Title: Called To Belong / Topic: Holiness

Today’s Reading: Leviticus 20; Leviticus 21; Leviticus 22; Acts 20

Scripture: Leviticus 20:26 You are to be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.

Observation: In all the requirements that God gives to the nation of Israel, he comes again and again to the statement which is the first part above: "Be holy because I am holy." This sentiment is repeated many times throughout these chapters. But the next phrase is what caught my eye. The Lord says that the Israelites have been set apart as the Lord's unique possession, they are his own.

Application: There is a preciousness to this that touches me. The Lord is appealing to his people saying, "I want you to me like me, holy. I have picked you, and only you, to belong to me." I hear his voice of love and his desire to share the goodness of who he is with his own special people in an exclusive and intimate relationship. "Holy" means "set apart" and the Lord is saying that he has picked his people to be "set apart" for a unique and privileged relationship -- a relationship with special access and blessings and benefits. But to participate in this exclusive relationship, his people have to set themselves apart from everyone else. God is calling his people to limit themselves in various areas of behavior -- to voluntarily separate themselves from the general population -- in order to maintain themselves as belonging to God.

Bottom line: God's call to his people to be holy is for the purpose of intimacy. God want people with whom he can be close. And for that to happen, those people must embrace him and his nature -- shunning the corrupting practices of the fallen culture in which they live -- and identify with God as the one they want to be like. They are holy -- set apart to God -- in the same way that God is holy -- setting himself apart for his own people. There is no higher calling.

Prayer: Lord, thank you that you desire a people to call your own with whom you desire to share your nature. Lord, help me to follow you closely and to be an influencer of all who call on your name.
This I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.