One of the most difficult things to grasp is the idea or concept of holiness and a holy God. Too often, we associate the words ‘holy’ or ‘holiness’ with something or someone who is distant or remote. Some, like me, may have grown up in a faith or religion that promotes a God so holy that He is unattainable, unreachable, untouchable. Without full understanding of early passages in Scripture, we can find that perceived distance is difficult to move past. Take for example Moses. God chose Moses to deliver His people from slavery. In chapter 33 of the book of Exodus, Moses speaks to God, “Then show me your glorious presence.” Moses has been in such close contact and communication with God that he desires to see Him in His glory. God responds by saying that He will make His goodness pass before Moses and proclaim His name, but then He tells Moses this: “You cannot see My face, for no man can see me and live!” Imagine for a moment being told that. The God whom you serve cannot be seen by you, or you will die. In 2 Samuel chapter six, King David instructs the priests to bring the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem. The Ark was where God’s presence resided. It was holy. Hundreds of years earlier, God had instructed how the Ark was to be moved: With poles inserted through rings and carried on the shoulders of priests. The priests who were moving the Ark failed to move it in the manner instructed. Instead, they placed the Ark on a cart, pulled by oxen. During the move, the Ark began to fall and Uzzah reached out to stabilize it. This was against God’s instructions, for no one was to touch the Ark. What a costly mistake as Uzzah was struck down by God and died. Unseeable. Untouchable. Holy. Moses asked to see God’s glory. In chapter 14 of John’s gospel, Philip makes a similar request of Jesus and asks Him to “show us the Father”, to which Jesus replies “He who has seen Me, has seen the Father.” Uzzah died because he touched the Ark of the Covenant, the very presence of God. We read in chapter nine of Matthew’s gospel the account of a woman who had been hemorrhaging for 12 years. She had spent her resources seeking healing, and in desperation and in faith, believed that if she could touch just the hem of Jesus’ garment, she would be healed. She touched Jesus and instead of death, she received life. (Mathew 9:20-22) In Mark’s gospel, we see a blind man being brought to Jesus, God made flesh, and Jesus spits on his eyes, lays hands on him, and brings him sight (Mark 8:22-25). This man doesn’t touch Jesus, but is touched by Jesus, and now he sees because Jesus, God in the flesh touched him. The Pharisees and religious leaders could not see Jesus for who He was, because they had been blinded by religion. They rejected the concept of how a Holy God could simply walk amongst them, touching, healing, loving and restoring people. Many of us today still cannot see God for who He truly is as we are blinded by religion or bound up in wrong thinking. Yes, God is holy. God is infinite and we are finite beings. This side of heaven His holiness is beyond our full comprehension. But we have Jesus! Jesus walked this Earth as fully God and fully man to reveal to us the full nature of God; a holiness that not only can be seen and touched, but one that sees us and touches us. God became flesh because He desired to be with us and have us be with Him. Much as the woman with the bleeding in the story in Matthew, some of us may have been suffering with pain or a need for years and years. Like her, we need to come to the end of ourselves and find the boldness and faith to reach out and simply grab hold of Jesus. He will not reject you. Or perhaps as with the Pharisees, our flesh and our past have blinded us such that we cannot see Jesus for who He is. If that is you, let God touch you to help you see Him clearly in His fulness and His holiness. No matter where you find yourself, know for certain that God not only sees you, but He desires for you to see Him.
Those who read the Bible (and even those who don’t) are familiar with the names of the more prominent people found in Scripture. Most people are familiar with Adam & Eve, Noah, Joseph and his coat of many colors. We know of King David along with Mary & Joseph, Peter, John the Baptist and the Apostle Paul. And while each of those mentioned play significant roles in the Bible and in history, there are others whose names hardly recognized and yet play critical roles in God’s plan for Israel, the Church and His Kingdom. Take for example Barnabas. The name ‘Barnabas’ is not a common name and when you do a name search on the internet, very little comes up. Readers of the Bible likely associate Barnabas as a man who was a companion to the Apostle Paul but may know little more about him beyond that one fact. In actuality, Barnabas was a hero of the Bible and was instrumental in the start of the New Testament Church. But the key thing to know about Barnabas is the meaning of his name: Son of exhortation or encouragement . Most of us know the story of Paul, and how he persecuted the Church (Acts 8). We know also that Paul experienced a life-changing encounter with Jesus, for he no longer persecuted the Church. Instead, he began to preach the gospel wherever he could, at first in the synagogue to other Jews. Initially many Jews, including the disciples, remained afraid of Paul because of his past persecution of followers of Jesus. This is where Barnabas steps into view. Barnabas’ true name was Joseph, but the apostles called him Barnabas due to his encouraging nature (Acts 4:36). Barnabas hears Paul preach in the synagogue in Damascus after his conversion and personally vouches for him before the apostles (Acts 9:27). This personal validation launches Paul into his ministry, but not all goes well for Paul as he creates an uproar among the people and receives death threats. This is disruptive to the work of building the Church so eventually the apostles pull Paul out of ministry and send him away to his home in Tarsus, for nearly 14 years (Acts 9:29-30). How significant was this? Just read verse 31, after Paul is sent away: “So the Church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace…and continued to increase.” (Acts 9:31). So once Paul was sent away, peace reigned in the Church, and it began to grow. Imagine what that did to Paul and his reputation amongst the apostles and Church leaders. But what does all this have to do with Barnabas? Remember his name: Son of exhortation and encouragement. By chapter 11 of Acts, we see that despite persecution, the Church continues to grow, notably in Antioch. When the apostles hear of this growth, who do they send? Barnabas the encourager, of course! (Acts 11:19-22). And what does Barnabas do? He goes to Tarsus to search for Paul. He brings Paul to Antioch to teach these new believers, where they stayed for a year, teaching a multitude of people. It was there that the disciples were first called Christians (Acts11:26). This was the beginning of the Gentile Church! Paul would travel far and wide, preaching the gospel, planting churches and writing the majority of the New Testament, but were it not for Barnabas risking his reputation by taking a second chance on Paul, Paul might never have left Tarsus. True to his nature, Barnabas doesn’t focus only on Paul. Barnabas had a younger cousin named John-Mark whom he brought along on their early missionary journeys (Acts 12:25). Later we read that John-Mark left them, much to the displeasure of Paul. This creates a split between Paul and Barnabas, but true to his name, Barnabas retrieves John-Mark and brings his cousin on his own journey to Cypress (Acts 15:36-39). While we read that Paul later sees a more mature John-Mark and requests him to accompany him (2 Tim 4:11), it was Barnabas who believed in and restored John-Mark. And it is this John-Mark, known also as Mark, who eventually writes the first gospel, the Gospel of Mark. So, what is our take-away here? It is that at some point we all need a Barnabas in our life. Someone willing to take a risk on us, to vouch for us, to come find us when others have given up on us. Or perhaps we need to become a Barnabas ourselves: One who reaches out to encourage and exhort others. One who sees in others what only God sees at first: A life worth taking a risk on. So, while many of us wish we were a David or a Paul, or maybe even a Peter, imagine what the Church would look like and what influence we would have on the world if we tried to be more like Barnabas?
Throughout Scripture, we see where God reveals new identities to His people. One of the most powerful identity changes occurs early in the Old Testament, in the book of Ruth. In the book of Ruth, we read of a woman who fully surrenders to the Lord as she chooses to turn from her culture to follow God and in doing so, she adopted her new identity. In the first chapter of the book of Ruth, we are introduced to a handful of characters, none more important than Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth. Naomi, a Jew, is living in Moab, a place that God has declared as being off limits to Israelites. While there, tragedy strikes Naomi through the loss of her husband Elimelech, and her two sons, Mahlon & Chilion. This leaves Naomi, Ruth and Orpah, Naomi’s other daughter-in-law, as widows. Naomi declares her intention to return to the land of Israel, and Ruth insists that she go with her. Naomi tries to discourage Ruth from coming with her on the dangerous journey, but Ruth is determined to remain with Naomi and makes a most incredible declaration: “Where you will go, I will go and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.” WOW! Ruth makes a declaration of conversion. She converts from a life of paganism to one of Judaism. To fully appreciate what transpired, one must understand the true paganistic culture of Moab and Moabites. Making Ruth’s conversion more incredible is her paganistic culture is all that Ruth had ever known since birth. She likely has heard of Israel and of their ways, but given the disdain that Israel held towards Moab, she would have felt their disgust. In addition, Ruth declares her separation not just from a paganistic lifestyle, but also from her very own people and family by stating that Naomi’s people (Israelites) would now be her people. Ruth has determined that she will no longer be part of the Moabite culture and no longer be part of her family. She belongs now to Naomi and her people. The most amazing declaration is when Ruth declares that Naomi’s God, the God of heaven, the One true God, will now be her God. Ruth had to be willing to walk away from all that she knew, to be positioned to receive something entirely new. This is an amazing conversion: A conversion of life, of culture, of family and of great faith. I recall that when I surrendered my life to Jesus, I too had to make some declarations. From the age of 19 to 26 years old, “my people” used and abused drugs and alcohol. I lived in addiction. This was my culture and those were “my people” and like Ruth, the things we did were part of our custom and our ways - it was all that I knew as a young adult. Just as Ruth declared that God would be her God and that the ways of God’s people would now be her ways, I too had to declare those same things. I would now follow Jesus, not my people. His ways would now be my ways. I had to make a conversion of my lifestyle, my culture, my family and my faith. I did not know it then, but my destiny awaited me in the new identity that God had for me ! Perhaps your story is like mine, or like Ruth’s story. Perhaps you have been in a culture and lifestyle that was not or is not Jesus centered. Ruth could not remain in Moab and still be part of Naomi’s people. She could not remain in Moab and have the God of Israel be her God as the culture would drown out God’s truth. When we choose to follow Jesus and be baptized as a public declaration of our faith and obedience to Him, we will have to say ‘no’ to some things of the past. I had to leave the culture of my past as my old friends did not support my new life. I had to remain committed even when I was questioned by family members about my new life and faith. Though they did not understand my conversion and, in some cases, refused to receive it, I remained determined to keep walking forward in faith. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that we have become new creations in Jesus. It is nearly impossible to become new when you choose to remain part of the old. The old wants to grip you; it wants to keep you from being new. The familiar voices of the old want to convince you that you don’t have to walk away entirely- that you can walk with one foot in the old while keeping one in the new. That is a lie! Ruth could not have received all that God had for her had she remained in Moab, or had she kept part of her paganistic background- she had to walk away from it all. Was it hard? From my personal experience, I know that it was hard. But through her declaration of faith and her perseverance to come underneath God’s wings, she became someone new. She was no longer a poor widow known as “Ruth, the Moabitess”. She married a great man and became the great-grandmother of King David and is named in the lineage of Jesus (Matthew 1:5). A new identity indeed! What lure is pulling you back into the past? What of your old identity seeks to keep you from the new things God has for you? I encourage you, make the declaration that Ruth made and then start the journey out of old and into the new. Your destiny awaits you there.