Absolute Holiness

And this is the basic law of the Temple:  absolute holiness!

Ezekiel 43:12, NLT

Absolute holiness!  Wow! I’ve been reading through the entire Bible this year, and I have been “stuck” in Ezekiel for weeks. I say ‘”stuck” because Ezekiel is a tough book, full of judgment and woes and a playlist of the people’s rebellion.  But here was a nugget for me….a “wow” moment.

The prophet Ezekiel had spent the previous three chapters outlining the minute details of a new temple…..measurements…lots of them, decorations, materials and utensils. God had shown him a vision revealing this temple and he told Ezekiel to describe to the people of Israel the temple he had been shown so they will be ashamed of all their sins (Ez 43:10). Ezekiel was to tell them to study the plan. He was to describe to them all the specifications, the decrees and laws so that they would be sure to remember and follow them. Then God said: “And this is the basic law of the temple:  absolute holiness” (Ezekiel 43:12).

What can I learn from this? Paul says in I Corinthians 3:16-17, Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?...God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple. I am God’s temple, and He cares about the details of my life….they are to be holy. These details include how I treat my body, what I put into my mind, what I see and hear, what I speak. All of these things should reflect His ways and desires and “specifications”. 

There is something a bit redundant about the phrase “absolute holiness”. Both denote total, undefiled, unpolluted, complete, perfect, unmixed, certain purity… A sacredness that is untouched by the world.  Only the righteousness of Christ covering me can make me holy. And that is His requirement…absolute holiness. Just as the details of the temple were explained so the people could  see their sin, holiness is played out in the details of our lives…my attitude toward my mother-in-law, my words to my spouse, my patience with the slow cashier, the choices of books, movies, music, etc.

Lord, give me a heart for holiness.  Make me yearn for your character to be lived out through me.  Make me holy.

Jill Hardin