Holiness

Introduction

It is difficult to think of a word that is more out of touch with modern society than Holiness. The word seems to belong to another age. Holiness is related to ideas like purity, virtue, righteousness, and other qualities the world is happy to abandon to antiquity. The reason our society finds Holiness so objectionable is because by its very definition, it implicates everything that stands in contrast to it. It is no surprise, then, that today’s world associates Holiness with intolerance, prejudice, and arrogance.

Simply put, being holy is being different. And in a certain way, the world loves those who are different, by idolizing those who are broad minded enough to justify almost every path along the broad road to destruction. As disciples of Christ, we are bombarded every day with worldly advice to follow our heart and find our own way, while the Scripture warns us of the deceptiveness of our hearts and our natural inability to navigate our lives for our own good. Holiness unto God, is the true less-travelled road. The Lord Jesus said so himself: “Narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it” (Matt 7:14).

But we believe in the Living God, who has revealed Himself in the pages of the Bible. We believe that whoever comes to God must believe that He exists, and that He rewards those who sincerely seek Him (Heb 11:6). And to those who seek Him He says, “…ye shall be holy unto me: for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine” (Lev 20:26). Holiness, then, flows from God. “Ye shall be holy unto me.” He is the source of all Holiness, and so it is His right to define it. But today’s world obsesses over the rights of its inhabitants while ignoring the demands of God on His creation.

Uzziah

About 2700 years ago, there was a man who thought he was holy. He saw himself different from, better than, his brethren; and his self-estimation led him to be­lieve that he knew better than God. The man’s name was Uzziah. He ruled over a prosperous Judah for over five decades, sincerely seeking Him at the beginning of his reign (2Chron 26:5). After many blessed years, he apparently made up his mind that he was worthy to enter into the temple to offer incense, which was the exclusive privilege of the high priest of Levi. Perhaps his transgression grew from a distorted desire to be like the great king-priest, after Melchizedek’s order in Psalm 110. Whatever the reason, Uzziah received an immediate response from the High and Lofty One, who rejected his arrogant incense. What the king had hoped to be his inaugural day as high priest became the setting for one of the most ironic judgments in all of Scripture. There, upon his forehead, the king’s leprosy declared his sin to the whole nation. The high priest under Moses’ law also wore a sign upon his forehead which read — “Holiness unto Yahweh”. It was Yahweh’s Holiness that Uzziah had defamed.

That very year, the same year king Uzziah died, Isaiah had a vision of the glory of God. There, upon His throne, He reigned uncontested as a striking contrast to the king that had sat on David’s throne for so long.

Isaiah’s call to prophetic office stands as a clear contrast to Uzziah’s sin, and reminds us how necessary it is for us to be humble before our Heavenly Father. This is exactly why Isaiah’s vision in chapter six is said to have taken place “in the year king Uzziah died”.

Uzziah inherited the kingdom from his father Amaziah when he was sixteen years old. His country had been humiliated from an Israelite invasion from the north, and we might assume from Uzziah’s military zeal that he was determined to protect Judah from future invasions. Looking at the Chronicles narrative, the king’s strength and industry cannot be missed. Consider the following outline of Uzziah’s reign in 2Chron 26:

• verses 1-5 Summary
• verses 6-8 Breaking down the walls of his enemies
• verses 9-10 Building up the land of Judah
• verses 11-15 Judah’s military strength
• verses 16-21 Uzziah’s arrogance and punishment
• verses 22-23 Uzziah’s death and burial

He began so well with admirable intentions, seeking his God during Zechariah’s days. He found amazing success in his seeking because he was helped and strength­ened by God. It seems that no corner of the land lacked the benefits of his wonderful industry. The land flowed with water, milk, and fruit of every kind, and the name of Uzziah echoed around the whole region as Judah’s enemies humbly brought tribute. The land was filled with the king’s glory. For the first time since the days of Solomon, the finery of Tarshish flowed once again into the kingdom. Surrounded with peace and filled with plenty, Judah’s new generation would probably have had no firsthand memory of the war their nation suffered through years before. Judah was different than the nations around him, and its king was different, too. In his younger days, Uzziah recognized Yahweh’s Holiness by humbly seeking Him, and He answered him in mercy. But now, after years of God-given success, the king on Judah’s throne grew confident in his own strength. He believed that he was entitled to transcend the law of God.

This was the setting for Uzziah’s arrogant transgression. “But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction” (2Chron 26:16 NKJV). The king’s heart was lifted up and soared so high above his brothers’ that their rebukes could not reach him. So the famous king marched arrogantly into the temple, in a land that reflected his glory to approach his God Who had so graciously blessed him. It was a dramatically ironic moment. Uzziah had certainly offered many prayers as a young man when he sought God, but now he was looking to offer a different kind of incense. We know that incense is explicitly used in Scripture as a symbol for prayer (Psa 141:2; Rev 8:3-4). This time, Uzziah’s approach was all wrong. His prayer would not be heard. There were no priests that stood at his side to encour­age him in his work and sing his praises. Instead, the king stood face to face with the priest, and eighty other priests collectively warned Uzziah that what he was about to do would not bring him the glory he now desired. Adding to this sad irony, were the names of the king and the priest. They shared a name — Azariah. Azariah was Uzziah’s other name (according to the King’s account) and Azariah was also the name of the chief priest who let the opposition against the king. For the king, Azariah spoke to what God had done in his life in the past; but for the priest, Azariah spoke to what God was about to do in response to his faithful fight against a rebellious king. Uzziah directed his anger to priests, but especially to Azariah who held the position he coveted. Upon that man’s head, as upon every high priest’s head, was the mitre with a golden inscription that read: “Holiness to Yahweh.” How the king must have coveted that symbol of the priesthood! But the writing on his forehead was both completely different and completely appropriate.

Leprosy!

He was not the king-priest after Melchizedek’s order. By God’s direct judgment upon him, he was manifested as the high priest of apostasy. His thinking was corrupt, having forgotten a simple truth that is found throughout the Word but is expressed in the proverb — “By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, and honour, and life” (Prov 22:4). He once revered Yahweh and His Holiness, but he blinded himself in his pride. Though we cannot be sure when the earthquake struck during his reign (Amos 1:2; Zech 14:5), it would certainly be fitting if it took place when Josephus recorded it did — during the moment the leprosy struck him. The king who sought his own Holiness, received it. He was given his own house and separated from his people. He sowed and reaped his own corruption.

Isaiah’s vision

Could there be a more striking contrast than Isaiah’s call in chapter 6? There, sitting upon his throne, high and lifted up sat the King — Yahweh of hosts. How unlike Judah’s recent tenant this King is! He sits on His throne in the highest heaven with His attendants — the flaming servants, the seraphim. They sing in call and response that Yahweh’s glory fills the earth, and shake the earth with their cries as the King’s train fills the temple. And before this amazing display stands the prophet.

If you saw the glory of Yahweh, what would you do? How would you feel if you saw a vision of the High and Lofty One sitting on His throne in awesome beauty? What would you say as you heard the cries of the seraphim, singing with such power as to make the posts of the door of the temple tremble at the sound? This was the vision of the prophet Isaiah, and he remembered it for the rest of his life. The seraphim were singing, “Holy, holy, holy, the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory” (Isa 6:3) — and Isaiah never forgot that song. It echoes throughout his entire prophecy. In the presence of such glorious majesty, it is worth consider­ing his humble response.

It is important to notice what the prophet did not do — he did not take the song into his lips. He did not count himself worthy to sing it, confessing instead: “I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips” (Isa 6:5). It was not that he could not understand it, because Yahweh had long prophesied about a time when the whole earth would be filled with His glory (Num 14:21). The glory of God is not limited to breathtaking displays of His visible hand; it is much more often connected with the quieter and sometimes unnoticed qualities of His character, which are lived out in the lives of His children. When Moses asked to see the glory of Yahweh, He declared to him His Name which cannot be separated from His mercy, grace, patience, goodness, and truth. Isaiah’s vision left him nearly breathless, and His brief reaction is very telling. His first words were, “Woe is me, for I am undone,” or cut-off as the margin has it. He expected to die in the presence of such glory. But there is grace and truth in the Father’s glory, and Isaiah never forgot it.

To those who have ears to hear, there is a song that echoes throughout the pages of Isaiah’s prophecy. It is a continuation of the song of the seraphim in praise to Yahweh for His Holiness. For the rest of his life, Isaiah never forgot what his God had done for him. And to celebrate Him as the Holy God that makes His children holy, Isaiah called him by a very special name. So important is this name that Isaiah uses it more than anyone else in Scripture. Even though he could not sing the seraphim’s holy song in the beginning, Isaiah could sing His praises in his own life after receiving the blessing of forgiveness, and called His God The Holy One of Israel.

“For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones” (Isa 57:15).

His children are called by His holy name. If we are to bear His name in the future around His throne, when we sing to Him in newness of life, we must reflect the glory of His holy character now. What a fitting picture we are given, then, in Rev 14. Its details remind us that the same writer who inspired the ancient prophecy of Isaiah and record of the Kings and Chronicles, inspired this remarkable prophecy, too. Here is the true King with his attendants. Here they stand as priests before the throne, singing with all their beings to the glory of the Father, no longer humili­ated by unclean lips — but who sing without guile.

“And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harp­ing with their harps:… These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God” (Rev 14:1-5).

Brothers and sisters, let us never forget the Holiness of our Heavenly Father. In our prayers, our aspirations, our successes and failures, as future king-priests around his throne, let us all live in the Holiness of Yahweh.

So shalt Thou, Lord, from me, e’en me, Receive the glory due;
And even now shall I begin
The song for ever new. (Hymn 82)

Contrasts

• The King on His Throne : 2Chron 26:1 cp. Isa 6:1,5
• The Priest after Melchizedek’s Order: 2Chron 26:16 cp. Isa 6:1
• High and Lifted Up: 2Chron 26:16,19 cp. Isa 6:1
• In the Temple: 2Chron 26:16,21 cp. Isa 6:1
• With His Attendants: 2Chron 26:17 cp. Isa 6:2
• Full of His Glory: 2Chron 26:8,15 cp. Isa 6:3
• A Great Shaking: 2Chron 26:20; Amos 1:1; Zech 14:5 cp. Isa 6:4
• Approaching before Yahweh: 2Chron 26:16 cp. Isa 6:5
• Burning Incense: 2Chron 26:16-19 cp. Isa 6:6
• Answering Prayers: 2Chron 26:19,21 cp. Isa 6:7 Judgment on the People: 2 Kgs 15:37; cp. 2Chron 26:6-15 cp. Isa 6:9-13 Jay