Pure

The third aspect of holiness we need to grasp is his utter purity. God’s holiness means that his character can’t be compromised. What was Isaiah’s reaction when he saw the throne of God? Fear and trembling. Why? Because he was a man of unclean lips and lived among a people of unclean lips. He could see the he was way out of place in this scene as a human being, because he was impure. Our lack of purity – our deceit and our lust, our envy and our greed, the blood on our hands and the dishonour on our mouths – more than anything keep us distant from God. In fact, they mean that if we encountered God directly we would be unable to stand it: it would mean our end. That’s why Isaiah is so scared: for he knows that he is in the presence of utter purity as an impure man, and that God’s purity will completely overwhelm him. His self-esteem wasn’t enhanced by the honour of having this vision. One of the other prophets, Habakkuk, wrote about God that:
Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. (Habakkuk 1:13a)
Power station.

Who could stand in front of such a God? We often complain about God’s invisibility. We say to God: show yourself! Stop hiding and come out into the open! But we don’t realise what we are asking! We are lucky that he conceals himself; whenever anyone has a direct encounter with God in the Bible it pretty much kills them. God’s holiness means that he is determined to destroy that which is not holy: which is why Isaiah had good reason to be very afraid. Like all of us, he has the stains of unholiness all over him. But in destroying that which is unholy, God is acting against the things which threaten our life together with him.