Holy, Holy, Holy

Lord who is like you among the gods?  Who is like you, glorious in holiness, revered with praises, performing wonders? Exodus 15:11 (CSB)

Holy crap!

Have you ever said this? I know I have and yes, it’s often said instead of saying the other more coarse word.

Quite honesty, I’ve never given this exclamation any thought until now as I write this devotion. To be even more honest, I’ve always thought I was being a better person by not using the other word that’s so commonplace in our language today.  Yes, I have used that word but I make a concerted effort not to. So, when I’m successful in doing that I just about break my arm patting myself on the back not realizing that the real offense was in misusing the word “holy.”

If you’ve ever uttered this expression, what in the world makes us think “crap” can be holy?

Do we even understand the meaning of holy?

If we did, we would know that “holy” is defined as:

1. dedicated to religious use; belonging to or coming from God; consecrated; sacred.

2. spiritually perfect or pure; untainted by evil or sin; sinless; saintly.

3. regarded with or deserving deep respect, awe, reverence, or adoration.

Do any of those definitions apply to “crap”? Absolutely not! We can’t make any common thing  holy by using it as an adjective. Not crap. Not cows. And most definitely not Toledo.

But we can make a holy God common because when we assign the definitions of “holy” to anything other than God, we make Him just as common as the object to which we are referring as holy.

Let’s sit with that for a moment.

We make a holy God common. We make Him to be just like us.

God is not common nor is He the man upstairs—another way we try to make God common or like us!

Let’s take a close look at God’s holiness.

Exodus 15:11, our key verse today, signals to us that God is different from other gods when it asks,  “Who is like you, glorious in holiness, revered with praises, performing wonders?” The New International Version translates the latter part of this verse as, “majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders.”

In other words, nothing and no one compares to God.  He and He alone is worthy of praise. He and He alone performs wonders. He and He alone is holy.

Like any good audience knowing when to react, I can hear you shouting now, “Just how Holy is He?!”

Well, God is so holy that when Moses asked to see His glory, God, so that Moses would not die, told Moses to stand in the cleft of a rock.  He then covered Moses’ face with His hand as He passed by him on Mt. Sinai. He only removed His hand at the point where Moses would only be able to see the back of God passing by (Exodus 33:18-23).

God is so holy that we can’t look upon Him in His fullness of being.    

The prophet Isaiah and the apostle John both had visions of being transported to the throne of God where seraphim spoke or sung “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” (Isaiah 6:3) and “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” (Revelation 4:8).

I think it’s important to take note of a couple of things about this three-fold repetition of the word “holy.” First, it underscores the intensity of God’s holiness. It also acknowledges the triune nature of God, with each part—Father, Son, Holy Spirit— being equal in holiness and majesty.

Another important thing to note is the posture of the seraphim in Isaiah’s vision. Isaiah 6:2 says, “Seraphim were standing above him; they each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.

Why is this important?

The seraphim, unlike us, are actually pure and holy and even they recognized their unworthiness in the presence of the Holy One!

Friend, only in the presence of the Holy One are we overwhelmingly aware of our unworthiness. Only in the presence of the Holy One do we realize how we misunderstand and mistreat the holiness of God.

Consider this:

God visited with Adam and Eve in the garden and they fellowshipped together, having an intimate relationship with one another. It wasn’t until they sinned that Adam and Eve became aware of God’s holiness because they then became aware of their sin.

They hid from Him because their awareness of His holiness caused them deep shame and fear in light of their sin. Their close relationship with God was now broken (Genesis 3:8). This is what God’s holiness in the face of sin yields: fear and shame.

However, in God’s inexhaustible mercy, He didn’t consume their lives like His holiness commands.  Instead, He allowed for their relationship to be broken knowing He would one day send His son to reconcile all men to Himself.  This is what God’s holiness in the face of sin yields: mercy and reconciliation.

God is so holy that He can consume those who come before Him with unatoned sin. Yet, the same holiness that can consume sinners makes a way for sin to be atoned.

Moses, Adam and Eve, and the seraphim all acknowledged the holiness of our very holy God.

Do we?

I know most times I treat God like He’s a divine wish granter instead of the Holy One.  When praying, I approach Him like I’ve rubbed a lamp and He was the genie that popped out. I even have the audacity to read Scripture not so I can hear what He has to say to me but so that I can hear what to say to you about Him. Shamefully, I can picture Him in Heaven shaking His head saying, “Thats not how this works. That’s not how any of this works.”

Dear friend, our God is a holy God and it is His holiness that sets Him apart from all other gods and deities. It is His holiness that demands our sin be paid for. And it is His holiness that paid for our sin.

Will you join the Seraphim in proclaiming, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty!”?