Revealed Week Six // Holy // There is Nothing Like Him
Last week we began looking at God’s holy nature with the meaning of holy. It means to be separate and distinct. This week, I want to go one step further with what separation means. God is not only separate and distinct, there is nothing like him.
Our daily lives are filled with separations and distinctions. We keep apples separate from bananas, high school students separate from middle school students, and north-bound traffic separate from south-bound traffic. Even doctors’ offices have separate waiting rooms for the sick and the healthy. However, among these distinctions there are still commonalities within each group. Bananas and apples are both fruit, students are students regardless of their grade level, and both directions of traffic have moving vehicles with people in them. So, our working knowledge and understanding of separation is a little soft. It is normal for us to see things separated, but not in a complete, holy kind of way.
These everyday examples are very different from the separation involved with holiness. There is nothing common about holy. When God declares himself as holy, he’s saying there is no commonality between me and other things. God is not just another compartment organized with all the other compartments in our lives—he is holding us together (Colossians 1:17). He’s not just another god separated from the rest of the religion “fruit” bowl—he is I Am (Exodus 3:14). He’s not just the best of the best—there is nothing like him (1 Samuel 2:2). He is perfect and complete. There is no comparison.
Friends, the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ offers a hope that is unparalleled from anything this world holds. There is nothing like him.
This week, as you read the following daily scriptures, consider how our holy God defines what it means to be holy—separate, complete, perfect. And, how completely different he and his ways are from our common understanding.
Daily Scripture
Day One
1 Samuel 2:1-2
“And Hannah prayed and said, “My heart exults in the Lord; my horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation. “There is none holy like the Lord: for there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.
2 Samuel 7:20 – 23 / 1 Chronicles 17:18-21
And what more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O Lord God! Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness, to make your servant know it. Therefore you are great, O Lord God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things…
Day Two
Psalm 18:30-32
This God—his way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. For who is God, but the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God?—the God who equipped me with strength and made my way blameless.
Psalm 19:7-11
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
Day Three
Psalm 77:11-14
I will remember the deeds of the Lord;
yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
I will ponder all your work,
and meditate on your mighty deeds.
Your way, O God, is holy.
What god is great like our God?
You are the God who works wonders;
you have made known your might among the peoples.
Psalm 86:8-10
There is none like you among the gods, O Lord,
nor are there any works like yours.
All the nations you have made shall come
and worship before you, O Lord,
and shall glorify your name.
For you are great and do wondrous things;
you alone are God.
Psalm 113:4-6
The Lord is high above all nations,
and his glory above the heavens!
Who is like the Lord our God,
who is seated on high,
who looks far down
on the heavens and the earth?
Day Four
Jeremiah 10:5-7
Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak;
they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good.” There is none like you, O Lord; you are great, and your name is great in might. Who would not fear you, O King of the nations? For this is your due; for among all the wise ones of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is none like you.
Psalm 115:4-8
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.
Day Five
Isaiah 46:8-11
“Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me,declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country.
I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.
Isaiah 55:6-11
“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Day Six
Matthew 5:43-38
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Romans 12:1-2
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
©Adrienne Scott 2018
Acknowledgements: Beth Stafford
Brave Sparrow 