What a glimpse does to us.
and His robe filled the temple.
Seraphim were standing above Him; each one had six wings:
with two he covered his face,
with two he covered his feet,
and with two he flew.
--Note: With their faces and feet covered from the too-bright and too-powerfully awesome vision of God on His throne, they were flying with conviction and passion declaring the holiness of God to all--
And one called to another:
"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; His glory fills the whole earth."
The foundations of the doorways shook at the sound of their voices, and the temple was filled with smoke.
Then I said: "Woe is me for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts."
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a glowing coal that he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth with it and said: "Now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed and your sin is atoned for."
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying:
"Who should I send?
Who will go for Us?"
I said: "Here I am. Send me."
And He replied:
"Go!
Say to these people:
Keep listening, but do not understand;
keep looking, but do not perceive.
Dull the minds of these people;
deafen their ears and blind their eyes;
otherwise they might see with their eyes
and hear with their ears,
understand with their minds,
turn back, and be healed.
Then I said, “Until when, Lord?”
And He replied: "Until cities lie in ruins without inhabitants, houses are without people, the land is ruined and desolate, and the Lord drives the people far away, leaving great emptiness in the land. Though a tenth will remain in the land, it will be burned again. Like the terebinth or the oak that leaves a stump when felled,
the holy seed is the stump."
-Isaiah 6
--
Why do I do anything that I do?
Why do I strive to be a better person, both internally and externally?
The fact that I know God Almighty who asks me to do something at all, even if what He wants me to do is as dismal a task as Isaiah's, is the only force of irresistible obedience that I have to do what God asks of me.
It is by the experience of seeing God on His throne, as the seraphim could not, but as Isaiah did, that compels one to believe that whatever God asks shall be done. When we experience the holiness of God as Isaiah did, seeing how just the hem of God's robe filled the temple entirely, we no longer doubt His power over all things.
It is an honor to do the will of God when you have seen the glimpse of His glory in your life. When you have experienced His holiness burst forth into the light of your world making you aware of just how grand and Almighty and different He is, how vastly higher and bigger and greater His is compared to your world and everything you know, then He takes the top of your whole being. Your top respect. Your top love. Your top desire. Your top goal. He becomes the top of your entire world. He is the top of everything you do.
God's holiness is utterly unmistakable because it far outweighs the marvelous glimmers of anything this world has to offer. It makes money look like useless paper trash, makes human beauty look canine, makes our hopes and dreams of becoming this or that seem dreary and dull...boring and meaningless compared to His vastly different and wonderful holiness.
God's holiness is so vastly catching that the world around you dims. That is just what happens the more you look upon His holiness.
Just by looking at it, being there with God in the temple, seeing His robe's hem as huge and majestic, the hem alone is far richer and too beautiful, more grand a sight than a thousand mountain ranges beneath pink and golden skies. And that's just the hem!
There's a story about a woman who had been suffering from a bleeding disease for 12 years and when Jesus is passing by, near her house, she goes and scrambles her way through the chaotic crowd around Him thinking to herself:
"If I can just touch His robe, I'll be made well!"
(Matthew 9:21)
In other words, just one touch of the only part of His clothes that I will be able to reach in this crowd and in my condition, which was most likely just the hem of his robe as it trailed behind Him while He walked. This was all she needed to be well, because the hem alone held power since it was His hem. Not that the hem itself was magical, but that it was worn by a Son of God, and as such made it a privileged and powerful garment just by who it belonged to.
"Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well."
-Matthew 9:22
It was her faith in the power of that which belonged to Jesus, the hem of his clothes, that she was made well. Her faith was in the power of that which belonged to God. That God is so holy and higher than everything that so long as it belonged to Him it was powerful by association.
By this heart of hers was she made well. Her faith in having reached for the mere hem of His clothes.
This gets me thinking about what I have seen of God.
Of course I have experienced many times of being and feeling blessed by God and loved and forgiven, but the healing comes after the hem. The woman who bled for 12 years was desperate for healing, she was suffering and yet had the thought occur within herself that "if I can just touch his robe, I will be made well."
If I can just touch His robe...
Not some grand emotional or spiritual momentum, not even a prayer spoken or a passage of scripture read and meditated on (though all these actions are good disciplines for us to be reminded of God's real presence amidst the physical world), but just the mere thought of "if I can just touch the hem as He passes me by"
No expectation of a look back or some sort of interaction with Jesus, but just to get a touch of something that isn't even He himself, but just something that belongs to Him. A quick little feel for something of His.
And somehow that woman believed that such a small endeavor would be enough for her to be radically healed from the most grotesque and crippling disease of her life.
It was small, but she believed it was powerful.
Then with Isaiah, when he saw the hem of God's throne filling the temple, he got a sight of the power and glory of God on His throne, and he was convinced that something as grotesque a task as spending his entire life in failure (failing to bring Israel to repentance) was small compared to the glory of God.
Isaiah's trembling and apparent apprehension is heard, albeit his confirmed conviction to do what God asks, he understands the hardship of such a calling and meekly asks:
“Until when, Lord?”
And He replied: "Until cities lie in ruins without inhabitants, houses are without people, the land is ruined and desolate, and the Lord drives the people far away, leaving great emptiness in the land. Though a tenth will remain in the land, it will be burned again. Like the terebinth or the oak that leaves a stump when felled,
the holy seed is the stump."
(Isaiah 6)
God tells Isaiah that this terrible calling will last until absolutely nothing but great ruin, desolation and emptiness happens, and all that's left is a stump. In other words, it will cost Isaiah his entire life, but not just his life but his reputation, his happiness on earth, his friendships, his image, his comfort, and his peaceful living with others. It will disrupt everything for Isaiah and there will be no sort of goal of fruitfulness in his lifetime, just sheer obedience to what God tells him to say which in turn will be rejected.
Talk about discouraging! I would also ask God "until when?" In a very meek and trembling voice. How long will I need to live in discouragement? And then to hear God say, "Um, basically all your life."
In such a case the only ONLY ONLY way I would agree to that kind of life is if, like Isaiah, I stood before the throne room of God and saw the train of His robe fill the temple...in other words, if I understood how above and set apart, holy, He is.
Then something as grotesque as a surrendered life would look like nothing but a small touch of His robe to me.
For the woman she saw Holiness because grace to think that way was given to her for healing to happen, and for Isaiah he saw Holiness, because it was God's grace to him to live his life in utter and grotesque failure.
The common denominator is God's holiness.
However, we tend to measure our spiritual growth or progress by something like healing or "fruit" in our lives. Isaiah had no such fruit or healing, so does that mean he was not living as a representative of God? No. Both received from God what they needed: His holiness as power to change and transform them as a son and daughter of God. What both of these people had in common were the grace given to them by God to know about the holiness of God.
How have you experienced the holiness of God?
For example, when has God appeared so beautiful and different than anything you've ever seen or knew about?
-for me, one of my experiences with the holiness of God came when I felt the meaninglessness of all endeavors in life. That nothing matters much as a shell or mask when what's beneath is rotting. That death comes to us all, but a life lived for eternity in glory is pretty dang holy.
What specific descriptions convince you that it was Holiness you experienced?
-for me I experienced holiness when I was so filled by love that every doubt and worry of mine melted at the sight of God. What once brought me anxiety and fear was now a minor speed bump in my day, and although I still lose sight of this truth from time to time as worries again threaten to capture me, I experience the holiness of God in moments when I am brought to my knees full of tears at how separated I want to be from temporary desires I still have in this life.
What might have been thought to be God's holiness but was really a holiness of your own?
For example, some sort of "sacrifice" you made and viewed as holy itself, rather than the sacrifice being what was dirty and made holy only by association or belonging to God.
- for me I am reminded daily that the work I do at church as a high school leader along with the work I do in my cultivating genuine loving relationships with people are never a thing with an expected goal, but a thing of obedience despite discouraging outcomes, because what I do is merely a response to what God has given me, and above all He is in control of the outcome. So that the holiness is not in my success or in my expectations being met, but in the continuing to do what He asks regardless of how big or little the task and the outcome are.
How do you know when you are experiencing God's holiness or when you are experiencing a fake holiness of your own self?
-one way that I know it is God's holiness I am experiencing rather than my own is that I feel completely zero at and in everything, but Christ is still with me as infinite and overpowering my zero-ness.
When you see God as holy then everything we labor for is neither right or wrong, but a mark of our grace to know and experience the power of being made into a son and daughter.
We might ask God, as Isaiah did:
"Until when, Lord?"
Regarding our circumstances and situations, or we might be reaching for the smallest bit of power from Him as it seems he is merely passing by us, but remember His holiness and all things will fall beneath the supremacy of those things that belong to Him: His robe, His requests, and His children.
Then you will be enabled to continue.
Holiness sightings prompt stillness with joy + thanksgiving, which are the enabling process of becoming a coheir or a sharer of the kingdom:
May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with joy giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.
Our Father enables us, not our will power.
Go to Him today, and ask to get a glimpse of His holiness. Just a glimpse is enough.
Jmegrey.
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