BE YE HOLY

Three months after Israel left Egypt, they arrived at the base of Mt. Sinai and set up camp. Moses climbed that rugged mountain to commune with the Lord and God called to him: “I am going to come to you in the form of a dark cloud, so that the people themselves can hear me when I talk to you. Then they will always believe you. Go down and get the people ready for my visit—sanctify them.”

On the morning of the third day there was an awesome thunder and lightning storm, and a huge cloud came down upon the mountain. Mt. Sinai was completely covered with smoke because Jehovah descended upon it in the form of fire. The whole mountain shook with a violent earthquake and as the trumpet blast grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God spoke his reply with a forceful voice (see Exodus 19:9-19).

God thundered to Moses and his chosen people: "Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation..." (Exodus 19:6).

An earthshaking prophecy recorded in Hebrews is about to be revealed at this time. God has promised to speak once more—just as he did at Mt. Sinai.

"Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven" (Hebrews 12:26).

"See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven" (Hebrews 12:25).

Once again God is speaking from heaven with the same message that he spoke in Moses' day. Our God is even now thundering this awesome command. "Be ye holy—even as I am holy" (1 Peter 1:16).

How do we stay holy in this wicked age? Who can keep himself from being contaminated by it all? No one—in his own strength, that is. Only God has the power to keep us holy—to present us to himself a holy people without spot or wrinkle.

The God who gives us his holiness has the power to keep us in it! The safest place on earth is at the foot of the cross, humbled before God’s throne. The more wicked the times, the more we need to stay yielded to him!