The key word in the lesson this week is “holy.” This is not a word used much in our culture. You might challenge your Bible study group to define the word. Ask them what holiness looks like. Ask them why it is important and what use it has in the kingdom of God.
In many ways, “holy” is a counter-cultural word. To be holy means to be “set apart” or, as the title of our lesson suggests, to be different.
This is not just being different for the sake of being different, however. This is not the rebellion of a teenager against the parent’s way of life. The difference that holiness brings to a person’s life has a two-fold purpose. The first purpose is to the individual themselves. Through willful and intentional action, a person may “learn to revere the Lord your God always” (Deuteronomy 14:23). The second purpose is the purpose of witness in the world. By acting differently, a person is marked as the Lord’s “treasured possession” (Deuteronomy 14:2).
In our passage this week, God gives to the people of Israel a number of rules and commands. At the heart of these commands is the issue of holiness. These commands will set Israel apart from the other nations. Obedience to these commands will mark them as different. The surrounding nations, the visiting foreigners, and all who hear reports about them will recognize a difference in them, and when they ask “why?” they will discover the answer has to do with God.
In the first two verses of chapter 14, the command God gives is about the response to death. Many cultures revere the dead, even today. Some seek the blessing of their ancestors. Others seek to communicate with the dead in some way. God commands Israel to act differently than the cultures surrounding them. They are not to mark themselves for the dead, because God already has marked them out as his possession.
As Christians, how should our response to death set us apart in our culture? The hope we possess is unique in the world. We do not believe in reincarnation, and our expectations for the future are greater than simply going to paradise when we die.
Our hope is a hope of resurrection and complete redemption. The source of our hope is the only one who has been so raised, the first fruit of God’s ultimate redemption: Jesus our Lord.
In a society that seeks to delay and deny mortality, how do our views about death set us apart? In thinking about death and our own mortality, how may we learn to revere God? How can we be a witness in the world?
Verses 3 to 21 of chapter 14 detail the commands of God regarding the people’s diet. There are certain animals they may eat and other animals that they should not. These rules often seem arbitrary and senseless to us, yet there is no doubt they effectively set the people of Israel apart from the other nations.
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As Christians and as those for whom all foods have been declared “clean” (Acts 10:15; Romans 14:14), what we consume still is a matter of holiness. Whether we are consuming food, media, music or clothing, we should strive to do so in a manner that helps us revere and glorify God.
Can you think of examples where choices by Christians about what they consume in the world has set them apart from the prevailing cultures? Can you think of negative examples where Christian choices about consumption has hurt their witness in the world?
There always is the danger of slipping into legalism with our decisions about what we should and should not consume; but at the same time, if we are not holy and set apart in the world, then what are we? “If the salt loses its saltiness … it is no longer good for anything” (Matthew 5:13). How do your choices about consumption set you apart in the world?
Deuteronomy 14:22-23 and 15:7-11 allow us to view our possessions through the lens of holiness. More particularly, these verses cause us to think about how we use our money. The command in Deuteronomy 14:22 is for a person to offer one tenth of their produce to the Lord. The commands in Deuteronomy 15 instruct God’s people to be generous with their wealth for the sake of others.
In both cases, we are asked to look beyond ourselves. Life is not simply about me and my conveniences. In God, I am part of something much larger and much richer, and I recognize that all I have, all I possess, as a gift from him. I am not king over my own domain. I am a steward in God’s service. I must hold loosely to this stuff we call money, because it is not mine. God will one day hold me accountable for how I gain it and how I use it, and both my gaining and using should set me apart as a steward of the King. Do you honor God with your wealth? Does your list of monthly expenditures mark you as a Christ-follower?
We are the people of God if we have responded in faith to the amazing grace of God revealed in Jesus. As such, we should be holy. Can others see Christ making a difference in you?
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