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What the Bible says about Holy as to Set Apart
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Exodus 19:10

Here, the word sanctify does not mean "set apart" but "consecrate" or "dedicate" or "make pure." The word holy has two meanings: "to set aside" and "to set apart" or "to cut out." However, it always carries a sense of "purity."

Notice what Moses is told to do: ". . . and let them wash their clothes." In the New Testament, clean, washed clothes symbolize the righteous acts of the saints. In this instance, they physically had to wash their clothes—to purify them. What were the people about to do? In a short time, they were going to draw near to God. And in order to draw near to God, they had to be clothed—encompassed—by righteous acts.

John W. Ritenbaugh
New Covenant Priesthood (Part One)

Leviticus 19:1-27

Verse 1 informs us that God spoke directly to Moses and that he was to share all of this with the children of Israel. In the next verse, God says, “You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.” Holy means “sacred” and “set apart.” The points that follow are designed to set Israel apart, and if observed, these statutes and judgments would keep Israel undefiled.

Verses 3 and 4 cover the first, second, fourth, and fifth commandments, and the following four verses deal with sacrificing. Verses 9-10 handle harvesting procedures and leaving something for the poor. Verse 11 covers the eighth and ninth commandments, while verse 12 rephrases the third commandment. Verse 13 gives counsel on dealing with neighbors and employees, and verse 14, with the handicapped. Verse 15 encourages us to judge righteously. Verse 16 condemns gossip, and verses 17-18 concern familial relationships.

After this, verse 19 begins: “You shall keep my statutes . . ..” The Hebrew word underlying “statutes” is shamar, “to hedge about, guard, protect, attend to, preserve, observe, and to treasure up in your memory.” God covers a great deal of ground in the first 18 verses, so at the chapter's halfway mark, He inserts a reminder that these laws and life principles, this huge amount of wisdom, is to be guarded, protected, attended to, preserved, and observed. He closes the chapter in verse 37 with the same reminder.

Notice the three matters listed in verse 19: “You shall not let your livestock breed with another kind. You shall not sow your field with mixed seed. Nor shall a garment of mixed linen and wool come upon you.” Sandwiched between His admonition to bear no grudges and love your neighbor (verse 18) and the penalty for adultery (verse 20), we have these three directives.

Are they on a par with some of these others? No, of course not. Nor is idol worship (verse 4) comparable with gleaning the fields (verse 9). The chapter ends with God commanding us to observe “all My statutes and all My judgments.” We have to discern what this means.

Some of these verses deal with the Ten Commandments. Do any of us doubt that these are still in force and to be kept? Even so, few of us farm the land anymore, so what does mixing livestock or seed have to do with us? For that matter, how many tailors do we have today? What do we know of mixing fabrics? It is possible that pagan priests wore this mix; that one fabric signifies the Old Covenant, and the other, the New; that it was simply a consumer protection law; or that all of the above are true, which is likely. But what does it mean for us today?

Verse 27 admonishes us not to shave around the sides of our heads or “disfigure” the edges of our beards. These were things Egyptians did, and perhaps some of the Israelites had adopted those practices. From this distance in time, we do not really know what they were doing with their beards and hair, but God tells them, “No, don't do that. You are a special people. Come out of Egypt.” So, although we do not have to worry about our beards or hair as much in this regard, we still have to be aware of the “Egypt” around us and come out of her.

This same principle applies to mixing wool and linen. Note that this prohibition does not stand alone because in the same verse, God also forbids mixing cattle and seed. It is the principle of clean and unclean, righteous and unrighteous, Christian or pagan, Egypt or God.

In Matthew 5:17-18, Christ says:

Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

Even the smallest point in the Old Testament is not “done away” until “all is fulfilled,” until “heaven and earth pass away.” Has that happened yet? Of course not. Some of the physical rituals—such as circumcision, the various washings, sacrifices and offerings—may not have to be performed anymore, but the spiritual intent lives on.

The Old Covenant emphasized physical things as a means of righteousness, but the emphasis under the New Covenant is on spiritual elements in our relationship with God and each other. Under the New Covenant, we become a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1), and that sacrifice begins in our mind. This change from the Old to the New forces us to make spiritual use of the laws already written. They are not done away; we just have to figure out how they apply to us now.

Mike Ford
Wool and Linen

Daniel 12:7

Who are the "holy people" in this verse? Are they the church of God? If so, what is their power that is completely shattered right before the end?

I Peter 2:9 could back up the interpretation that the "holy people" are the church of God: "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people . . ." (emphasis ours throughout). However, the church is not the only group of people whom God has declared holy. Ancient Israel was also designated by God to be holy:

  • For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. (Deuteronomy 7:6; 14:2)

  • Also today the LORD has proclaimed you to be His special people, just as He promised you, that you should keep all His commandments, and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, in praise, in name, and in honor, and that you may be a holy people to the LORD your God, just as He has spoken. (Deuteronomy 26:18-19)

Israel was holy, not because of their purity of conduct or irreproachable morality—far from it—but because God declared them to be so. They were holy in the sense of being set apart—not because of any inherent goodness but because of the oath that God swore to their fathers (Deuteronomy 7:7-8). Therefore, while the Israelite nations at this end time are not holy in their conduct, they are still holy in that God has set them apart to fulfill a purpose.

Notice that Daniel 12:7 does not say that the people are shattered, but that their power is shattered. If we interpret the holy people to be Israel in general, their power would be representative of their political clout, military ascendancy, financial control, and cultural influence. The Hebrew word translated here as "power" is elsewhere translated predominately as "hand," indicating the means or agency by which something is accomplished. It is easy to understand a prophecy about the "hand"—strength, effectiveness, means, capabilities—of the nations of Israel being completely shattered before the end, for many such prophecies are well-known.

But what would the "power" of the church be? Because of the church's overriding focus in times past on preaching the gospel to the world, we would typically answer that the power of the church is related to its effectiveness in preaching the gospel. However, notice Acts 1:8:

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

Similarly, Paul tells Timothy that Christians have not been given "a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (II Timothy 1:7). When these two verses are put together, they show that it is the Holy Spirit—the essence of God's mind, and the agency by which the Father and the Son live in the Christian—that is the "power of the holy people" where the church is concerned. More specifically, the church's power is God Himself, the Source of that Spirit. Jesus even tells His disciples that "all power" had been given to Him in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18).

In recent church history, God empowered His servants to preach the gospel in a way that had not been done for 1,900 years. But to limit the church's power merely to its ability to preach publicly is to limit God Himself—for He is involved in far more than merely making a witness to the world before the end (Matthew 24:14). His work is centered on true belief (John 6:29)—which begins with the prodding of the Holy Spirit and ends in the regenerated Christian inheriting the Kingdom of God. This work requires much more than a public witness; it requires the transformation of individuals from sinful humans to spirit-composed members of the God Family. The means—the power—of that transformation is God, through the agency of His Spirit.

If the church's power—Jesus Christ, living in us by His Spirit—were ever "completely shattered," the gates of the grave would prevail against the church, and God's purpose would fail! But we know that cannot be so. Even though it is prophesied that the "holy" peoples of Israel will fall, and even though the church of God may not always preach the gospel powerfully to the world—depending on what God is doing at any point in time—we can have every confidence that the power of the New Covenant church will never be shattered, for that power is God Himself!

In general, the book of Daniel contains prophecies of world-ruling empires that are mentioned only as they encounter Israel. The "holy people" of Daniel 12:7 could just as easily represent the nations of Israel, and the fact that their "power" can be shattered strongly implies that God's power is not under discussion. Defining the power of God's church as "shatterable" reveals a humanist bent, as it assigns importance based on corruptible human action rather than the will and outworking of the unassailable Head of the church. In fact, such an inclination on our part may have been part of the cause of the church's scattering in the first place!

Jesus Christ will lead and sustain His church—in that we can, and must, trust.

David C. Grabbe
The Power of the Holy People

Matthew 6:9

“Hallow” (hagiazo) has the basic meaning of “to separate.” It pictures one thing separated from another or many things into groups. For instance, when growers reap their crops—say, apples—they divide the produce into various categories according to size and quality. Workers segregate the usable but less attractive apples for crushing into applesauce while packaging the high-quality fruit for sale at grocery stores.

A similar idea is present in hallowing or sanctifying something: The best is put in its own category and treated with greater care. In the case of God, people are to put Him in His own exalted category, in which He has no rivals. As He says of Himself in Isaiah 46:9, “For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me.”

The apostle Paul declares in Ephesians 3:14-15 that “the whole family in heaven and earth is named” from the Father, meaning that He is the ultimate Ruler over all things. Further, “God has highly exalted [Jesus Christ] and given Him the name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:9). These facts should establish that His excellent name is truly the highest in all the universe, and He is due all praise and honor and obedience for His sovereign position over all things in heaven and earth.

The proper response of His people, then, is to come to a true understanding of God and learn to follow His teachings, as He prophesies Israel will do once He gives them His Spirit in the age to come. The elect are currently experiencing this process in this age, absorbing His teaching and through many trials figuring out how to practice His ways, continually keeping Him in the center of their lives. They hallow His name in their praise of Him and in their obedience to Him in every word and deed.

In the end, “Hallowed be Your name” expresses the supplicant's desire to please the Father in every facet of life and witness His glory to the world.

Richard T. Ritenbaugh
The Model Prayer (Part Three): Hallowed Be Your Name

1 Peter 1:15-16

God demands that those who are associated with Him, those set apart by Him to be a dwelling place for His Spirit, be holy as He is holy. This means that we must become, not merely set apart, but set apart and clean. We are entering the area of Chrisitian conduct, and our separation is away from those who are not clean, not pure spiritually as God is.

We see the implied meaning of sanctification coming into play, because in order to be a suitable dwelling place for God, we have to become holy as He is holy. We have to become holy, then, in the sense of clean—a clean life, as well as clean in our sacrifices. I Peter 2:5 says that we are "to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ."

We have to be holy in the sense of clean living, and our sacrifices need to be acceptable. This deals with being made holy by Jesus Christ, that is, through His work made possible by means of the blood of His sacrifice as a man, as well as His continuing work of sacrifice as our High Priest before God as our Mediator and Intercessor.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Sanctification and Holiness (Part 1)


 




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