Reply To: The Holiness of God, Chapter 3 – The Fearful Mystery

[Nayara Jordan]

Hello everyone!

I agree that the chapters thus far have felt very complementary to recent sermons and have reinforced my understanding of God’s holiness. One point I really liked from this chapter is the idea that anything called holy in scripture, outside of God himself, is only so because God has sanctified it and designated as holy. Holy mountain, holy ground, holy bread, etc.

Another point that stuck with me is the truth that holy is a synonym for God’s deity, not just one of His many attributes and this is how I’ve traditionally/erroneously compartmentalized it in my head. Instead, holy is encompassing of his entire being- “…His love is holy love, His justice is holy justice, His mercy is holy mercy, His knowledge is holy knowledge, His spirit is holy spirit.”

The focus on the use of the word holy also led me to reflect on how we attach the word holy to so many common and generic things in life, specifically in our speech. It made me wonder at the origin of “Holy (blank),” as an expression of awe or surprise in the modern day. There are so many of them, some obviously more vulgar than others, ie. holy cow, holy smokes, holy moly, holy mackerel… the list goes on. Isn’t that crazy?! For some reason it just blew my mind. When we are shocked, in awe, surprised, whether for good or bad, we instinctively yell out to something “holy.” To me, it is very revealing. Could it be a reflection that we were created with a deeper, innate desire to show awe, shock, fear, etc. to the Holy God?