Holy, Clean and Unclean

In short

Three confusing words in the Old Testament, all dealing with how we can be close to God (or not).

Why they are important

God is very, very different from us, and we need that idea to be entirely clear every day.

Clean and unclean

Leviticus 11-15 outline the, sort of, everyday uncleanness laws for Israel. Touching dead animals, dealing with diseases, and anything to do with blood or other bodily fluids, including childbirth. These things made a person unclean, but that’s not the same as sin. This was everyday life, and there were prescribed ways to make yourself clean again – typically some combination of time, water, and showing yourself to the priests.

Leviticus 18 takes things a step farther, where some of these acts are not only unclean, but also “perversion” (Lev 18:23) and “abominations” (Lev 18:29).

Leviticus 21 describes the priests, and this is where cleanness and holiness meet. A priest “shall not make himself unclean as a husband among his people and so profane himself. …They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God.” (Lev 21:4-6). This is a standard far above what a common Israelite needs to live up to. Priests may come directly before God. They must be ready.

The holiness of God

Holy is a tricky word to define. I think our sense of it is probably a lot better than the definitions we try to come up with. Hey—maybe that’s why God shows it to us with examples rather than a dictionary! And yet, I’ll give this a shot.

The standard Hebrew definition of holy is “set apart.” And when “holy” is about people (like priests), this works perfectly. Clearly, their holiness is inherently related (pun intended) to them being separated from everyone else. Objects can be holy, especially those set apart for use in the temple or tabernacle.

But when the Bible says that God is holy, if we define that to be that God is “set apart,” that doesn’t quite work. God was first. No one “set” Him apart from us.

Something else is going on here. God is DIFFERENT from us. Not simply better or smarter or older; He is other.

These practices of separating the unclean, I think they teach us to respect God’s separation from us. The whole book of Leviticus does this. (It uses the word “holy” FAR more than any other book of the Bible.) But if you think that dead bodies or childbirth are what make us different from God, you are missing the point.

Even if we observe that we have so little in common with God that we can’t even claim that we both are made of atoms, it’s still making a comparison where one is probably not even justified. It’s not comparing apples to apples or even oranges; it’s comparing apples to algebra. There is no common thread.

And yet, we are made in the image of God. What does that even mean when God is so holy?

So, what is the holiness of God? You’ll just have to read the Bible.