Sanctification – the other sort.
There is a type of therapy – whether it is good for anything I do not know – where a person says the first thing that comes into their mind in response to a word. Perhaps there is a party game along those lines too?
So when I think of ‘sanctification’, words that spring to mind are: holy, purity, touched by God, made perfect – things like that.
This fits perfectly with my idea of what God is able to do in us. He sanctifies us. He makes us pure, holy, made right with God (who is pure, holy, perfect). I am not saying I have got this right. This is still the ‘first thing that comes to mind’ approach. What I have always thought, without thinking.
So how do I make sense of a scripture that says:
‘But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled;
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:’ (1 Peter 3:14-15).
‘Sanctify the Lord God’?
That seems completely the wrong way around? God is already sanctified, surely? He is holy, pure, perfect, and untouched by evil. (In the sense that he is not evil; our Lord, as we know, has suffered.)
Usually when I come across something that makes no sense in the Bible it is a hint that I may have got something seriously wrong in my understanding. And thinking about this example makes me wonder, how much do I know about what ‘sanctification’ really means?
I feel a tinge of fatigue as I think to myself, this is probably reason enough to get my Strong’s Concordance out and do a good old word study. (I bet there are a LOT of entries for sanctification, sanctify, etc.)
But perhaps I have never paid much attention to what ‘sanctification’ really means? Perhaps I just heard others use the word, and then imposed whatever meaning I took onto it when I came across it in the Bible?
I did something wrong. Because according to my understanding of the word, there is no way I can sanctify God. And he has not the least need that I should do so even if I could.
I may yet get out my Strong’s. But before I do I will share my thoughts on an example from the Bible where it seems to me the above scripture is shown in action. Or rather, sanctification is missing in action – from Moses’ actions, anyway.
‘And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.’ (Leviticus 11:44)
The above ruling is the most severe punishment one could imagine for Moses, whose life’s calling was to accomplish this very thing – the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, in order that they might enter the promised land. And it is not what it seems, and I have much to say about it – but that is for another day. The fact is, God required Moses and Aaron to sanctify him, and in his estimation, they did not. Because they believed him not.
This terrible judgement upon Moses and Aaron followed these actions by Moses:
‘And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.’ (Numbers 20:9-11)
But God had not said to Moses, ‘hit the rock’. He said, ‘speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.’ (Numbers 20:8)
Though on a previous occasion, God had indeed said to ‘smite the rock’, apparently with the same rod, to give water to the congregation – and water came out of the rock, and the people drank, and there was no offense. (Exodus 17:6)
I for one can imagine, being under such intense pressure – the people being crazy with thirst and in an absolute state on both occasions, and knowing as Moses did that to ‘smite the rock’ with the rod can be a God thing – that one might miss the fine print of the instructions, and get the rock thing wrong the second time around?
Again, much to say about it, but God does confirm that that was the issue:
‘And the LORD said unto Moses, Get thee up into this mount Abarim, and see the land which I have given unto the children of Israel. And when thou hast seen it, thou also shalt be gathered unto thy people, as Aaron they brother was gathered. For ye rebelled against my commandment in the desert of Zin, in the strife of the congregation, to sanctify me at the water before their eyes: that is the water of Meribah in Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.’ (Numbers 27:12-14).
So then, what to make of it?
Moses lost his cool. The people were nagging and pressuring him so much, despite that they had seen how God could provide – they had even seen water come from the rock before, not to mention that God parted the Red Sea, and provided manna from heaven for them to eat every day, and other signs and miracles – yet with every problem that arose, they were ‘back to square one’. ‘Why did you bring us into the desert to die of thirst?’
Could be more than a bit frustrating?
Moses lost it, he wasn’t thinking. He should have spoken to the rock – he gave the people a tongue-lashing instead, then lashed out at the rock with Aaron’s rod.
In truth, nothing the people said should have meant anything to Moses. What did it matter? What did they matter?
The God of all things had revealed himself to Moses. God above all things, over all things, all powerful, merciful, just, and ever present.
God had told Moses what to do – speak to the rock. Don’t worry about the people. Stay focused on me, I will provide.
That is what it means to sanctify the Lord.
As the song says, ‘Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace.’
‘Set apart as, or declare holy; consecrate.’
That is what sanctify means. Oxford Dictionary.
‘Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts’.
Know that there is a throne in your heart, and it belongs to the King of Kings. There he rules, if you have yielded your life to him.
The world does not matter. Only he matters. His glory and power are not changed one tiny bit by anything anyone can say, even if (God forbid) they may rage upon us, accuse us falsely, make the most perverse and unjust statements. The will of God shall be done in perfection. Trust in the Lord, wait patiently for him, he shall bring it to pass. ‘Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?’ (Isaiah 2:22).
The place where we hold God in our hearts must be untouchable – sanctified. Untouched by the world. In the light of his countenance, the raging of the world, even if it is us the world rages on, grows strangely dim. When we lose our temper, we have forgotten this.
For one instant Moses – who otherwise ‘endured as seeing him who is invisible’ – turned his eyes from the Holy One, and let the people rule his heart. The throne of God in Moses’ heart was overrun. No longer sanctified.
We should not judge Moses for his lapse. For ‘the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth’ (Numbers 12:3). So I can say for certain, you or I would have lost our temper long before Moses did, and so would any other man.
Why then was he punished? As said, treasures for another day. But I would suggest, should you or I follow Jesus truly, we too shall reach the end of our tether at some point. Perhaps often. I pray it will be seldom, and brief.
We hear a lot about influencers these days. And we inevitably hear many voices and opinions, some by choice and some by chance. But let the great and final influence of God our Lord be in a place of his own within our hearts. Uncontested, set apart, beyond dispute and beyond compare. Sanctified.
wilderness99 