Holy #%!*

Today at work I overheard someone say, "Holy" and then used a word that could be used to describe human waste. It made me and one of the Preaching Today team members ask the following question. What does an attribute of God and human waste have in common? We have so lost the understanding of holiness that we find many people using the word in various exclamatory phrases as part of their everyday speech. The things they refer to as holy are common, and often, unholy.

Today the devotional I use offers Psalm 99 as the text. In Psalm 99, God is called Holy 3 times in 9 verses. Do we really understand what it means that God is Holy?

John MacArthur describes God's holiness in the following two paragraphs:

"His being is utterly separate from ours, and He made that so clear. His is being and ours is becoming,. He is utterly distinct from us. The Hebrew is qadach, the Greek, hagios, meaning distinct, separate, He is other than we are as to the essence of His existence, His nature. Therefore nothing in the creation, no one in the creation even man created in the image of God compares to God in essential nature. He is incomparable. He is infinite perfection. That is why His name is separate, distinct, or holy. And thus does Exodus 15:11 say, “Who is like you, majestic in holiness?” And there, I think, is what those mediaeval theologians were after, to add majestic to utter distinction somehow is an expression of worship. First Samuel 2:2 says, “There is no one holy like the Lord. There is no one beside You,” no one exists in Your category of being but You. Psalm 111 says, “Holy and awesome is His name.”

When we think of God’s holiness, we think of His utter separation from sin because everything in the creation is effected and influenced by sin. But there’s more to His separateness than that, however, that for us is the graphic illustration. It’s hard for us to metaphysically comprehend the difference between being and becoming. We see clearly God’s distinction from us in the matter of His moral, perfection and sinlessness. As Habakkuk the prophet wrote, “Your eyes are too pure to approve evil. You cannot look on wickedness.” Job 34:10 says, “Far be it from God to do wickedness, to do wrong.” In Revelation 15:4 it says, “You alone are holy.” There are many other statements. That gives you sort of a broad picture across Scripture."

If we clearly understood holiness and the fact that our God is Holy, we would refrain from using an attribute of God in a way that destroys the meaning and weight of the word. When we say "holy cow," what are we saying? That a cow has the same attribute of God? When we say Holy C@#% are we saying human waste is holy? Are we daring to use the attribute of God to describe human waste? The world has no idea what holiness is because many times his children are using the word to describe that which is not holy.

May we take the time tonight to meditate on our Holy, Holy, Holy God!