In the Bible book of Deuteronomy Moses goes over all the things that had happened to Israel and exhorts them to remember — not to forget but to remember— all that had happened and the promises that God had given them. When he recited this book they were camped almost on the doorsteps of Moab and Ammon and they were occupying the land of Og and Bashan who had thought to obliterate them but whom God helped them to defeat. It was the prelude to the momentous entering of the promised land, and Moses repeated the whole story to make sure they knew beyond any doubt. that they were God's own message to the nations of the world around them.
Deut 9:3-7 Understand therefore this day, that the LORD thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD hath said unto thee.It helps to understand the book of Deuteronomy, and indeed the whole purpose of Israel, when we see that God's plan for Israel was that they as people, not merely a nation, should be different. Different from Egypt, different from Moab and Ammon whom they could see at that time from their tent doors, different from those they had already dispossessed, and different from those that God would later give them victory over. But why different? Primarily because God Himself is different.
Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee.
Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.
Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the LORD thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the LORD.
The word holy has a root meaning of different, and for forty years and more God had been showing them how holy He is, how different. For Moses it began when he saw the burning bush that was not consumed— that was different. When Moses approached the bush he was told to approach with awe and that was different. He later told Pharoah that God would put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel, a difference tantamount to life and death. And now he reminds the people that every one of them is to be holy as God is Holy. Holy and different from the worldly norm.
Holy also has the meaning of being set apart and devoted to God, however not in the sense of monastic seclusion, for God's plan was that they were to be set apart by their outward observable differences from the people around them. Actually we can think of it as an extension of the testimony of Creation which all people can see. Psalm 91 says the Heavens are telling the glory of God, and we agree that is enough so that the nations can realize that there is a God. But the sun and stars do not tell everything about God, that can only be demonstrated by people made in the likeness of God. Israel was chosen to demonstrate the rest of God's glory, and to do that they were to be holy and different as God is different.
Again and again in Deuteronomy Moses begs the people to remember and not forget all the lessons God has taught them including laws written with the very finger of God, so that the spectacle of their differences will be taken notice of by all those around them. Yes, so that the Moabites and Egyptians and others would want to get in on the favours of God, also because God wants to reveal His glory. Just think of how the Ethiopians came to glorify God when their queen heard of Solomon's fame.
We learned that the chief end or purpose of man or mankind is to glorify God, and so it is. Consequently we must conclude that God's own primary plan is that He Himself should be glorified or demonstrated as the Glorious One, a very reasonable thing for that He already is. Because He is all perfections it is only good that every created creature be shown how perfectly good He is and acknowledge it. With us the desire to show off our goodness would be sinful misleading pride, for Jesus said there was only One who is good, but with God anything less would not be good. Perhaps this is what the writer of Hebrews is referring to when he speaks of all the heavenly beings watching us to see what God is like. Another example might be the curiosity in Heaven as they watched the man Job to see how he resembled God.
Heb 12:1-2 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the . . .With this understanding of God's overall purpose for Israel in the back of his mind, Moses urges the people and exhorts them to absolutely rule out any thought of being like the people they are trying to influence. In fact he makes it very plain to them that by doing the same things that everybody else was doing they would suffer the consequences of receiving God's curses instead of His blessings and be exiled from the land of promises, which we read they later were. There is not a hint of God overlooking any compromise or assimilation. Later Samson, who was set apart to be different right from his birth betrayed this trust and becoming like the unbelievers of his day suffered the same shame and defeat and curse as they did. Yes, God did turn the situation to His glory and no doubt we will see him in Heaven, but certainly it would have honored God more if Samson had held on to his differences.
Job 1: 6-8 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
Later when Israel reaped the result of their unholy alliances with the world around them they were shamefully driven out of the land of promises just as Moses had said they would be. Sure, even as slaves in a foreign land they retained their identity as God's own people but they were ignoble and despised spectacles. Not only had they lost the blessings of God, but God had lost blessing or glory that was due Him. And yet we are assured that the future Kingdom when Jesus will reign with an iron-rigid rule will display all the multiplied goodnesses of God. All people and things will reverence Him and bow before Him. His peculiar people will demonstrate this to the whole of Creation for He is worthy.
In Deuteronomy the Israelites were evidently God's people. History has proved them to be unfaithful to their calling of being separated unto God, although there is a promised glorious future. Today the spotlight is on the Church, on individuals in the Church, and we are to be so evidently spectacularly different that people will glorify God. Peter repeats the same exhortation that Moses gave his people, to be holy for in that way we demonstrate God to those who want to see Him. Are we holy, spectacularly different?
1 Peter 1:15-16 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. 1Peter 2:9-12 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.John is another New Testament writer that caught the vision of how differently from the world we are to live. Although not of the world we are in it and are to exemplify the goodness of God. These verses leave no alternative to the thought that the Church and its people are to be holy, different.
I John 2:15-17 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. I John 4:4-12 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.Deuteronomy's testimony, then is that there are God ordained blessings for being holy, or different, and unhappy consequences for being like the surrounding unbelievers. So it helps to understand the will of God for Christians when we see that God's plan for Israel and us is that His people should be different. Different from Egypt, different from Moab and Ammon, different from Hollywood or the world, or even worldly Christians.
Because God Himself is different, and God wants that fact proclaimed, demonstrated, and lived out in us and by us in our daily life.
--first written March 29, 2014
Don Casselman