Articles
Holiness of the LORD
Holiness of the LORD Ezekiel
The holiness of God is His intrinsic separateness from all that is evil and corrupt. He is holy, holy, holy (Isa. 6, Rev. 4). He will not dwell with evil or those who practice such (Psalm 5:4). God expects those who would live with Him would also be holy (1Pet. 1: 14-16, Lev. 11:44). When Nadab and Abihu offered 'unauthorized fire which the LORD had not commanded', He destroyed them with fire and said: "I will be sanctified by those who would draw near unto me" (Lev. 10:3).
In Ezekiel God indicts the priests of His people saying: "Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them" (Ezekiel 22:26). Of the people God said that they had "despised my holy things and profaned my Sabbaths" (vs. 8).
God pronounced the judgment for such despising of His holiness saying: " I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the countries, and I will consume your uncleanness out of you. And you shall be profaned by your own doing in the sight of the nations, and you shall know that I am the Lord" (Ezekiel 22:15-16).
God is holy. Peter instructs that we should "…in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy" (1Pet. 3:15). The ASV translated this as "sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord". We are to consider God as 'uncommon' or 'special'. Peter described such people of holiness as being "children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in the time of your ignorance" (1Pet. 4:14). God's people are NOT 'common' and 'profane' like the world but are a people of holiness unto the LORD. Seeing that as obedient children you "have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren, love one another from the heart fervently" (1Pet. 4:22).
Reading Ezek 22, 8/19/13
