365 Days of the Great Names of God, Day 14: Holy One

Holy One

"'To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?' says the Holy One." (Isaiah 40:25 NIV)

I read this Scripture, and it strikes me that if anyone other than God said these words, I'd think, "Well, aren't you cocky?"

But coming from the mouth of the Lord, it fills me with confidence. I need God to be incomparable. I want Him to be unequaled.

To be holy is to be "set apart." In the Old Testament, for example, "holy" oil was oil that was dedicated for sacred use. The oil itself was ordinary oil used in other ways, but the portion of it that was set aside and reserved for sacred purposes was holy.

But God the Holy One is not set apart for something so much as He is set apart FROM everything. Set apart from sin. Set apart from weakness. Set apart from the ordinary. Set apart in perfection. Set apart in power. Set apart in majesty. I like to look at the holiness of God as the "otherness" of God.

Yet here is another example of the totality of God and His passionate commitment to relationship: the Holy One Who is set apart also comes near to us. He came to us in the person of Emmanuel. He entered—and enters—our world. 

This really is too much for my mind to grasp, which is where I have to take hold with fingers of faith: the Holy One who is set apart sets His love on us and calls us to Himself.