Holiness and Revelation.
'And when the Lord saw that Moses turned aside to see, He called
unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And
he said, Here am I. And He said, Draw not nigh hither; put off thy
shoes from thy feet, for the place where thou standest is _holy_
ground. And Moses hid his face, for He was afraid to look upon
God.'--Ex. iii. 4-6.
And why was it holy ground? Because God had come there and occupied it.
Where God is, there is holiness; it is the presence of God makes holy.
This is the truth we met with in Paradise when man was just created;
here, where Scripture uses the word _Holy_ for the second time, it is
repeated and enforced. A careful study of the word in the light of the
burning bush will further open its deep significance. Let us see what
the sacred history, what the revelation of God, and what Moses teaches
us of this holy ground.
1. Note the place this first direct revelation of God to man as the Holy
One takes in sacred history. In Paradise we found the word _Holy_ used
of the seventh day. Since that time twenty-five centuries have elapsed.
We found in God's sanctifying the day of rest a promise of a new
dispensation--the revelation of the Almighty Creator to be followed by
that of the Holy One making holy. And yet throughout the book of Genesis
the word never occurs again; it is as if God's Holiness is in abeyance;
only in Exodus, with the calling of Moses, does it make its appearance
again. This is a fact of deep import. Just as a parent or teacher seeks,
in early childhood, to impress one lesson at a time, so God deals in the
education of the human race. After having in the flood exhibited His
righteous judgment against sin, He calls Abraham to be the father of a
chosen people. And as the foundation of all His dealings with that
people, He teaches him and his seed first of all the lesson of
_childlike trust_--trust in Him as the Almighty, with whom nothing is
too wonderful, and trust in Him as the Faithful One, whose oath could
not be broken. With the growth of Israel to a people we see the
revelation advancing to a new stage. The simplicity of childhood gives
way to the waywardness of youth, and God must now interfere with the
discipline and restriction of law. Having gained a right to a place in
their confidence as the God of their fathers, He prepares them for a
further revelation. Of the God of Abraham the chief attribute was that
He was the Almighty One; of the God of Israel, Jehovah, that He is the
Holy One.
And what is to be the special mark of the new period that is now about
to be inaugurated, and which is introduced by the word holy? God tells
Moses that He is now about to reveal Himself in a new character. He had
been known to Abraham as God Almighty, the God of Promise (Ex. vi. 3).
He would now manifest Himself as Jehovah, the God of Fulfilment,
especially in the redemption and deliverance of His people from the
oppression He had foretold to Abraham. God Almighty is the God of
Creation: Abraham believed in God, 'who quickeneth the dead, and calleth
the things that are not as though they were.' Jehovah is the God of
Redemption and of Holiness. With Abraham there was not a word of sin or
guilt, and therefore not of redemption or holiness. To Israel the law is
to be given, to convince of sin and prepare the way for holiness; it is
Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, the Redeemer, who now appears. And it
is the presence of this Holy One that makes the holy ground.
2. And how does this Presence reveal itself? In the burning bush God
makes Himself known as dwelling in the midst of the fire. Elsewhere in
Holy Scripture the connection between fire and the Holiness of God is
clearly expressed: 'The light of Israel shall be for a fire, and the
Holy One for a flame.' The nature of fire may be either beneficent or
destructive. The sun, the great central fire, may give life and
fruitfulness, or may scorch to death. All depends upon occupying the
right position, upon the relation in which we stand to it. And so
wherever God the Holy One reveals Himself, we shall find the two sides
together: God's Holiness as judgment against sin, destroying the sinner
who remains in it, and as Mercy freeing His people from it. Judgment and
Mercy ever go together. Of the elements of nature there is none of such
spiritual and mighty energy as Fire: what it consumes it takes and
changes into its own spiritual nature, rejecting as smoke and ashes what
cannot be assimilated. And so the Holiness of God is that infinite
Perfection by which He keeps Himself free from all that is not Divine,
and yet has fellowship with the creature, and takes it up into union
with Himself, destroying and casting out all that will not yield itself
to Him.
It is thus as One who dwells in the fire, who is a fire, that God
reveals Himself at the opening of this new redemption period. With
Abraham and the patriarchs, as we have said, there had been little
teaching about sin or redemption; the nearness and friendship of God had
been revealed. Now the law will be given, sin will be made manifest, the
distance from God will be felt, that man, in learning to know himself
and his sinfulness, may learn to know and long for God to make him holy.
In all God's revelation of Himself we shall find the combination of the
two elements, the one repelling, the other attracting. In His house He
will dwell in the midst of Israel, and yet it will be in the awful
unapproachable solitude and darkness of the holiest of all within the
veil. He will come near to them, and yet keep them at a distance. As we
study the Holiness of God, we shall see in increasing clearness how,
like fire, it repels and attracts, how it combines into one His infinite
distance and His infinite nearness.
3. But the distance will be that which comes out first and most
strongly. This we see in Moses: he hid his face, for He feared to look
upon God. The first impression which God's Holiness produces is that of
fear and awe. Until man, both as a creature and a sinner, learns how
high God is above him, how different and distant he is from God, the
Holiness of God will have little real value or attraction. Moses hiding
his face shows us the effect of the drawing nigh of the Holy One, and
the path to His further revelation.
How distinctly this comes out in God's own words: 'Draw not nigh hither;
put off thy shoes from off thy feet.' Yes, God had drawn nigh, but Moses
may not. God comes near: man must stand back. In the same breath God
says, Draw nigh, and, Draw not nigh. There can be no knowledge of God or
nearness to Him, where we have not first heard His, Draw not nigh. The
sense of sin, of unfitness for God's presence, is the groundwork of true
knowledge or worship of Him as the Holy One. 'Put off thy shoes from off
thy feet.' The shoes are the means of intercourse with the world, the
aids through which the flesh or nature does its will, moves about and
does its work. In standing upon holy ground, all this must be put away.
It is with naked feet, naked and stript of every covering, that man must
bow before a holy God. Our utter unfitness to draw nigh or have any
dealings with the Holy One, is the very first lesson we have to learn,
if ever we are to participate in His Holiness. That _Put off!_ must
exercise its condemning power through our whole being, until we come to
realize the full extent of its meaning in the great, '_Put off_ the old
man; put on the Lord Jesus,' and what 'the _putting off_ of the body of
the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ,' is. Yes, all that is of
nature and the flesh, all that is of our own doing or willing or
working--our very life, must be put off and given unto the death, if
God, as the Holy One, is to make Himself known to us.
We have seen before that Holiness is more than goodness or freedom from
sin: even unfallen nature is not holy. Holiness is that awful glory by
which Divinity is separated from all that is created. Therefore even the
seraphs veil their faces with their wings when they sing the Thrice
Holy. But oh! when the distance and the difference is not that of the
creature only, but of the sinner, who can express, who can realize, the
humiliation, the fear, the shame with which we ought to bow before the
voice of the Holy One? Alas! this is one of the most terrible effects of
sin, that it blinds us. We know not how unholy, how abominable, sin and
the sinful nature are in God's sight. We have lost the power of
recognising the Holiness of God: heathen philosophy had not even the
idea of using the word as expressive of the moral character of its gods.
In losing the light of the glory of God, we have lost the power of
knowing what sin is. And now God's first work in drawing nigh to us is
to make us feel that we may not draw nigh as we are; that there will
have to be a very real and a very solemn putting off, and even giving up
to the death, of all that appears most lawful and most needful. Not only
our shoes are soiled with contact with this unholy earth; even our face
must be covered and our eyes closed, in token that the eyes of our
heart, all our human wisdom and understanding, are incapable of
beholding the Holy One. The first lesson in the school of personal
holiness is, to fear and hide our face before the Holiness of God. 'Thus
saith the High and Lofty One, whose name is holy, I dwell in the High
and Holy Place, and with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit.'
Contrition, brokenness of spirit, fear and trembling are God's first
demand of those who would see His Holiness.
Moses was to be the first preacher of the Holiness of God. Of the full
communication of God's Holiness to us in Christ, His first revelation to
Moses was the type and the pledge. From Moses' lips the people of
Israel, from his pen the Church of Christ, was to receive the message,
'Be holy: I am holy: I make holy.' His preparation for being the
messenger of the Holy One was here, where he hid his face, because he
was afraid to look upon God. It is with the face in the dust, it is in
the putting off not only of the shoes, but of all that has been in
contact with the world and self and sin, that the soul draws nigh to the
fire, in which God dwells, and which burns, but does not consume. Oh
that every believer, who seeks to witness for God as the Holy One, might
thus learn how the fulfilment of the type of the Burning Bush is the
Crucified Christ, and how, as we die with Him, we receive that Baptism
of Fire, which reveals in each of us what it means: the Holy One
dwelling in a Burning Bush. Only so can we learn what it is to be holy,
as He is holy.