Topic: Holy God, Holy People [Wednesday August 9, 2017]
Text: Leviticus 20:22-27
Key Verse: “And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine” (Leviticus 20:26).
Many years ago, it was reported that the great scientist Isaac Newton stared at the image of the sun reflected in a mirror. The brightness burned into his retina and he suffered temporary blindness. Even after he hid for three days behind closed shutters, still the bright spot would not fade from his vision. “I used all means to divert my imagination from the sun,” he wrote, “but if I thought upon him I presently saw his picture though I was in the dark.” If he had stared a few minutes longer, Newton might have permanently lost all vision.
The chemical receptors that govern eyesight cannot withstand the full force of unfiltered sunlight. It takes a holy people to see a holy God. That was why God drew the attention of the Israelites to His holy nature and the need for them to be holy. He warned them not to walk in the manner of the nations that were before them in Canaan. He equally drew their attention to the fact that He separated them unto Himself so they could do what He wanted them to do. He wanted them to recognise that unclean animals were no-go areas in their lives.
The freedom they had was to do the right thing by avoiding unclean ways. Then He gave them the reason why He made them holy. It was that they might belong to Him alone. He demonstrated the importance of this virtue by directing them to put to death by stoning anyone who had a familiar spirit or was a witch. That is a way of describing someone determined to be an eternal enemy of God. Such a person must not be allowed to live.
The demand of God for holiness has not changed. True, people are not to be stoned today because they have contrary spirits. But such individuals do not belong to God either. Except they repent and forsake their sins, eternal damnation awaits them and all those who choose to live an unholy life before a holy God.
Thought for the day: Prepare to meet a holy God in His holy place.
Bible Reading in one Year: Jeremiah 13-14
DCLM Daily Manna was written by Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi; is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church situated at KM 42 on the busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Nigeria.
