This chapter talks about the holiness of God. What does that mean. The Hebrew word for holy is qadosh. It means to be cut off or separate. It shows the uniqueness of God. In the passage of Isaiah 6 when Isaiah saw the Lord and He was high and lifted up, Isaiah heard the angels singing Holy, Holy, Holy. In Hebrew there is not a word for more. So this attribute stands out in our language. God is not just Holy, or Holy, Holy, but He is HOLY, HOLY, HOLY. He is the most Holy. There is not another attribute in the Bible that is described in this way.
What does it mean to be set apart or separate? What is so unique about God? There is nothing we can compare to the Lord. Lucado makes statement. "What you are to a paper airplane, God is to you." Think about that. Can you challenge an airplane to a race, what about spelling match. Now multiply that disparity by infinity. That is the difference between us and God.
In 2 Sam 6, we see David bringing the ark of God into the city. Uzzah reached out to steady the ark when the oxen stumbled and in so doing was struck dead. How unfair you think? That shows the holiness of God. In the cartoons, you see when one of the characters touch an electric wire and their whole body lights up, their skeleton shows and they turn to dust. Well that is what happened to Uzzah. He touched the pure holiness of God. The complete purity and all the sin of man was lit up in him and that could not stand in the presence of the holiness of God. Isaiah saw that holiness and it brought him to his knees. He witnessed the impurity of his own heart.
Here is God's answer for who is His equal.
"Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,' calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.
(Isa 46:8-11)
In Isaiah's encounter with God, the seraphim are flying around God singing Holy, Holy, Holy. They covered their feet and their face with their wings and with the 3rd set they flew around the throne. Lucado points out that the same word for feet is used also for genitalia in Hebrew. So basically the seraphim are impotent before God. Isaiah falls on his face and declares Woe is me, for I am lost. He saw the holiness of God and felt the impotence of himself. And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" (Isa 6:5)
Isaiah got it. He saw it was not about Him, but about God and his glory and he was changed. God's holiness silences human boasting. His mercy makes us holy and redirects our life. Now we are to be holy different. May we all ponder and understand more of the holiness of God.
