Holy

“By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day He rested from all His work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done.”

Genesis 2:2-3

To be holy is fundamentally to be at rest in God’s finished work. God, as a holy God, is not distant and untouchable; but happy, satisfied, and so pleased at what His Word has accomplished in us, what His Son has done, that He is at rest. If you read no further, this truth of His contentment alone will revolutionize your relationship with God. But, of course, there is more, much more! Genesis 2 begins with the completion of the heavens and earth in their vast array; but then we are told: “Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground… then God formed man from the dust of the ground…” (Genesis 2:5, 7) We know from the first chapter of Genesis that God had already said “Let the land produce vegetation… and it was so… the land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.” (Genesis 1:11-12) This was on the third day; and He had already made man, male and female, in His image on the sixth day. (Genesis 1:29) His work of creating was complete, He saw that it was good, and He rested in the perfection of it. And yet it was not until the eighth day that the truth of what He had spoken took shape on the earth. So to be holy is not simply to be at rest in the finished work, but to rest in it being done before it appears. 

Holy = Resting in His finished work

Honor Me as Holy

When Moses was leading Israel through the wilderness, they rebelled against him and Aaron as their leaders. (Numbers 17) The Lord had each of the twelve tribes of Israel put a staff from their father’s house with the leader’s name written on the rod of their father. On Levi’s rod, Aaron’s name was written; so in a sense, the man who the Lord chose was a leader who glorified their father. The twelve staffs were to then be placed before the Lord where they spent the night in His presence. Out of this place of rest, one of the staffs not only sprouted but also budded, blossomed, and produced almonds. This was Aaron’s staff representing the tribe of Levi as a picture of Jesus, the Branch, whose fruitful leadership and ministry glorified His Father.[1] So when the Israelites complained again, the Lord instructed Moses to take that staff from before His presence and speak to the rock before the eyes of Israel. The speaking from this staff alone would cause the Rock to pour out its water for the community and their livestock to drink.

            Moses did take the rod of Aaron, which was a picture of Jesus and His life-giving ministry, from the Lord’s presence as he was told. But Moses represented the law[2] and was continually holding people accountable for their sin, condemning them as a reminder that they needed the ministry of Aaron to atone for them. The leadership of Moses and Aaron was therefore a mixture of law and grace in which those who would be in relationship with God were under continual reminder of their flaws and transgressions, needing therefore to endlessly sacrifice repeated offerings to the Lord for forgiveness. So, although the authority of Christ was with them to bless the people, rather than trusting that the Word alone would bring forth water, Moses condemned the people and struck the rock with his own staff twice. The Rock we know from later in scripture was also a picture of Christ Jesus who was stricken to bring forth water and give drink to His people.[3] So Moses in choosing to condemn rather than to trust in the Word, essentially re-crucified Christ by striking the Rock twice. Whenever the voice of condemnation commandeers the authority of priestly blessing so people feel constant need to offer more sacrifices, they are striking the Rock as Moses did, and the Lord will not allow this leadership to advance.

            God loved His people and so, in spite of Moses, He caused water to flow from the Rock for them to give drink to them and their livestock. He then responded to what Moses had done with Aaron’s compliance by saying: “Because you did not trust in Me enough to honor Me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.” (Numbers 20:12) This is so profound! This combination of constantly holding people’s sin against them and offering repeated sacrifices was not able to lead the people into a place of receiving their inheritance.[4] The choice made that day at the waters of Meribah to re-crucify Christ rather than speak in the authority already given through Him was a sign of distrust and did not honor the satisfaction, the rest, the completion of God who was glorified in the flowering, fruitful Branch they held. He was proved holy among His people that day not in what Moses did, but in the forbidding Moses to go further with a leadership in which atonement was not enough.[5]

The Holy Spirit

Shortly after this takes place, at the end of the same chapter in Numbers 20, Aaron dies and his son Eleazar is anointed high priest instead. Eleazar’s name means “Helper” which is one of the names of the Holy Spirit. His ministry replaced Aaron’s in order to prepare Israel to follow a new leader, Joshua son of Nun. Joshua is the Hebrew form of the Greek Name Jesus which means Salvation or God saves. Joshua was the son of Nun; Nun in Hebrew means seed; and we were born again by imperishable seed which is the Word of God. (1 Peter 1:23) So Joshua represents for us Salvation born of the Word. Whereas Moses and Aaron did not trust that the Word of Christ was enough; the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of resting in the finished work, empowered Israel to follow the speaking born of the Word.

Eleazar had some significant roles assigned to him before he even became high priest.[6] Just before the budding of Aaron’s staff was the rebellion in which those who questioned Moses and Aaron’s leadership offered burning coals and incense in bronze censors before the Lord. The earth opened up and swallowed the rebels and their households alive; and fire came out from the Lord that consumed the 250 men offering incense. Eleazar was then told to remove the censers from the charred remains and hammer out sheets from the metal to overlay on the altar. These censers were presented before the Lord and were the evidence that these men had paid for their sin at the cost of their lives, so they had become holy. They were meant to be a sign to the Israelites that the judgment was done, the penalty for sin satisfied.[7] It is significant that Eleazar who is a namesake of the Holy Spirit, dealt with this sign of holiness that displayed the remains of judgment as completely laid, overlaid, upon the altar; to show Israel it was dealt with on the Cross, it was finished.

Another important role Eleazar was given before becoming high priest in ministry to God’s people was the Water for Cleansing.[8] This water was made from the ashes of a red heifer that would be taken outside the camp to be slaughtered in Eleazar’s presence. He would then apply the blood to the tent of meeting, and witness as the offering was burned – hide, flesh, blood and intestines – completely consumed by the Lord. Wood, hyssop, and scarlet wool were then thrown onto the burning heifer. Once the burning was done, the flame sated, and ashes turned white, they would be gathered up and used in the water of cleansing for purification from sin. Eleazar had charge of overseeing that the sacrifice took place and was completely received and finished. The ash that resulted from his witness that the offering was perfectly done, would purify others from sin. This is another picture of the Holy Spirit; He is the One in whose presence Jesus was crucified, who saw and bore witness to every aspect of it, down to the hyssop, and whose ministry refreshes us today with the water of the Word bearing evidence that it is finished, we are purified from sin.

Holy Spirit as Comforter

The Lord Himself defines what comfort looks like, and what He does for us as Comforter in Isaiah 40:

“Comfort, comfort My people, says your God.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that

her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for,

that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” (Isaiah 40:1-2, NIV)

The basis of the comfort that God exhorts the prophet to give His people is that the sin has been paid for, the warfare is over, and atonement complete. It makes sense, then, that the Holy Spirit is a Comforter because He is the Spirit of rest in the atonement being complete, God’s Word about it being final, every issue finished at the Cross. 

Holy Spirit as Advocate

There is never any place in scripture that says the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin.[9] We have seen that to be holy by definition is to be resting with God in His finished work to atone for us and in His Word that has been given to us to believe before the truth appears. It would therefore be impossible for a Holy Spirit to convict of sin when the whole point of being holy is the assurance of atonement. When we feel guilty, it is our conscience that condemns us, not the Holy Spirit of the Lord; and our hearts can be set at rest in those moments that God who knows everything is greater than our hearts.

[1] Isaiah 11:1 and Zechariah 3:8

[2] “To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law.” (Romans 5:13) Moses by charging sin to people’s account represented the law in his speaking, his thinking, and his leadership. He both personified and administered the law.

[3] 1 Corinthians 10:4

[4] It was not a way of faith, because it was possible to go through the motions of atonement without actually putting trust in God’s way to reconcile a sinful people to Himself.

[5] For further application, you can consider how Aaron’s two sons Nadab and Abihu were consumed by the fire of God because of adding their own fire, their own glory, to the atonement that had already satisfied the Lord. His fire had come out to consume the sacrifice, to show His glory, and all Israel had rejoiced when they saw it. So their attempt to add to an offering that was already enough in God’s sight and before all of Israel did not honor the Lord as holy. So they were also unable to continue in the ministry for which they had been anointed; God’s glory, His fire consumed all that was not of Him until there was no more of them.

[6] In addition to the two I’m about to mention, Eleazar was also given charge over the oil for Light, the fragrant incense, grain offering, and anointing oil. These are all the substance of the holy furnishings without which the lampstand, the censers, etc. would be lifeless. This is true of the Holy Spirit; no church without His Light, no prayer without Spirit, no worship devoid of His anointing has any life. (Numbers 4:16)

[7] Numbers 16:36-38

[8] Numbers 19:1-9

[9] The Holy Spirit will guide us into truth about how to define sin, righteousness, and judgment which we will look at in the next chapter; but this is not the same as condemning or convicting of sin.