4/6/20 - The Difficulties of Holiness

Numbers 33:52-53

“You shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you and destroy all their figured stones and destroy all their metal images and demolish all their high places. And you shall take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given the land to you to possess it.”

This is what holiness looks like, the absolute removal of all that is not holy.  (See the video on holiness by the Bible Project) Israel is being asked to participate in the restoration of the land, the reintroduction of holiness and wholeness.  They are warned in Num 33:56 that partial holiness, just being better, is not enough. Holiness is an absolute state, it exists or it does not, I cannot aspire to be kind of holy.

I struggle with why You would command the people of Israel to enter the land and destroy everything, I among many, tend to see this some how as a flaw in Your character.  Yet I do not struggle with the idea of a final judgement, (Therefore, You are not a different God in the OT vs. NT.) a final setting of all things right, the prevailing of justice and the return of a new heaven and a new earth.  I not only don't struggle with it, I long for it, and the promise of it brings me hope. See Ps 92:6-8 journal entry.  Embedded in this hope is the desire and the implicit understanding that  the promise cannot come about unless You remove all that is not good, right, and holy.  By definition "heaven" is a place where those things do not exist.

How is it that I desire, even expect for You to make things right, remove what is not holy...all this something You did not create, we did...and then have the audacity to call it a flaw in Your character when You do?  Rom 3:5

I am repulsed by the idea of being asked to participate personally (Vicariously through Israel.) in the clean up because I find it repulsive, dirty, painful, difficult, and messy (physically and morally). Do I really think it is any less any of these things for You?  Do I even have any sort of emotional or spiritual attachment to any of those I expect You to destroy? Do  I understand the deep loss You feel personally, because You love them far more than I do?  I am like my grandchildren who gleefully make a mess and are then insulted when asked to help clean up...in their minds one of the functions of a grandparent is a built in clean up crew.  Relearning this for them is not a pleasurable experience.

You are asking us to participate in the "nasty,” holy, business of the restoration of holiness, one that You are left with all the time and will complete in Your time.

I get myself into trouble if I think I know or can decide who is worthy of judgement...only You can know or decide.  Israel's task was by direct command and the command was not given lightly or without compassion or grace (See Gen 15:16.).

We are invited now to participate (Ah, this is what it means to follow Jesus.) in the sacrificial aspect of restoration as we follow Christ as Your bride.  We too are not given the option of choosing what nor to whom we will sacrifice, we are merely called to “fill up the suffering of Christ” with our sacrifice. We are to give ourselves up, no longer the sword, (external force, outside in.) but ourselves, a sacrifice of our lives. (Inside out). This too is hard for us to understand as it was for Peter in the garden of Gethsemane.   Both aspects of restoration (Fire/sword and sacrifice.) are difficult, but it takes both for the restoration of holiness.

You our God of the OT, are no different in Your heart toward us or the cosmos, the end toward which the story is moving, or Your judgement vs. Your love, etc.  The methodology of the NT, at least in how it pertains to us, has changed.  We are no longer called to be the sword of the judgement, we are asked to sacrifice ourselves and absorb, if you will, the evil, to die to it and with it so that it is buried with us in death and then left behind in the resurrection. (What an interesting clean up plan.) Who could come up with such a wild and wonderful scheme to consume evil (unholiness).

So why is there a different methodology (For us, not You.) in the OT and NT?  That is way above my pay grade, as I might add is all my muddled processing above, but it seems to have something to do with Jesus, the center piece of the story.  His death and resurrection opens the way for our redemption and that of the cosmos and through time, You, our Father have seen fit to intimately and intentionally include us in the process.

Forgive me Father I pray, for my arrogance and my desire to participate in what is good without participating in the hardness of its coming.

LHM/CHM

Additional note:

If Your holiness is a consuming fire it is then impossible for You to approach us with out Your “wrath” (incompatibility with what is not holy) judging (Consuming) all that is not holy.  It is  Your love that moves You irresistibly toward us even as we move away, and it is Your grace that provides a way, a shield if you will, if we turn and stop running.  Because by nature You are a consuming fire, dealing with it is always a requirement.  My inability to comprehend how hot that holiness is, prevents me from seeing Your love and grace for what it is in practice, holiness with steadfast love and faithfulness.