Genesis Study - Section 8

AWESOMELY HOLY

This may seem a strange section in that we are going to look at psychology and holiness. What we are doing is simply showing that God is perfect in all His ways and that He alone has the right blueprint for us to live by. He knows where we are and what has really affected us and He knows how to lead us to where we should be in Him. Psychology, though offering some help at times, cannot make the same promises or give the same assurance.

We begin our session by looking at Psychology and also seeing how it differs from Psychiatry. From looking at this we note how we were created to learn, and the problems we face from wrong perceptions in a fallen world, then asking ourselves, "Whose blueprint do we live by?" After this we look at holiness and see that God is 'other-world perfection', yet is one who wants to help us understand who He is, and how we can come into His presence and grow. For us holiness begins with belonging.

Questions:

What do the words 'psychology' and 'holy' mean?
How do we become holy?
What is a Theophany?

Since we are looking at holiness, and how God makes Himself known we will also take a brief look at theophanies and the Angel of the Lord

Psychology (Psyche - soul + logos - word)

Psychology is defined as the scientific study of the mental processes as they relate to human behaviour. The purpose of this is to understand, modify and/or predict behaviour.

The 'self' ('I' or 'ego') is seen as the product of the multiple influences of biological, intellectual, emotional and social factors. These combine and overlap since they cannot be totally isolated into individual components. Personality is then seen in the way 'I' or 'ego' interact with others and community.

Psychiatry is 'the medical treatment of the diseases of the mind.' (Oxford English Dictionary).

The following seven points have been adapted from the Baker Encyclopaedia of Psychology and Counselling concerning areas within the field of Psychology:

"To Charcot and Freud, these patients are mere objects or things to be classified and manipulated. It is an utterly dehumanized view of the sick person. But the, we might recall that even today physicians often speak of 'cases' and 'clinical material', rather than of persons, thus betraying the same bias."
Dr T.S. Szasz in, The Myth of Mental Illness, page 19.

Psychology can be of some help to people, yet we need to be careful of the roots from which much of it stems. We need the right blueprint to life, and this can only come from our Creator. 

Identification and Classification.

The identification and classification of things are necessary to make sense of the world around us, yet all too often our wrong ideas about who we are result in us destroying the very person we are seeking to help - ourselves!

Scripture reveals that we have been created to look away from self to God. Think of a child looking to, and getting taught by a loving Father and we get the idea.

Because we were separated from God most of us will have picked up various ideas about how to live (and view life) from the environment around us. For example a child may feel totally useless because they have not been able to achieve goals that the parents set for them. This feeling of being useless travels with them into adulthood. It is something they have learnt and, maybe unwittingly, accepted. 

The fact that we are, or have been so influenced by things around us, is clearly seen in scripture. For example look at how, after Israel had come out of Egypt, God had to take 'Egypt' out of Israel. 

In the early church we find similar problems. Firstly new believers did not always recognise who God was, and shaped a picture of Him with their own preconceived ideas. Secondly they brought the community into the church in their thinking and actions. So, for example the Jewish community in Galatia had problems with how they saw the Law, Then, in the Corinthian church we find need to deal with divisions and immorality in a community where people often followed certain speakers (Sophists), and where there was a high level of temple prostitution. 

The biggest problem we will ever face is self - or rather what 'self ' has become. However we also need to note that a major barrier to walking with the Lord is not a lack of knowledge, but a lack of willingness as what we have become resists the challenge to 'give up the throne' of self and embrace new ways and a Father's love.

Moving back to fallen man and his methods for dealing with self we pick up on Romans 1:18-28. Please read it. God's wrath is manifested because man suppresses the truth. Yet in grace, and throughout the whole history of mankind God has made himself known in His words and actions even when He manifests His wrath against unrighteousness. God expresses His displeasure and does not just destroy man, so that man can see and turn again to God.

Man often thinks of himself as free when in selfishness he rejects God's authority. In attempting to escape from God into freedom, man falls prey to the forces of corruption. God 'gives' him over. This is why God's word says
  "Therefore God gave them over to the sinful desires of their hearts, to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator - who is forever praised. Amen. Rom 1:24. 

If my son refuses to take my advice and persists in taking drugs, for example, there will come a time when I have to simply let him reap the consequences of His actions. However this does not negate the fact that I am still there for him, and will help him when he calls out with even the faintest of calls (eg 2 Chronicles 33:12-13).

Let us always remember that covenant was broken at the fall. However, although punishment is levied on fallen man it is within the greater framework of grace. Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden and so too God's localised presence; yet, in the mind of God, the Son of God was already ahead of them on a cross at Calvary (1 Peter 1:19-20; Rev 13:8).

Because man is a rebel who often feels so vulnerable he makes his own covenants with things that he feels will brings security - eg finance, position, careers etc.
We will serve that which we think brings peace and security!!!

"Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion." Romans 1:26-27.

Again let us remember that all too often man seeks to resolve the emptiness and lovelessness in his life through unnatural means and emotional responses to situations and circumstances around him. For example, "This will make me happy despite it being wrong", or "do what you like as long as it doesn't harm others." 

"Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless." Romans 1:28-31.

Man often focuses his mind on anything and everything to distract himself from the personal knowledge of his own sinfulness. He seeks to do this in his search for success, power and pleasure and often becomes an expert at blame shifting. Yet there is a holy and perfect God who is still reaching out to us in grace and mercy.

"Humanism and modern society have opted albeit unconsciously for the assumptions of human power.
The choice was understandable - the assumptions have long seemed, superficially, to work, and they certainly
have been gratifying the ego..(Yet).some see technologies dehumanization of people and its destruction of
the natural world as a departure from humanism, scarcely realising that humanism itself has generated these
tendencies."
D. Ehrenfeld in 'The Arrogance of Humanism' page 21

In his pride one of man's great problems is that he has forgotten the difference between a steward and a king. The world is not simply raw material that we can do what we like with, regardless of consequences. It belongs to someone who knows every atom of his creation and regards no person as insignificant or trivial. We are not insignificant to God in any way - no matter what our backgrounds may want to tell us.

It is so often man who identifies what something or someone is, and classifies them as useful or useless. So whose 'blueprint' do we operate from? Do we feel small or useless, or that we are better than others? Where do these thoughts come from? Whose worldview are we living by?

Many people end up depressed, anxious and stressed out through 'wearing' the labels others have placed on them, or through failing to live up to their own standards for success. The result of this can leads to negative thoughts about self and aggressive judgemental attitudes to those around them.

HOLINESS

In the Bible holiness is more than just one of the many attributes of God; it is descriptive of His whole divine personality.

The noun 'qodosh' has the basic meaning of separateness (Lev 20:26).

Since God is awesomely holy and 'separate' from His people (Ex 20:19 "and said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.", holiness (in relation to God) became equivalent to deity (Is 5:24; Hab 3:3). The worship of other gods profanes His holy name (Lev 20:3).

To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. Isaiah 40:25-26

Divine holiness is not exclusive, but it reaches out to draw others to God's separation from sin and evil. (Ex 31:13; 1 Peter 1:16) into an environment and understanding whereby we can grow in all that has been provided by a loving Father. This 'separation' is not the separation of legalism that was so prevalent in the first century (e.g. Judaisers), and some of our churches today!

God Revealing Himself

In the O.T. we find that at times God's appearance is spoken of in terms of a radiant, fire-like glory. Fire, as a symbol, speaks of holiness, and God's desire to destroy sin and purify his people (Isaiah 6:6ff). Capture the following pictures in your minds eye if you can.

By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Exodus 13:21-22

Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire . The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently.Exodus 19:18

Our God comes and will not be silent; a fire devours before him, and around him a tempest rages. He summons the heavens above, and the earth, that he may judge his people: "Gather to me my consecrated ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice." And the heavens proclaim his righteousness, for God himself is judge. Psalm 50:3-6

Clouds and thick darkness surround him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Fire goes before him and consumes his foes on every side. His lightning lights up the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all the peoples see his glory. Psalm 97:2-6.

our God is a consuming fire.Heb 12:29.

Note also 1 Tim 6:16.
Israel was aware that the presence of God could destroy them (Deut 5:22-26) and also of her need for a mediator (Deut 5:27).
In places the glory of the Lord is spoken of as filling the Tabernacle (Exodus 40:34), and the Temple at its dedication (1 Kings 8:10f), and, as already mentioned, when Ezekiel tries to describe the indescribable he speaks of one who appeared "from the waist up, to be like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him." Ezekiel 1:17f.

You know at the bottom that unless the power behind the world really and unalterably detests bad behaviour then he cannot be God. On the other hand, we know that if there does exist an absolute goodness, it must hate most of what we do.God is the only comfort; he is also the supreme terror; the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from. He is our only possible ally, and we have made ourselves His enemies. Some people talk as if meeting the gaze of absolute goodness would be fun. They need to think again. They are still only playing with religion. Goodness is either the greatest safety or the great danger, according to the way you react to it. And we have reacted wrongly. 
C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity page 37.

In all the incidents already mentioned we see that the people of God were unharmed by God's fire-like glory, whereas those who set themselves up against God's established order were sometimes destroyed (eg Numbers 16:25).
For example scriptures speak of 'coals of fire' as a manifestation of God's glory used in judgement such as in Ezekiel 1:28 or Ezek 10:2, where we read:

The LORD said to the man clothed in linen, "Go in among the wheels beneath the cherubim. Fill your hands with burning coals from among the cherubim and scatter them over the city." And as I watched, he went in.
Note also 2 Samuel 22:9 and Psalm 11:6 which reads, "On the wicked he will rain fiery coals and burning sulphur, a scorching wind will be their lot.

In Leviticus 10:1-2 we read of the death of Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu by fire, and the punishment was so severe that Aaron was told not to mourn for them. Then in Korah's rebellion we see fire consuming 250 men (Numbers 16:34), whilst in 2 Kings 1, fire came down from heaven and consumed troops sent to bring Elijah to the evil king Ahab. The disciples at the time of Jesus, were well aware of how God could bring judgment by fire, and wrongly wanted this to come about on one occasion (Luke 9:54). Christ's response on this occasion was to rebuke them.
In all of this we must recognise that God has every right to judge, and could judge the world in an instant should He so desire. The fact that God communicates the why and wherefore of His judgements means that in many instances these judgements are acts of grace. Instead of communicating His displeasure and encouraging man to turn to the right path, God could simply have destroyed man in a second. Think about it!

Theophany

What is a theophany?
A theophany is a visible appearance of God in a more or less human form. For example Gen 12:7 "The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
Adam walked with God in the Garden of Eden (the preincarnate Son of God in bodily form) , and on other occasions theophany took the form of a man seen in a vision such as in Isaiah 6:1-2 where we read

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple,. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. Isaiah 6:1-2

In relation to this note the words of John 12:41. "Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus' glory and spoke about him. "

"Isaiah has an appalling awareness not only of his own sin but that of his environment, the sin of the nation of
which he is an integral part.He needed no instruction from the seraphs, nor any word from the throne. In a
flash the reality was hideously clear. He knew the unknowable, was overwhelmed by the unutterable." 
Dr J. White in, 'The Shattered Mirror', page 91.

Above the expanse over their heads was what looked like a throne of sapphire, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him.
Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. Ezekiel 1:26ff

In Micah 5:2 we read "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times" Note that Micah claimed that the child's origins were from old, from ancient times (still in time), hence from creation to eternity. The One born in Bethlehem had been seen in Pre-Incarnate form through out the O.T. period.

On occasions people thought theophany (appearance of the Pre-Incarnate Son of God in bodily form)to be just a man, such as in Joshua 5:13-15 where we read, "Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us or for our enemies?" "Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come." Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, "What message does my Lord have for his servant?" The commander of the LORD's army replied, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so.

Note also:

Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods. Dan 3:25

So! God can reveal what He is like in fire, and yet also reveal Himself in Theophany - all for our benefit; all because God is reaching out to those who deserve nothing with the offer of life. Think about it; Theophanies were:

The Angel of the Lord.

The Hebrew noun 'malakh' means 'messenger' or 'angel' from which comes the phrase 'malakh Yahweh' - 'the angel of Yahweh,' which can refer to any of God's angels. But at certain points we see that the Angel of Yahweh transcends the angelic category and is described in terms that are only suitable to a distinct Person of the Godhead.

In Genesis 16:7 we read of the Angel of the Lord approaching Hagar in the desert. The Angel begins by speaking of the Lord as if He were a third party (v11), and yet Hagar calls this angelic speaker by the names of Lord and God (v13). Note the context, Hagar followed the angel of the Lord with her eyes and gave a name to this God who was speaking with her, things that are never said of any prophet.

Genesis 22 also gives evidence of the Angel of the Lord's deity. God has told Abraham to sacrifice his son and when Abraham is about to do so, the Angel of the Lord appeared and said to him: "Do not lay a hand on the boy.do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." (Gen 22:12). Withholding Isaac from the Angel of the Lord and withholding him from God are seen as identical.

The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, "I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, Genesis 22:15

On reading the account of the burning bush (Exodus 3:1-2a) we find the Angel of the Lord speaking through the fire and making this assertion to Moses: "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob ((Ex 3:6a). Upon hearing the Angel's identity, "Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God" (v6b)

Judges 6:22-23: When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, he exclaimed, "Ah, Sovereign LORD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!" But the LORD said to him, "Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die"). Note the O.T. teaching that no man can see God (in his really is in al majesty holiness and glory and live (Gen 16:13; 32:30).

God is...

"The God of Israel was and is the God who took and takes the initiative, the God who actually revealed himself. He is not a hide-and-seek God who required to be discovered by human enquiry or ritual, but a loving and revealing God, uncovering himself in his deeds, relationships and word. Yet the Old Testament is not only about the uncovering of God.
It is also concerned with the uncovering of the human ear to hear the things of God. In the Old Testament we see the mental tools being hammered out whereby humanity is enabled to think properly concerning the being and nature of the God who so reveals himself." 
Bishop G. Leonard in, 'Let God Be God, page 17.

Holiness is derived.

When we use the word 'separated' to speak of man becoming holy we find that 'separation' does not really convey the main thrust of 'qadosh.' Seeing holiness as only 'separation' when it comes to man has led to the development of legalism and a disassociating with anyone and anything that does not meet ones particular view of holiness.

The danger of this can be seen in John 9. After writing about Jesus restoring sight to a blind man we read of the response of Pharisees; "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath."

For man the basic idea behind holiness is not a mere separation from something but a positive encounter and commitment to someone.

Holiness actually begins with an encounter, rather than leading to an encounter. All holiness is derived.

1 Peter 2:9 states that we are 'a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation (nation meaning people of the same nature), a people belonging to God. How is it that I am holy? Positionally through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ; experientially through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus did not come to save us out of pity, and He did not come to make us great, and he certainly did not come to make us religious in the way that the Pharisees and Sadducees were religious. He came to make us holy, and in Him we see what holiness means for man.

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He ha sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favour. Luke 4:18-19

For I the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity. Isaiah 61;8a

The Fear of the Lord.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." Proverbs 9:10

Seeing God has He reveals Himself invokes awe, and a healthy understanding concerning His greatness.

The fear of the Lord is said to bring: wisdom (Prov 9:10); knowledge (Prov 2:5); hatred of evil (8:13), prolonging of days (10:27) and strong confidence (14:26).

The fear of the Lord is: a fountain of life (14:27); instruction of wisdom (15:33), and a way out of evil (16:6). Fear of the Lord leads to life (19:23) and brings riches and honour (22:4).

The Holy Spirit enables us to live holy lives.

For the Believer Who Submits To God There is:

Please review the answers to the questions at the beginning of this session. What have you learnt in this session about God?