Dave spoke from Isaiah 6:1-8 tonight, looking at the holiness of God. Divine holiness is one of the attributes of God. He is separate, different, transcendent, worthy of reverence and awe. Often, we associate holiness with the God of the Old Testament and can emphasise love more, but the two different aspects of God’s nature cannot be separated. Hebrews 12:28-29 reminds us that we need to worship God with reverence and awe for He is a consuming fire. Just as Moses was commanded to take off his shoes when he met with God at the burning bush for that was holy ground, so we need to understand the moral purity of our God and approach with reverence and awe.
Isaiah witnessed God’s dazzling holiness and saw the angels singing of this holiness. Angels are not the ‘cute’ beings portrayed in shops; they are massively terrifying beings, sent out as God’s messengers. When the angels sang, the temple shook! Isaiah’s vision saw God seated on His throne. He is never at His wits’ end but is always reigning in majesty. A vision of God puts our lives into perspective, and Isaiah became aware of his own sinfulness and how he could not stand within the holiness of God’s presence. Isaiah’s anguished cries were met at once with the seraph bringing a live coal to touch his lips. God Himself provides for our sinfulness. Is 57:15 reminds us that though God is high and lofty, He dwells with those who are contrite and lowly in spirit. He has made a way for us to enter into His presence (something only the High Priest could do once a year in the Old Testament), for His holiness and love meet in Christ, with the cross being both the emblem of holiness (since God’s absolute purity cannot abide in the presence of sin) and the emblem of love (since this was the means God chose to reconcile us to Himself.) The cross is payment for our sin, but is also the beginning of a new way of life for us, in which we too are called to be holy because God is holy. (1 Pet 1:15-16) We cover ourselves in faith and humility as Moses hid in the cleft of the rock as the presence of the Lord passed by.
God is not safe, but He is good. His holiness demands a response of holiness in return, but His love makes it possible for us to be clothed in His righteousness. Love so amazing, so divine demands our soul, our life, our all. Let’s strive to understand both the holiness and love of God and worship Him as the angels do, in never-ceasing praise.