I am moved to the degree that I must pass on this revelation knowledge. This post will be a verbatim sharing. It is quite possibly one of the best and most important things I have ever read, and I hope you find it to be also. The subject matter is simple but very deep. Please refer to MICHAEL HEISER’S– THE UNSEEN REALM. PGS 171- 173 in Chapter 22.
HOLINESS AND SACRED SPACE: Here we go.
Yahweh is an elohim, not a mortal man. Appearing as a human being was a condescension that enabled the lesser minds of mortals to comprehend his presence — and live to tell about it. Yahweh is so “other” as to be incomprehensible without the facade of something familiar. And yet for Israel, his “otherness” would need to remain an ever – present reality sensed at all times.
The concept of otherness was at the core of Israelite identity. Otherness is the core of holiness. The Hebrew vocabulary for holiness means to be “set apart or to be distinct.” While the idea has a moral dimension related to conduct, it is not intrinsically about morality. It is about distinction. Israel’s identification with Yahweh by virtue of his covenant with Abraham and the terms of the covenant at Sinai meant that, as Leviticus 19:2 concisely summarizes, Israelites were to be set apart ( “holy” ) as Yahweh was set apart ( “holy”). Consider the Hebrew word qadosh — Set apart in the sense described in various lexicons : “withheld from ordinary use, treated with special care, belonging to the sanctuary … dedicate[d] for use by God.”
Yahweh’s complete otherness was reinforced in the minds of Israelites through worship and sacrifice. Yahweh was not only the source of Israel’s life — he was life. Yahweh ( YHWH ) was complete in his perfections. Yahweh was not of earth, a place where there is death, disease, and imperfection. His realm is supernatural; Ours is terrestrial. The space he occupies is sacred and made otherworldly by his presence. The space we occupy is “profane” or ordinary. Yahweh is the antithesis of ordinary. Humans must be invited and purified to occupy the same space.
Many laws in the Torah illustrate this world view and it’s messaging. Whether priest or not, male or female, people could be disqualified from sacred space by a variety of activities and conditions. Examples include sexual activity, bodily emissions, physical handicaps, contact with a dead body, and childbirth.
The logic of such exclusions is simple, yet foreign to our modern clinical minds. Sexual intercourse, emission of sexual fluids, uterine discharges, and menstruation were not considered unclean out of prudishness. Rather, the concept was that the body had lost the fluids that contain, create, and sustain life. That which is not whole and is associated with loss of life cannot enter Yahweh’s presence until ritual restoration rectified that status. The same reasoning is behind the ritually unclean status of those with physical handicaps, infected with disease, and who have touched a corpse, animal or human. Yahweh’s presence meant life and perfection, not death and defectiveness. These laws kept the community conscious of Yahweh’s otherness.
Regulations governing the sanctity of Yahweh’s dwelling provided concrete object lessons about realm distinction. The ground that that dwelling encompassed was sacred space in relationship to the people of Israel. The separateness of the divine realm was reinforced by the laws that allowed or disallowed proximity to Yahweh. These permissions or prohibitions even extended to inanimate objects associated with Yahweh and his service.
Even within sacred space, there were gradations of holiness or sanctity. The closer one got to Yahweh’s presence, the more holy the ground or the object in his proximity. The terms that describe the layout of the structure are evidence of this progression. From the entrance inward there was the court the holy place and the “most holy place” ( “holy of holes” ). The sacred space of the tabernacle got progressively more holy from the entrance to the innermost room.
The progressive “holiness zones” were also distinguished by the priestly clothing associated with them (Exodus 28-29). For example, the high priest, the person with permitted access to the holiest place, wore a unique ephod, breastplate, and headdress inscribed with “holy to Yahweh.” The holier the zone, the more costly the animal sacrificed to sanctify the priests when they entered into the presence of Yahweh for rituals (Leviticus 8)
Having laid this out for us all to see; it gives us a better understanding of how humans must continue to seek after “*The Marvel that God truly is.” *Quote by Frankie.
By the way, when Christ willingly gave his life on the cross, all of the rules and regulations and the sacrificial system of the ancient days was fulfilled. Christ was the fulfillment of the law. He who was perfect and knew no sin, became sin for us, out of love.
As I continue with my life And studies, I am amazed at how quickly, ( Americans in particular) discard God. Many do this without having ever read the Old or New Testaments. I just don’t understand, ( Yet, I do ) how people blame God for everything under the sun, without having any solid knowledge of how he operates and who he is. Figuring out who God is involves dedication and seeking truth and wisdom. Our culture today has an attention span of about 10 seconds. We need to put our phones away, our social activity on hold and do some deep studying, IMHO. If you don’t want to know what’s happening in this world, then sleep on sweet Charlotte. God’s plan will be fulfilled with or without you or me. I would say to everyone, “Get over yourself and your selfishness, God doesn’t like ugly.” Frankie The Earthman.
Frankie The Earthman 