Be Ye Holy

Three months after Israel left Egypt, they arrived at the base of Mt. Sinai and set up camp. Moses climbed the rugged mountain to commune with the Lord and God called to him saying, “I am going to come to you in the form of a dark cloud so the people can hear when I talk to you. Then they will always believe you. Go down and get them ready for my visit. Sanctify them.”

On the morning of the third day, an awesome thunder and lightning storm descended on Mt. Sinai. As a cloud covered the mountain and Jehovah descended in fire, the earth shook with a violent earthquake. A trumpet sounded loud and long, Moses spoke, and God answered. His message that day to Moses and the children of Israel was clear: “You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation...” (Exodus 19:6).

Just as he did that day on Mt. Sinai, God promised to speak once more. A prophecy recorded in Hebrews says, “See that you do not refuse him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from him who speaks from heaven...'Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.'” (Hebrews 12:25-26). Today God is speaking from heaven with the same powerful message that he spoke in Moses’ day: “As he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’” (1 Peter 1:15-16).

How do we stay holy in this wicked age? Who can keep himself from being contaminated by it all? No one — in his own strength, that is. Only God has the power to keep us holy, to present us to himself a holy people without spot or wrinkle.

The God who gives us his holiness has the power to keep us in it! The safest place on earth is at the foot of the cross, humbled before God’s throne. The more wicked the times, the more we need to stay yielded to him!