Pollution Control
And I, I shall set My face against that man, and shall cut him off from the midst of his people, because he has given of his offspring to Molek, so as to defile My sanctuary and to profane My holy Name. Leviticus 20:3 (my translation)
Holy – “Above all, the name of God is holy.” To make God’s name holy means to live in such a way that “men must see and say that the God of Israel is the true God.” This specifically means “obeying the will of God in keeping the commands of Torah and studying to achieve a blameless walk in the eyes of the world.”[1] In other words, hallowing God’s name, keeping it holy, is not determined by our own inner spiritual condition nor is it determined by God’s assessment of our faith. The measure of keeping God’s name holy is the assessment of outsiders. If our actions do not cause them to proclaim the God of Israel as the one true God, then we have profaned His name.
In this example in Leviticus, the practice of child sacrifice to the fertility god, Molek, profaned God’s holy name. Why? Because God is the God of life. He determines who lives and who dies. Attempts by human beings to appease fertility gods in order to insure their material success not only violate God’s ordinance concerning life but also deny that God is sovereign over the material world. People who acted in this way caused the nations to doubt the character of God. There are obvious contemporary parallels.
The rabbis interpreted the command to hallow God’s name as an explicit endorsement of Torah obedience. How is it possible to act in ways that will cause the nations to recognize the God of Israel if the people who call themselves by His name do not follow His instructions? Obviously, disobedience entails dishonor and the nations will recognize such hypocrisy. We who are His possession are expected to behave in ways that will attract the attention of the world. One might legitimately ask if the Christian theology that absolves believers from keeping Torah has any chance of accomplishing this objective. Why would the nations pay any heed to those who live just like they do? Distinctiveness demands explanation. Conformity doesn’t. It is a useful exercise to ask just how distinctive our lives really are. Wherever we are out of alignment with Torah, we profane His name. At least that is the lesson from the Tanakh and it seems to be the lesson from the lives of the disciples. It would be difficult to imagine otherwise.
We have learned that holiness has two perspectives: one from God’s point of view and one from the world’s point of view. You will notice that there is no subjective point of view here. I am not the one who determines if I am holy or if I am keeping God’s name holy. God’s point of view is about His ownership of me. The world’s point of view is about whether that ownership is so visible that the nations see God operating in me. Since this holiness (kodesh) is the essential background of the word hagios (saint), we can be sure that those called saints did not call themselves such. The two points of view need to collide before we become what God calls. No man is a saint who profanes God.
Topical Index: holy, saint, kodesh, Leviticus 20:3, Molek, Molech, name
[1] Kuhn, TDNT, Vol. 1, pp. 98-99.
Yes Skip, I absolutely agree with this statement :
“The measure of keeping God’s name holy is the assessment of outsiders. If our actions do not cause them to proclaim the God of Israel as the one true God, then we have profaned His name.”
I think….if our actions in worshiping YHWH both inside and outside the congregations/churches are not better than outsiders especially Islam (Islam exhibits a very high dedication to their god Allah by the way they worship e.g bowing down to the ground and how their women dress up / do not show up any nudity ).
Let us now rectify our way of life and worship ,so that we become even better than they are.
So they have no reason to mock us and this causes them to acknowledge that our God ,the God of Israel is the greatest and the one true God.
Shalom,Yael
A surface view of T’sW seems to contradict yesterday’s message concerning the Corinthian congregation and their mess. Are you saying that we are kodeshim when their is visible behavior change from the old nature no matter your lifestyle at conversion.
What I am pointing out is that self-analysis doesn’t seem to count much. God determines if we are holy based on His assessment. The world determines if we are holy based on the difference seen in our lives. What we claim for ourselves has little to do with it, especially if our actions do not align with God’s assessment. The believers in Corinth are reminded by Paul that they need to honor God’s name by the way that they live. Paul sees them for what they should be, not what they presently are. In fact, Paul current assessment of their behavior emphasizes that they do not act like ones who honor God’s name and that no one except Paul would ever imagine that they really are followers of YHWH. Perhaps Paul is simply reflecting God’s assessment. They have been called. Now they need to live like it.
So,, if our “holiness” is not self-assessed, and it is only G_d and others who can do that, what does the claim that one cannot accept G_d’s forgiveness unless one “forgive oneself” say about that person’s view of holiness?
God’s people will have their assessment align with God’s assessment when they are mature enough….
An elder or a leader of a group/congregation…..should be a mature one, so he can do wisely in giving a council and set a rule for his flock