God’s holy people

God cho­se Isra­el to be his holy peo­p­le. The over­ri­ding mea­ning of holy is set apart. Thus the peo­p­le of Isra­el are also set apart from the other peo­p­les becau­se they are God’s own peo­p­le whom he has cho­sen for his histo­ry with huma­ni­ty. In this peo­p­le the­re are priests who­se main task is the ser­vice of God. Their lives are enti­re­ly dedi­ca­ted to the ser­vice of God. Fol­lo­wers of Jesus Christ are also part of this holy peo­p­le. They form a holy peo­p­le of roy­al priest­hood. The focus is on wor­ship, but as a roy­al priest­hood they also exer­cise power on earth. Fol­lo­wers of Jesus Christ are holy in that they are set apart and live their lives as living worship.

Israel – God’s Chosen Holy People

This mor­ning we want to del­ve more into the the­me of God’s holi­ne­ss. Bes­i­des the holi­ne­ss of God, ano­ther cha­rac­te­ristic of God is that he is rela­tio­nal. The­r­e­fo­re, he choo­ses peo­p­le who, through this elec­tion, beco­me a holy peo­p­le. The Old Tes­ta­ment deals with God’s histo­ry in this world in the con­text of one peo­p­le – the Israe­li­tes. In order to be able to clas­si­fy the spe­cial role and also many Bible pas­sa­ges in con­nec­tion with this peo­p­le, it is important to keep in mind what holy means. Holy has many mea­nings. Syn­onyms for it are, for exam­p­le, divi­ne, pious and pure. Nowa­days the­re are state­ments such as «Not­hing is sacred to you! Howe­ver, such words are dif­fi­cult to inter­pret in the con­text of the peo­p­le of Isra­el. The over­ri­ding mea­ning of holy is set apart. This comes from the ori­gi­nal mea­ning of the Hebrew word «kado­sh» which means to cut or sepa­ra­te. If I cut or sepa­ra­te some­thing, then it stands on its side, so it is set apart from the rest. The holi­ne­ss of God and ever­y­thing con­nec­ted with him has this over­ri­ding mea­ning: holy = set apart.

Kee­ping this mea­ning in mind, it beco­mes clear why the peo­p­le of Isra­el are God’s holy peo­p­le. «For you are a holy nati­on to the Lord your God. Of all the peo­p­les of the earth, you belong as a peo­p­le to the LORD your God.» (Deut. 7:6 NLB). The peo­p­le of Isra­el are not holy by their own merit, but becau­se they are God’s pro­per­ty. He has orda­i­ned them as His own and ther­eby they are set apart from all other peo­p­les. And the sepa­ra­ti­on of the peo­p­le of Isra­el is so spe­cial becau­se this peo­p­le is expli­cit­ly set apart for God. Thus, its holi­ne­ss (sepa­ra­ti­on) also radia­tes out to the peo­p­le of Isra­el, that they are holy (set apart). This is also what our ver­se of the year says. » […] You shall be holy, for I am holy, the LORD your God.» (Exodus 19:2 LUT). But accor­ding to what cri­te­ria did God choo­se this peo­p­le? Did he want to wri­te his histo­ry with the stron­gest and most suc­cessful peo­p­le? After all, at the time of the Old Tes­ta­ment sto­ries, the well-being of a peo­p­le was rela­ted to the strength of their God. A strong peo­p­le neces­s­a­ri­ly had to have a strong God. But it was quite dif­fe­rent with the Israe­li­tes. «The Lord did not choo­se you and keep you becau­se you are grea­ter or more important than the other peo­p­les – you are even the least important of all peo­p­les – but becau­se he loves you and becau­se he wan­ted to keep the pro­mi­se he made to your ances­tors with an oath. […]» (Deut. 7:7–8 NLB). God cho­se this peo­p­le becau­se it should beco­me clear that all glo­ry is due to God, becau­se ever­y­thing comes from him. Isra­el the­r­e­fo­re also has a decisi­ve task, which the pro­phet Isai­ah for­mu­la­tes as fol­lows. «It is the peo­p­le I have crea­ted for mys­elf to tell of my glo­ry». (Isai­ah 43:21 NLB). This is the rai­son d’êt­re for this peo­p­le, that they tell of God’s glo­ry and this is true worship.

The sepa­ra­ti­on from other peo­p­les is par­ti­cu­lar­ly evi­dent in wor­ship and ethics. The five books of Moses in par­ti­cu­lar are full of com­mandments and laws that regu­la­te wor­ship and life. The­se regu­la­ti­ons dif­fer great­ly from what was com­mon prac­ti­ce in Israel’s envi­ron­ment. But becau­se Isra­el, as a holy peo­p­le, belongs to a holy God, this is the logi­cal respon­se. But com­pli­ance is lin­ked to a pro­mi­se. «Now if you obey me and keep the coven­ant I will make with you, you shall be my spe­cial pos­ses­si­on abo­ve all other peo­p­les of the earth, for the who­le earth is mine. You shall be to me a king­dom of priests, a holy nati­on. […]» (Ex 19:5–6 NLB). By coll­ec­tively obser­ving and kee­ping the com­mandments, the peo­p­le as a who­le assu­me priestly func­tions. But this is not enough. They will also, like earth­ly kings, assu­me power on this earth. This is the pro­mi­se if the peo­p­le stand by God and keep his commandments.

Priest – Between the Holy and the People

Alt­hough the who­le nati­on is sup­po­sed to be a king­dom of priests, the­re is a part of the peo­p­le that has the main task of per­forming the ser­vice and con­tri­bu­ting to its suc­cess. The­se are the Levi­tes. It is from this group that the des­cen­dants of Aaron are desti­ned to act as priests. Unli­ke all other reli­gi­ons, priests in Juda­ism are not inter­me­dia­ries bet­ween God and man. Every Israe­li­te is direct­ly respon­si­ble. This also explains why, in part, the sin of one could mean dis­as­ter for all the others. The priests took over the ser­vice at the altar of sacri­fice and espe­ci­al­ly also in the sanc­tua­ry. They super­vi­sed the cor­rect obser­van­ce of the dai­ly pre­scri­bed sacri­fices and the service.

The spe­cial natu­re of the tri­be of Levi and the priests is shown by the fact that they are not gran­ted land in the ter­ri­to­ry of Isra­el, but only cities and the pas­tu­res sur­roun­ding them. (Joshua 13:14). For through their task in the ser­vice of God, God Hims­elf beca­me their inhe­ri­tance. «But to the tri­be of Levi Moses had assi­gned no land as an inhe­ri­tance, for the LORD God of Isra­el was hims­elf his inhe­ri­tance, as he had pro­mi­sed» (Joshua 13:33 NLB). Just as the peo­p­le of Isra­el are to point to God, so do the Levi­tes within the peo­p­le of Isra­el. But only the priests are allo­wed to enter the sanc­tua­ry of God.

Two pairs of words are found in the con­text of Israe­li­te wor­ship. They are the distinc­tion bet­ween holy and pro­fa­ne and clean and unclean. Except for the com­bi­na­ti­on of holy and unclean, every com­bi­na­ti­on is con­ceiva­ble. Holy means set apart for God and pro­fa­ne means world­ly, i.e. not dif­fe­rent from the majo­ri­ty. Pure and impu­re refer to a ritu­al, not a hygie­nic puri­ty. Clean means clean in a com­pre­hen­si­ve, ritu­al sen­se and unclean means dir­ty, not spot­less in ritu­al mat­ters. But in the Israe­li­tes» wor­ship, ever­y­thing must neces­s­a­ri­ly be holy and pure, becau­se holy does not go tog­e­ther with unclean. For the priests, the­r­e­fo­re, a respon­si­ble approach is cal­led for. For in addi­ti­on to the fact that holy means set apart, divi­ne is also a syn­onym for holy. The­r­e­fo­re, in deal­ing with the divi­ne, rever­ence is always cal­led for. Short­ly after the desi­gna­ti­on of Aaron and his des­cen­dants as priests, the serious­ness of this task and the con­se­quen­ces of too flippant a hand­ling of the holy beco­me appa­rent. «But Aaron’s sons Nad­ab and Abihu took their cen­sers, put bur­ning coals in them and sprink­led incen­se on them. They thus bur­ned an arbi­tra­ry incen­se offe­ring to the LORD, which he had not com­man­ded them to do. Then fire came out from the LORD and kil­led the two men. Moses said to Aaron: «Now is done what the LORD has fore­told: I will show mys­elf holy to tho­se who are near me. Befo­re all the peo­p­le I will show my glo­ry.» But Aaron kept silent» (Exodus 10:1–3 NLB). This is a very dra­stic pic­tu­re of the impro­per hand­ling of the Holy One and shows the signi­fi­cant task of the priests. They are allo­wed to encoun­ter God, but this must also be done with respect and adhe­rence to the pre­scri­bed rules.

Followers of Jesus Christ – a holy people of royal priesthood

Through Jesus Christ, the ent­rance requi­re­ments for God’s holy peo­p­le shift. Whe­re­as in the Old Tes­ta­ment it was given through bio­lo­gi­cal des­cent and the obser­van­ce of com­mandments, the­se two con­di­ti­ons are no lon­ger man­da­to­ry to the same ext­ent as they used to be. In order to exami­ne the ques­ti­on of who belongs to God’s holy peo­p­le today, let us take a clo­ser look at the 1st Let­ter of Peter. Just as here, too, very few peo­p­le belong to the peo­p­le of Isra­el, this is also the case with the addres­sees of this let­ter, and we could add our own towns to the list. «This let­ter is writ­ten by Peter, an apost­le of Jesus Christ, to all the peo­p­le whom God has cho­sen and who live as stran­gers ever­y­whe­re in Pon­tus, Gala­tia, Cap­pa­do­cia, Asia and Bithy­nia in the midst of peo­p­le who do not belie­ve in Christ.» (1 Peter 1:1 HFA). Faith in Jesus Christ is the decisi­ve dif­fe­rence. What then are the cri­te­ria for belon­ging to the holy (set apart) peo­p­le of God? «You belong to God, our Father. He pre­desti­ned you for this from the begin­ning. Yes, through the Holy Spi­rit you have beco­me his own – peo­p­le who obey Jesus Christ and are freed from all guilt through his blood. I wish you that God’s grace and peace fill you more and more». (1 Peter 1:2 HFA). To belong to this holy peo­p­le, obe­dience to Jesus Christ is neces­sa­ry. This is a con­scious decis­i­on that must be made if one also wants to belong to this people.

Belon­ging to this peo­p­le is also lin­ked to a task. «And now let God incor­po­ra­te you as living stones into his spi­ri­tu­al temp­le. You are to be God’s holy priests and bring spi­ri­tu­al sacri­fices to him, which he accepts through your fel­low­ship with Jesus Christ!» (1 Peter 2:4–5 NLB). All fol­lo­wers of him are holy priests. They are set apart for ser­vice to God. But this ser­vice is not sta­tic, it is as ali­ve as you are. Spi­ri­tu­al sacri­fices are prai­sing God, doing good, being gene­rous with pos­ses­si­ons, ser­ving others. But all this comes from being part of the holy peo­p­le of God. You are set apart for such sacri­fices – not the other way around. First is the belon­ging, only then comes the effect (sacri­fice).

This state­ment by Peter final­ly leads to the descrip­ti­on of the fol­lo­wers of Jesus Christ. «But you are dif­fe­rent, for you are a cho­sen peo­p­le. You are a roy­al priest­hood, God’s holy peo­p­le, his per­so­nal pos­ses­si­on. So you are a living exam­p­le of the good­ness of God, for he has cal­led you out of dark­ness into his mar­vell­ous light.» (1 Peter 2:9 NLB). Based on this ver­se, two things need to be empha­sis­ed. On the one hand, the­re is the priest­hood of all saints. So all who are set apart – fol­low Jesus Christ, are addres­sed. On the other hand, the­re is the ques­ti­on of the rela­ti­onship of the roy­al priest­hood. Some Bible trans­la­ti­ons also wri­te kings and priests. Howe­ver, here, through the adjec­ti­val use of roy­al, the­re is a more detail­ed descrip­ti­on of the priest­hood and shows how it is to be unders­tood. The priest­hood descri­bed here is about wor­ship, which also has an impact on this earth. But the focus is on wor­ship and not on the earth­ly exer­cise of power.

In the fol­lo­wing ver­se, Peter makes it clear that the fol­lo­wers of Jesus Christ wit­hout Jewish roots did not belong befo­re. But Jesus made this pos­si­ble. «Befo­re you were not a peo­p­le; now you are the peo­p­le of God. In the past you did not recei­ve God’s mer­cy, but now you have recei­ved His mer­cy». (1 Peter 2:10 NLB). But this new peo­p­le includes peo­p­le out­side and from the first holy peo­p­le of God. This was alre­a­dy pre­dic­ted by the pro­phet Hosea. «[…]. I will love tho­se whom I once cal­led ’not-my-peo­p­le». And to tho­se I cal­led ’not-my-peo­p­le» I will say «You are my peo­p­le». And they will ans­wer, «And you are our God» ». (Hosea 2:25 NLB). This means that non-Jews also have a share in this very spe­cial mis­si­on of the peo­p­le of Isra­el, name­ly to be God’s holy, i.e. sepa­ra­te, peo­p­le and to tell of God’s glo­ry (Isai­ah 43:1). This in turn gives rise to a sacred ethic of its own, which is dif­fe­rent from the secu­lar one. From this holi­ne­ss, i.e. the sepa­ra­ti­on from God, all ethi­cal con­side­ra­ti­ons are to be unders­tood which fol­lo­wers of Jesus Christ make.

Possible questions for the small group 

Read the Bible text: 1 Peter 2:1–12

1. How would you descri­be «holy» for you? What does it mean to you when holy has the main mea­ning of «set apart»?
2. What might it look like if a peo­p­le were a king­dom of priests? What could be the main task of such a people?
3. Do you under­stand the func­tion of the priests of Isra­el? What stands out to you in particular?
4. When did you con­scious­ly deci­de for Jesus Christ? Did you rea­li­se that you now belong to a holy people?
5. What living sacri­fices do you make? If it feels like a col­lo­quial sacri­fice to you, what could that be? How could you get to this point that it is no lon­ger per­cei­ved as a cut for you, but as a gain?
6. As a fol­lower of Jesus Christ, whe­re do you live accor­ding to a dif­fe­rent holy (set apart) ethic? Why does this make sen­se to you?