Walk in Wisdom

Leviticus 6:26b-28a
“In a holy place it shall be eaten, in the court of the tent of meeting. Whatever touches its flesh shall be holy, and when any of its blood is splashed on a garment, you shall wash that on which it was splashed in a holy place. And the earthenware vessel in which it is boiled shall be broken.”

Let’s talk about holiness for a moment today and start by going back to the beginning. In Genesis, God culminated His creation of Adam and Eve by instituting the sacred covenant of marriage: a one-of-a- kind, holy matrimony between one man and one woman. When possible, this unique union provides the sacred context for sexual fulfilment, and, when possible, that sexual union provides the generative power of procreation. But any so-called marriage between a man and a man, or a woman and a woman, or a man and seven hundred women (I’m looking at you, Solomon), is not merely unnatural or unusual or unlawful, but unholy. And any sexual conduct performed outside the bounds of holy matrimony, whether adulterous or another fornication, whether consensual or not, is unholy as well.

The point is that when God sets something apart as uniquely special, whether it’s a day of the week or a marital relationship or even an earthenware dinner bowl, ‘holy’ is no longer a characteristic of the thing but it’s very definition. In fact, here in Leviticus 6:28, the difference between this ceremonial earthenware bowl and all others like it isn’t that it’s sturdier or shinier or can hold an infinite amount of food, but that God has treated it so. And what God sees in a thing is far more significant than what you and I see or don’t see in it.

Many in the church today are following suite with culture, distinguishing the Bible and the church ordinances and marriage and prayer and confession and relationships and even politics by their functional or practical benefits rather than by their distinctiveness to God. But friend, never forget the fundamental fact that God has called us to be holy as He is holy, and holiness is the pursuit of the life of faith.

So break whatever needs breaking in your pursuit of holiness today. Whether that’s an earthenware bowl or a distracting hobby or a sinful relationship or a vain ambition. Better it than you!