Where God Makes His Home

God’s holiness was not relegated to the Old Testament. Never forget: He is still holy, and he still desires holiness among his people, which includes you and me. The requirements of holiness shouldn’t be seen as restrictive, as some people think, but rather as a privilege that carries with it the unique blessing of being distinct within this world as God’s very own people.

The Journey// Focus: Exodus 22:31, 23:13

You must be my holy people…pay close attention to all my instructions.

Once the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt and gave them the Law through Moses, he was very careful to identify the nation as his very own people. He sovereignly chose them and now he rightfully owned them as his people. And God set about to shape them into a holy nation that could “tabernacle”, or house his presence, contain blessings and reflect his glory to the peoples of the earth—as much as such a thing was humanly possible.

But Israel needed to understand very clearly that this position of privilege carried with it the responsibility of holiness. Thus the Law was given to pave the way to holiness. Interestingly, and quite importantly, their holiness had much to do with how they treated one another in daily life, not just how they approached God in sacred worship. If holiness is something you desire, which you should, then keep in mind that it is not just personal, it is social. Jesus, quoting Moses (Deuteronomy 6:4,5 and Leviticus 19:18), talked about the law as being both God-centric (“love the Lord your God with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” – Mark 12:30) and people-focused in its application (“Love your neighbor as yourself” –Mark 12:31).

Holiness was a whole life demand that included interpersonal relationships, business transactions, legal justice, and treatment of the disadvantaged, among other things. To follow the law in these everyday details is how love for God was expressed in deed. And the payoff for loving God through living out his law was huge: if God’s people got this right, God would reign as their king forever, strengthen them and give them peace (“showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments” – Exodus 20:6). Such a deal! But if they blew it, they would forfeit the best offer they could ever have—their gracious God living among them.

The law gets a bad rap among believers today. Like we do with so many things we don’t like or agree with or understand, we label it and marginalize it. We refer to observance of the law as legalism and those who follow it as Pharisees, among other things. And to be certain, those who woodenly followed the law clear down to its minutiae, and who made up hundreds of further laws to explain the law, drew the ire of the true Law-giver, Jesus, who was the perfect fulfillment of God’s law. Furthermore, it is true that no one is saved by law-keeping. It is only through grace by faith in Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice that one is saved.

No, the law cannot save anyone. But keeping the law, from the heart and not just by the head or the hands, was a way for Israel, who lived in lawless Egypt for 400 years, to now know how to live as people in the presence of a holy God. Of course, that law couldn’t save them—that was not its purpose. But it could definitely show them that they belonged to Another; One who was altogether holy and demanded holiness from his people. It showed them how to approach him on his terms (which was, and is, the only way to approach the Holy One), how to find pardon and restoration when they violated his law, and how to live in loving community as his chosen family.

Now while we don’t live under the law today, we still live under God’s desire for us to be a holy people, chosen as his very own to serve his purpose in lifting his fame among all the peoples of the earth. And as we read these explicit descriptions of his law in the Jewish Scriptures, let us remember that even under the age of grace where we are not obligated to observe the minutiae of the law, we are obligated to a life of holiness, empowered by the Holy Spirit, because the Almighty to whom we belong is holy. We belong to him, and as such, we serve the purposes of Another in holiness through our everyday lives.

God’s holiness was not relegated to the Old Testament. Never forget: He is still holy, and he still desires holiness among his people, which includes you and me. The requirements of holiness shouldn’t be seen as restrictive, as some people think, but rather as a privilege that carries with it the unique blessing of being distinct within this world as God’s very own people.

And it is still true that we best demonstrate our belonging to and our serving Another by loving the Lord our God with all heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and with all our strength,” and by “loving our neighbor as ourselves.” (Mark 12:30-31)

As we live out this holy God’s higher law, we shall find that God has found a home in us, his holy people.