Hello Beloved,
This month we will continue our study of the compound names of God, focusing on Yahweh-Mekaddish. You may recall, that the personal name of God, Yahweh, relates to the fact that He is the great “I am,” the one who is present. The Hebrew Kadash means to be pure, clean, holy, sacred, consecrated, or dedicated (to be regarded as holy). Of course, God is the perfect example of what it means to be holy for it is reflective of His very nature. The concept of holy is a religious term that can be used not only of persons but of places, times, and things. Any of these entities can be “set apart” from what would be considered in the realm of the common or profane and moved to the sphere of the sacred. This would be in conjunction with those things associated with God. Therefore, the name Yahweh Mekaddish means “the Lord who sanctifies” or makes holy.
Here are the few examples of how the name was used in Scripture. In Exodus 31, the Lord called the Sabbath a sign between Israel and Himself to constantly bring before this people a reminder of the covenant that He made with them. In that covenant, the Lord “set apart” Israel from all the other nations. Moses writes, “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify (Yahweh Mekaddish) you” Exodus 31:12-13 (ESV). Further, in Leviticus 21, the priest of Israel was considered holy. He was not permitted to touch the dead except among his closest relatives and he could not marry a divorced woman because Israel “shall sanctify him for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for I, the LORD, who sanctify you (Yahweh Mekaddish), am holy” Leviticus 21:8 (ESV).
As Yahweh-Mekaddish, the Lord had “set apart” Israel or declared them holy as His own possession and they bore a covenant relationship to Him (Exodus 19:5,6; 6:7; Deuteronomy 14:1-2; 7:6; 26:18-19; 28:1,9; Leviticus 20:26; 21:8). Also, today as believers in Jesus Christ, we are chosen by God as His own possession in a special relationship. Titus states that Jesus “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” Titus 2:14 (ESV). Peter connects our special relationship to God with our royal priesthood claiming, “you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” 1 Peter 2:9 (ESV). Therefore, as God’s special possession, we are to be holy as God is holy (Leviticus 19:2; 11:44,45; 20:7, 27; 21:8; Exodus 19:6; Matthew 5:48; 1 Peter 1:15,16).
Let us be holy and set apart to the magnificence of God’s purity in this dark world. An appropriate illustration may be found in one author’s illustration of Mrs. Fish’s garden:
There is no path in life so dark but that the Christian graces, growing in the garden of the heart, may make the soul like an oasis in the desert. A former keeper of the Point Pinas Lighthouse, near Monterey, California, was a woman. When Mrs. Fish entered upon the duties of her office, she found the lighthouse a dreary abode, situated as it was far from any neighboring houses upon the gray ocean sands. She at once began transforming it into a more homelike spot. Within she added warm draperies, rare china, and other dainty furnishings. Without she enclosed a large garden, and made it a brilliant, fragrant spot. About its boundaries she planted the native cypress, which is found nowhere else in the world. Behind these sheltering trees she made a broad, velvety lawn, and planted tea-roses, geraniums, and other fragrant flowers. On the warm, sunny days that come in such quick succession there, this garden, only ninety feet above the sea, and overlooking the vast blue Pacific, is one of the prettiest, most romantic, and sightly places on the coast. But more careful than of all else was Mrs. Fish to the great light entrusted to her care. Punctual to the moment the lamp always sent its rays across the water, and as punctually it was extinguished when the stronger light of day appeared. (Bible Illustrations - Practical Bible Illustrations From Yesterday and Today.)
Until next time, this is Pastor Daniel writing, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.”
(Material for this newsletter article are taken from the notes of Jim Smith,
Professor of Bible and Theology at Brookes Bible College.)