When God comes near in holiness, he comes near with holy blessings.

Let’s talk more about the all-important idea that holy means good. When we say God is holy, that means God alone is perfectly good. Last week we saw that when the super-holy ark of God came to the property of Obed-edom, it brought blessing and good.

Hundreds of years prior to that event Moses taught the same principle, that a right relationship with the holy God brings waves of good into a person’s life:

“¹ If you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. ² And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God. ³ Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. ⁴ Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. ⁵ Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. ⁶ Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

^“7 The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. ⁸ The LORD will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake. And he will bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

^“9 The LORD will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in his ways. ¹⁰ And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you. ¹¹ And the LORD will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, within the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give you.

^“12 The LORD will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. ¹³ And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them, ¹⁴ and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.” (Deuteronomy 28:1–14)

Holy blessings

God is good, abundantly good. People who walk in his holy ways experience wave upon wave of his goodness. (You might ask, does this mean God promises material prosperity to holy people today? That question is not my point here. My purpose is only to show the relationship between God’s holiness and goodness.)

Holy means good. In the center of this expansive promise of blessing, Moses said, “The LORD will establish you as a people holy to himself” (v. 9). That is what makes blessing possible. God is holy, and he makes his people holy. Holy brings good, because holy means good.

Moses said in verse 10 that when the other nations of the earth saw the blessings on Israel, they would also take note that Israel was “called by the name of the LORD.” The nations would associate blessing on a nation with God’s name, which the Bible emphasizes is a holy name.

God’s holiness and goodness are one.

Let’s explore the relationship between God’s holiness and goodness further next week in a story that is one of the greatest revelations of God’s character in the Bible.