous times when God communicated with humans.  We have Him talking to Adam and Eve in the Garden.  He spoke to Cain.  From there we have a long list of communications.  It continues in the New Testament with Saul on the road to Damascus and Jesus appearing to John in the Revelation.  

You might think of Jesus as the ultimate Theophany but that would not work because He was fully man, God in the flesh.

I wonder if avatar an acceptable modern word for theophany?

Stay alert.  You may be the next to file a report.

homo unius libri