A previous post of mine about HOLINESS

I've been doing a lot of reading in and about the Bible's "Old Testament" these days. I haven't read it for a while, but I have recently taken an interest in it. The most common book for me to read is the collection of poems commonly called the "Psalms". I love the way these poems say what I can't say. I also enjoy reading the Major and Minor prophets (ie. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Obadiah). Let me say that they are only designated "major" and "minor" because of their size, not because of their worth or relative significance. Simply stated, the Major prophetic books are a lot longer than the Minor prophetic books. For instance, Isaiah has 66 chapters, whereas Amos has nine. I've even read and re-read what some say is the oldest book in the Bible: Job. Here's a guy I can relate to. We both whine. We both complain. We both question. We both struggle to understand life. We both ask God about our many, many, many troubles. Mind you, I don't think I'd have it said of me, "He was blameless, a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil."These days, however, I've been digging into the "Torah" or the "law" or the first five books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). I've read these in times past. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy them. The stories are awesome. The characters are truly human. It helps me make sense out of life. It helps me explain life to others. Now, my usual practice is to skip over the many, many, many laws and sacrifices. After all, what could they possibly mean to me? What's the point? What's the application? Sure, the OT sacrifices were seen as "typologies" for the coming Christ. Sure, the laws can be seen as "just good ethics and morals" (ie. the Ten Commandments). Outside of that, however, there seems to be very little literal application. After all, I have never pronounced someone in my congregations "ceremonially unclean". I've never pronounced any house "contaminated". And I've had very little to do with olive oil (outside of Italian cooking).Let me take a step back. I think the OT in general has gotten a bad-rap not only in secular settings but in Christian-evangelical ones, too. Some say that the OT God is a god of vengeance, wrath and anger, whereas the NT God is a god of peace, love and forgiveness. When asked about this apparent dichotomy one Professor playfully put it, "The Old Testament is before God was a Christian." Therefore, a lot of Christians ignore the OT entirely, or, they over-use the New Testament to help them understand it. I find that whenever someone preaches or teaches about the OT, they have the New Testament in hand to use as a ready defense and parallel. They "illuminate" what Isaiah has said with what Paul the apostle has said; they "illuminate" what 1 Kings has said with what Mark the disciple has said. Preaches who preach from the OT spend most of their time in the NT. This isn't an entirely fair way to go. After all, if the OT started composition in the 15th century BC, and the NT didn't finish completion until the 1st century AD, and both books weren't put together until the 4th century AD, and if the Bible as we Protestants have it today didn't get finalized until the 16th century AD, then what about the 3000 years and millions of people who didn't benefit as we do today with a "completed" Bible?I'll be honest and say that I have a hard time defending the OT in my own heart and mind, let alone in any polemic or apologetical sense. Why did God order the death and slaughter of so many people? Why would God choose for himself only one nation? Why would it be law to stone to death our children if they don't believe the same way we do? Why does God allow the Jews to take for themselves slaves? Other people ask me the same questions I've asked. I try to give them answers, but in all honesty, I feel like I'm only dishing out cliche and Christian rhetoric: because of sin, it's culture, blabbidy, blabbidy, blah-blah. I don't think I'm the only Christian "authority" or "leader" who has struggled to come to grips with the OT "overview." But recently I've been reading in and about the Old Testament. I've discovered something very cool. It wasn't only the Jews who practiced sacrifices. Most, if not all, Ancient Near Eastern cultures (and likely the world over) practiced sacrifice. There are many similarities between, say, Israelite practice and the cults of Mesopotamia and Syro-Palestine. Yet there are distinctions, too. The sacrificial system for the Hebrews was never meant to appease or placate the gods, nor was it a man-made system. It was divinely revealed and was directed toward the goal of personal and community holiness. Let me illustrate. The third book in the Bible is Leviticus. It contains laws and sacrifices. One person wrote, "Leviticus is basically a manual or handbook on holiness designed to instruct the Hebrew community in holy worship and holy living so that they might enjoy the presence and blessing of God."Holiness is the central thrust of the laws and sacrifical practices. As God said, "Be holy as I am holy." God not only said it, but he gave a way for the nation to truly be holy. Again, there was personal and individual holiness: how can I approach God? How can I be forgiven? How can I live today rightly before God? But there was also communal or social holiness: how should I act in the community? How can I be a responsible member of that community? How can I love those around me better?I learned something else, too, in my reading. I learned that on the basis of levitical law, everything in life was either holy or common for the Hebrews. Those things determined common were subdivided into categories of clean and unclean. Clean things might become holy through sanctification or unclean through polllution. Holy things could be profaned and become common or even unclean. Unclean things could be cleansed and then consecrated or sanctified to be made holy.These points help me understand not only the laws themselves, but also their place in the life and practice of the biblical characters. These points help me understand my life and living better. Holiness is the central thrust of life; holiness is what long for; holiness is what I need. Most of us prayed for Jesus to enter into our lives so we could be saved and so that we could go to heaven when we die. This is good news, but the prayers need to continue: Lord, make me holy as you are holy. Salvation isn't the end, holiness is. Those people around me who are, for lack of a better description, unclean and common can, through the grace of God, become holy. We can all exercise personal and communal holiness.