The Promise
You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Isaiah 26:3 NIV
perfect peace – I want a life of peace. Most people do. I want all the conflict to end, all the bitterness, betrayal, agony, angst. Oh, not just for “world peace.” What I really want is it to end for me. I want those regretted recollections to stop. I want the nightmares to cease. I want to experience harmony—with myself. Maybe Isaiah’s doubled šālôm šālôm is more than the Hebrew form of emphasis. Maybe it’s about inner and outer peace. After all, what good is a world without chaos if there are still battles going on inside me? Perhaps even more than the cessation of nations and peoples at war we need inner tranquility. We might not be able to control what evil men do, but we should at least be able to find harmony inside.
The rabbis tell us that peace is part of God’s promise. “One who lives a life of holiness will—so is the priestly promise—know what it is to feel God’s face turned toward him or her, and in that sacred meeting discover the true depth of peace.”[1] The suggestion is that holiness brings peace. Holiness brings God’s smile. Holiness might not remove the thistles and thorns, but it is supposed to provide a way to rise above all that ʿāṣab we experience. Leviticus 11:45 is the antidote to Genesis 3:17. In Leviticus, the grammatical structure is heyîtĕm’ qedōšîm’, that is, the verb hāyâ as a vav perfect and the noun qādôš. “You shall be holy.” Why? Because you are to model the image of God breathed into you, and that image is holiness. What does holiness mean? Well, we can’t find out by simply looking at church rituals. We have to discover the meaning from its usage.
A definitive use of the term occurs in Num 16:38 [H 17:3]. The censers of the Korahites were regarded as holy because they had been devoted to the Lord. They were thus regarded as having entered the sphere of the sacred by virtue of cultic ritual (v. 17 [H 16:18]) and were accorded a special place in the sanctuary. The devotion of the censers seems to have created a condition of inviolable holiness that could not allow for their being treated in a common way. It seems best to see the root qdš as serving to delineate the sphere of the “holy.”[2]
In the Qal the verb qādaš is used most frequently to describe the state of consecration effected by Levitical ritual. In Ex 29:21, 37; 30:29 certain articles used in the Levitical service were consecrated to God and were thus recognized as belonging to the realm of the sacred. Transmission of the state of holiness to anything that touched a person or object so consecrated (Ex 29:37; 30:29; Lev 6:18 [H 11], 27 [H 20]) does not necessarily imply that a transferable divine energy exists in the “holy.” Rather, it seems that the person or object entered the state of holiness in the sense of becoming subject to cultic restrictions, as were other holy persons or objects, in order to avoid diffusion of the sacred and the profane.[3]
The noun designates that which belongs to the sphere of the sacred, set apart from the profane. That means that just about anything (but not quite everything) can become holy. Whatever is set aside for God’s use is designated holy. People, places, things—a long list. That also means that the opportunity for holiness is within you because you can set aside whatever you need to set aside for God’s service. Of course, the biblical text gives you hints, suggestions, and commands, but in the end, you choose. You must choose holiness—the deliberate designation of something about you and your life that will be dedicated to God.
Maybe understanding the term isn’t so difficult after all. But then, maybe understanding it really isn’t the issue.
Topical Index: holiness, peace, qādôš, Leviticus 11:45, Isaiah 26:3
[1] Jonathan Sacks Covenant & Conversation: A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible: Leviticus: The Book of Holiness (Maggid Books & The Orthodox Union, 2015), p. 49.
[2] Mccomiskey, T. E. (1999). 1990 קָדַשׁ. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(electronic ed., p. 787). Moody Press.
[3] Ibid.
“…maybe understanding it really isn’t the issue.”
Understanding is obtained by a particular frame of reference…. from a vantage that provides a unique perspective that manifests that which would otherwise be concealed. “For judgment I have come into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind!”
“ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But get up and stand on your feet, because for this reason I have appeared to you, to appoint you a servant and witness both to the things in which you saw me and to the things in which I will appear to you, rescuing you from the people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ “.
(Cf. Acts 26:15-18)