Holiness Matters

Introduction

If you were to start your own country, what laws would you ensure were included? No form of government is perfect. Some are far worse than others. But if you wanted to form a government can you imagine the effort involved? Assuming no war had to be fought to secure land or freedom, where would you start? Let me suggest that in most cases you would start with the negative rather than the positive. In other words, you would take your own experience and that part that you didn’t like and want to make sure that you avoided those things. While this is a simplification, I would suggest to you that our nation’s declaration of independence is in part an attempt to make sure that a new nation avoided certain experiences from Great Britain. The beauty of that document is that it speaks of the avoiding of things in positive language. Liberty is preferred to taxation with no representation. Thus, the language of that ancient document speaks positively rather than negatively.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. This is far more effective than saying “We don’t want a king anymore. We want to rule ourselves. So we are discarding the old and welcoming a new way to govern ourselves.” Instead Jefferson and others boldly outlined a positive vision.

If you were to start a new nation with people who had been enslaved for hundreds of years; who knew only how to engage life as they were told; who knew a system of rules and laws that followed pagan gods, if you were to start a new nation an entirely new set of laws would have to be designed. This is what God did at the base of Mt. Sinai. Hearing his voice, seeing his power, experiencing his presence in a way that frightened them, God gives them 10 words/commands and then calls Moses to ascend the mountain to “flesh out” how these laws were to be lived. To speak of one’s relationship with God and one’s relationship with others is lofty. But the day to day existence required more to understand all the different scenarios. But with these new laws, the people learned something about the nature and character of God. So will we.

God and Community

This section seems to include a number of non-connected laws. But I would suggest to you that each law is designed to reveal something about God and his nature. It isn’t merely law for its own sake but that each law reveals something about who God is and how he wanted his people to reveal his nature in how they lived life. Look at verse 31. This initial line is not merely an introduction to verse 31 but a summary statement as well. It is intended to give meaning to the laws given. These laws are not arbitrary; they reveal God’s purpose for his people.

This new nation of God’s people are not living in a vacuum. They are going to be on display. They will represent the God who brought them out of Egypt. Time and again, the people will be reminded that this God is worthy of their worship and certainly worthy of their hearts. The first of these laws reveals God’s heart for marriage and especially for women. God values marriage. He values marriage so much that a man who took advantage of a woman was in many ways already acting the role of husband; therefore, he had to pay the bride price for the seduction. Sexual relationships is the sign of marriage. Paul will make the same point in 1 Corinthians 6. To engage in sexual relations outside of marriage cheapens marriage and it cheapens the people involved. The law endorses marriage. The law elevates sex. The seduction reduces the value of the person and the value of the sexual relationship.

In our culture, sex is cheap. Marriage is declining. If you cheapen the sexual act and call it a natural biological event then marriage isn’t needed nor does it have a special place within marriage. Such a view diminishes the character of God. Since God is the one who has designed human bodies for sex not just biologically but spiritually then to cheapen the act is to cheapen the person and such makes God unimportant. Sexual relations within marriage is God’s plan because it reveals his holiness.

Verses 18, 19, and 20 are so definitive because each of those things diminish the holiness of God. They sorceress turns people’s hearts away from God and diminishes the holiness of the people; bestiality was a part of the Egyptian experience of worship. God does not want his people to return or associate with such an act. Sacrificing to other gods is a blatantly demonstrates that God is no longer your God. Thus, God wants his holy nation rid of one who does not want to be with him. Judgment is sure.

Verses 21-27 are laws dealing with how much God values those who are poor, widowed, and fatherless. Take advantage of these people means that God will eventually bring you to your knees. Since those who are least among his people have no one thinking about them when these laws are violated, then God himself will be their defender and he will not lose.

Verses 28-31 review the importance of one’s loyalty to God. Whatever happens in life, the people were to honor God in that event. Their crops were tithed; their firstborn animals were sacrificed.

So What?

In no way are these laws our laws. God was establishing a new nation. These people were to reflect his holiness. But these laws were theirs not ours. But the principles are still valid. For inherent within these laws is the character of God. God has established a new nation among us. As Paul writes in Ephesians 2:19 and following, we are a new citizens in God’s family. This new nation built upon the foundation of Jesus exists to reveal the wisdom of God (Ephesians 3:10) and his holiness (Ephesians 2:21).

So it matters how we treat others and how we demonstrate who God is in our lives. It matters that we abstain from sexual immorality because it cheapens the other person (even if it is consensual) and it cheapens sex itself negating the holiness of God’s character.

It matters how we treat the poor, the widow, and the fatherless. In their material disadvantage we are not to take advantage of them. If we ignore them, God is their defender. When we support them, then we exalt God’s holy character helping them to see the purpose behind our support.

Our loyalty to God matters. We demonstrate to others that we are loyal to God. Our focus is not altered by what this world endorses. We do not pursue that which distracts from God. We reveal to a watching world that in our imperfect lives, we only have one desire — to reveal the holiness of God.

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