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By: Michael Kornelis You may listen to this devotion in audio form via podcast here.
Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Exodus 19:5-6 To be holy is to be set apart. Now for the most part, and this is appropriate, we tend to focus on the holiness of God, we meditate on his otherness, his ontological set-apartness to put it… complicatedly. But here God calls Israel holy, other, set apart. And what does that mean? “All the earth is mine,” says the Lord, “But you shall be holy to me, set apart, my treasured possession.” I think of it like this. It feels strange to say it, but it is obviously true. There are countless people sick in hospitals today, and I will not go and comfort them. There are countless people homeless today, and I will not go and house them. There are countless people lonely, and I will not go and sit with them. I suppose it sounds callous to say it, but just consider for a moment your pitiful finitude, how small a thing you are, and you will realize it is true of you, too. You just can’t be there for everyone. You can’t. You can’t, so you won’t. You’re too small. I’m too small. But if my friend were in the hospital I would drop anything and everything to go and be with him. If I saw my brother on the street I’d bring him home with me. My goodness, a man gets to set apart one woman to build his life around. One. He can only, really set apart one, one to spare from loneliness. Just one. Only one. So, while we strive to love every neighbor as ourselves, only so many are really holy to us, really set apart; and because we are limited we can only set apart for ourselves so many friends, you know… true friends; because we are so limited we can only set apart so many to share our homes with… family; because a man is so small and because a woman is so magnificent he can only set apart one for himself. Only one can he call holy. “All the earth is mine,” says the Lord, “But you shall be holy to me, set apart, my treasured possession.” So, what does it mean when God calls Israel holy, when God calls you holy? It means God calls you “friend.” It means God calls you brother, sister. It means God calls us spouse. It means God comes to lie on the gurney next to you. It means God comes to make his home with you. It means God comes to bind himself to you so that you might never be alone. And now if God should be so kind to you, heed his word when he says, “You now, go and do likewise.”