We will understand God better when we understand the difference between us (Isaiah 45:22).
Imagine a creative, 10-year-old girl named Sarah, who loves to read and is learning to write stories. Sarah recently read a book that tells the story of a woman who writes a daily blog online, and she is intrigued. At dinner one night she says, “Daddy, I want to write a blog. How do I do that?”
Her father’s first thought is not what a great learning opportunity this would be for his home-schooled daughter; rather, his mind turns immediately to protecting her from internet predators. “Honey, someday you can do that, but do you remember what we’ve talked about that we have to be careful on the internet because some people we might contact online want to hurt people?”
“I’ll be careful,” says Sarah. “Please let me write a blog. Please, please, please! Nothing bad will happen!”
Her dad has seen enough stories of teenage girls lured into trouble online and does not give it a second thought. The answer is no.
A difference in wisdom
Who would fault Sarah’s father? The difference in experience, knowledge, and discernment between a 10-year-old and her 40-year-old dad is vast, so great that Sarah cannot grasp it.
Only a virtuoso concert violinist knows in detail how great is the gap between his skills and those of a beginner. In small measure, a beginner can hear the difference but cannot really understand or explain it.
A person blind from birth cannot imagine what it is to see.
These analogies shine light on the difficulty we have with God’s holiness. God is holy because he is unimaginably different from and superior to his creation in every way.
Isaiah 45:11–12, 22 says, “Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him: ‘Ask me of things to come; will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands? I made the earth and created man on it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host…. Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.’”
The hurdle
Divine holiness is for many the greatest hurdle to wanting to draw closer to God. We do not understand it. The difference between the great “I Am” and his creation is infinitely greater than any analogy can fully communicate.
But we need to leap over that hurdle. I cannot understand the most important truths about God unless I have some grasp of his holiness—and value it. The more I grasp his holiness, the better I know God and relate to him as he is (not how I wish he were).
An inscrutable difference
For example, the whole sacrificial system that God required in the Old Testament is not what I would have planned. The thought of going to the tabernacle to slit the throats of animals leaves me cold. Similarly, I would not have planned the atoning death of Jesus on the cross as a sacrifice for human sin. I feel this way, however, because I am infinitely less wise, enlightened, and holy than God.
An inscrutable story
Another example: One of the most counterintuitive stories in the Bible for me is the near-fatal experience Moses had on his journey to Egypt to deliver Israel from bondage. The story lasts just three verses. It comes out of nowhere; there is little explanation, and then it is over, and the narrative resumes as though nothing had happened.
Moses had recently met with God at the burning bush. God had commanded him to go to Pharaoh, and Moses had at last accepted the assignment. He went home, gathered his wife Zipporah and two sons, and set off for Egypt. One important fact: neither of his two sons had been circumcised, as centuries earlier God had commanded Abraham and all his descendants to do.
The crisis
Exodus 4:24–26 says, “At a lodging place on the way the LORD met him and sought to put him to death. Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it and said, ‘Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!’ So he let him alone. It was then that she said, ‘A bridegroom of blood,’ because of the circumcision.”
That’s the story in total. Obviously there is a lot of backstory we are not given, but it appears Zipporah had for years resisted circumcising her sons, and Moses had failed to insist on it. Thereby he had given more honor to his wife than to the Lord, and that is a serious sin.
But God knew all this
Still, God knew these circumstances when he chose Moses, so why did he subsequently decide to end his life? One thing is certain, this narrative is not mysterious to God. His actions make perfect sense to him. They are right, wise, and good, as all his actions are, always and without exception. Yet to us they are mysterious. “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Rom 11:33, ESV)
One reason this story makes so little sense to me is, God is holy, and apart from him I am not. He is the I Am, and I am not. He is the only God, and I am his creation. He is perfectly pure, and I—though holy in status through Christ—am a recovering sinner. I see things from a human, this-world perspective; God sees things from an all-knowing, eternal, heavenly perspective. So I cannot understand the most important things about God unless I understand and value his holiness.
Worshiping God for the infinite, holy difference
With that in mind, here is a prayer I regularly use: “Lord, I praise you because you are infinitely superior to me in every imaginable way. I praise you because you are infinitely superior to me in knowledge. I praise you because you are infinitely superior to me in goodness. I praise you because you are infinitely superior to me in love.” And so on, with wisdom, kindness, mercy, grace, patience, and other virtues. All this is a detailed way of saying, I praise you because you are holy; you are the only God.
When it seems as though circumstances are not what God should allow, when my prayers are not answered, when I seek God for guidance and wisdom that seems way too long in coming, I find peace when I pray in this way, remembering God’s holiness.
There are only two categories for all that exists—God and his creation—and there is an infinite difference between the two.
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)