Holy also refers to something or someone that has been separated from the common or set aside for God’s use. Since it is for the Lord, it has to be holy just as God is Holy lest it is rejected. God set apart the Israelites and they were holy to God. When God told Israel to be holy in Leviticus 11 and 19, He was instructing them to be distinct from the other nations by giving them specific regulations to govern their lives. Israel is God’s chosen nation and God has set them apart from all other people groups. They are His special people, and consequently, they were given standards that God wanted them to live by so the world would know they belonged to Him.
When Peter repeats the Lord’s words in I Peter 1:16, he is talking specifically to believers. “Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.” As believers, we need to be "set apart" from the world unto the Lord. We need to be living by God’s standards, not that of the world. God isn’t calling us to be perfect but to be distinct from the world. Further, I Peter 2:9 describes believers as "a holy nation." “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:” It is a fact! We are separated from the world; we need to live out that reality in our day-to-day lives, which Peter tells us how to do in I Peter 1:13-16 “ Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: 15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.”
All the articles dedicated to the Lord were kept in the Temple of the Lord are Holy. When Belshazzar profaned them, He was guilty of sacrilege. Belshazzar was the last king of ancient Babylon and is mentioned in Daniel 5. Twenty years after Nebuchadnezzar’s death, his grandson Belshazzar “praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone” (Daniel 5:4). One fateful night in 539 BC, the king demanded all the gold and silver cups and vessels plundered from the Jewish temple be brought to the royal banquet hall. They filled the vessels with wine and drank from them, praising their false gods. The use of the articles from the Jewish temple was blasphemy.
As the drunken king revelled, God sent him a sign: a human hand appeared, floating near the lampstand and writing four words on the plaster of the wall: “MENE MENE TEKEL PARSIN.” Daniel 5:5 “In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.” Daniel interpreted the words on the wall. Mene means “God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end.” Tekel means “you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting.” Parsin means “your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” The same night Belshazzar was killed. And Darius took over the kingdom.
Dr Ashwin Drummond
Laddertoheaven.co.in