S6 Episode #11- Jehovah M'Kaddesh, The Lord who Sanctifies
THE ONE WITH Jes + Jehovah M’Kaddesh
This week Jes is sharing Part 10 of our Names of God series! We are highlighting different names and character attributes of The Lord, and this week we are learning about Jehovah M’Kaddesh– the Lord who sanctifies, who cleanses, and makes us holy and set apart. This episode is airing right after this year’s celebration of Easter, and I can’t think of a better time to dig into the significance behind this name of God. Afterall, Jesus lived a perfectly holy life– set apart for a divine purpose. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is what created a way for us to be seen as holy by a Holy God. The episode also discusses the importance of observing the Sabbath as a way to remain rooted in our identity and create a rhythm of rest and refocus.
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SHOW NOTES
Jehovah M’Kaddesh– the Lord who sanctifies, who makes us holy and set apart.
It’s part 9 of our Names of God series! We are highlighting different names and character attributes of The Lord. Understanding who God is and who we are in Him are vital parts of walking in freedom and remaining rooting in who we are created to be. This week we are learning about Jehovah M’Kaddesh– the Lord who sanctifies, sets apart, purifies, makes holy and sacred.
This episode is airing right after this year’s celebration of Easter, and I can’t think of a better time to dig into the significance behind this name of God. Afterall, Jesus lived a perfectly holy life– set apart for a divine purpose. And the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is what created a way for us to be seen as holy by a Holy God. However, simply believing in the death and resurrection of Jesus is not enough to be saved– even the demons believe that. You must also believe that it counted for you. That you can never be “good enough” or “holy enough” on your own. It is only through the resurrection of Jesus that you are saved. And this doesn’t only mean that we will be able to spend eternity in Heaven when we die, but it also means that we can live in freedom while we are still here on Earth.
Pastor Joby Martin said it so perfectly in his Easter message last Sunday. He explained, “Since He (Jesus) came out of the grave, so can we!” Jesus’ final word on the cross was “tetelestai”, meaning “It is finished.” His work on the cross was finished– Meaning, He conquered death, He made a way for us to be holy before God, He fulfilled the laws and the prophecies from the Old Testament. What Christ did on the cross was enough to cover anything that you could ever do in this life. You are never too far gone! What Christ did on the cross was enough. Period. You can be clean, redeemed and restored through the work of Jesus– and that is the Good News of the Gospel! Even if you’ve heard it 10,000 times, let the power of that truth be fresh in your heart once again. Please don’t become numb to the miracle that your salvation truly is!
And if this is your first time hearing this Good News, or this is the first time that it’s hitting you in a new way, then you can surrender your life to Jesus right now! All you need to do is say:
“Jesus, I know I can never measure up on my own, I need you. I believe that you died for me. You took the punishment that I deserved, so that I could live in freedom from sin, shame, and fear. Please come into my life and teach me a new way to live. Amen.”
If you prayed something along those lines, or if you have more questions, please reach out to me at jes@collecteministries.org. I’d LOVE to talk more!
As we rewind the clock and dive back into the story of the Isrealites in Exodus 31, I want you to keep Jesus in the back of your mind. See what connections you can draw between God as Jehovah M’Kaddesh in the Old Testament and the sanctifying work of Jesus in the New Testament.
The first time that we see the name of Jehovah M’Kaddesh used in the Bible is in Exodus 31:12-18…
“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy.
“‘Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it is to be put to death; those who do any work on that day must be cut off from their people. For six days work is to be done, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day is to be put to death. The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant. It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’”
When the Lord finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the covenant law, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.”
We see the name of Jehovah M’Kaddesh– “I am the LORD who makes you holy”– in the first two verses that I read. However, I wanted to keep reading, because I thought it was very interesting that God reveals this name to Moses after Moses has already been on the mountaintop with The Lord for 40 days, and the final instruction that God gives Moses is about keeping the Sabbath set apart and holy.
After 40 days of receiving 613 laws, the grand finale is the revelation that it is only The LORD God, Jehovah M’Kaddesh, who can sanctify us and make us holy. The Lord knew it would be impossible for us to uphold our end of the covenant. He knew that there was no way we could possibly uphold all 613 laws in our own strength. On my best day, I can’t even follow the Big 10 (Commandments) perfectly.
From the very moment that sin entered the world, God had a plan for our redemption– for our sanctification. Out of His great love, He was not going to leave the pursuit of holiness in our own hands, because all would fall short. Instead, He allowed for the blood of a spotless animal to be shed in our place. Throughout the Old Testament, we see over and over again the use of blood sacrifice to take the place of the people, protect them from the wrath of God, and make them right with God when they fall short.
In Leviticus 16, God established a yearly Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), in which the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies and make a sacrifice to atone for the sins of the priests and the people over the past year. I’m greatly oversimplifying this practice for the sake of time, but if you’d like to learn more about the Day of Atonement, check out the resource that I’ve linked in the show notes on the blog: HERE
When Jesus took his last breath on the cross, the curtain to the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle was ripped in half, signifying that all people could now have free access to the presence of God. The final and ultimate sacrifice had been paid. Jesus atoned for the sins of humanity– past, present and future.
SABBATH
While this is the first time in the Bible that we see this name of God, it is not the first time that the issue of holiness has come up. Back in Genesis 2:3 we see God declare something as holy for the first time. Genesis 2 begins…
“Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”
God set the seventh day apart– it was to be treated differently than all of the other days. It was to be holy. Now in Exodus 31, God is once again instructing His people to honor the Sabbath and keep it set apart as holy. I think that there are a few reasons why the Sabbath was so vital for the Isrealites, and still for us today: First, It keeps up rooted in our identity. Second, it creates a natural rhythm of rest and refocus. Let’s break down each of these…
1. It keeps up rooted in our IDENTITY.
In her book Lord, I Want to Know You, Kay Arthur explains, “The constant observance of the Sabbath week in and week out, was to remind the children of Israel that they were ‘A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people set apart for God’s own possession’ (1 Peter 2:9).”
It was so easy for the Israelites to forget who they were called to be and WHO they belonged to. In the very next chapter of Exodus (chapter 32), we see that the people had grown weary of waiting for Moses to return, so they took matters into their own hands and built a golden calf to worship. Have you ever grown weary of waiting and taken things into your own hands? I know I sure have!
The spiritual fight over identity was just as intense for the Isrealites in the Ancient Near East as it is for us today. We must let the truth of God’s Word inform our identity, not the world, modern culture, politics, or social media.
2. It creates a natural rhythm of rest and refocus.
I think there is also such beauty and grace in the instruction to honor the Sabbath and keep it set apart. In knowing that we can never be holy on our own, God built in one day each week to pause, rest, and remember who He is. This is a whole day devoted to resting in the peace and presence of God, a whole day to stop working and striving and just be. If our Holy, Sovereign, All-Mighty God did this on the 7th day of Creation, then how much more do our souls need this to be refreshed and revived. Your Creator knew that the deepest longings of your soul could only be fulfilled through time resting in His Presence. How good of him to build it into the natural rhythm of life for His people?!
We are no longer under the strict laws for observing the Sabbath, however the principles still ring true today. Your soul will quickly grow weary if you are not taking time to stay connected to The One who is your Hope, Peace, Protector, Provider, Source of Victory, and Sanctifier. We must stay connected to The Father, because while Christ’s work on the cross is finished, His work within us is not finished. As believers, our sanctification starts at salvation, but it will finally be made complete at glorification.
MOUNT SINAI
No lesson of mine would be complete without a look at geography– so let’s talk about Mount Sinai!! Historians believe that Mt. Sinai was also known as Mt. Horeb, and many significant moments in the Old Testament took place at this spot. In our passage today from Exodus 31, we see Moses receiving the laws and meeting with God on Mt. Sinai. This is also the spot where God first revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush in Exodus 3. Then, later, in 1 Kings 19, this is also the place where the Lord speaks to Elijah in a gentle whisper. It is a place where God revealed himself to His people and communicated with them in a very powerful way!
There are incredible parallels between Moses and the burning bush in Exodus 3 and Elijah and the gentle whisper in 1 Kings 19. Moses and Elijah were both running from someone trying to kill them. They had both fled to the wilderness in fear of their lives, and they both ended up having a divine encounter with The LORD, in which The LORD told them both to “go back” to the place from which they had been running. God was not done with them– in fact He still had more in store for them then they could have ever imagined!
And now it all comes back to Jesus– Fast forward to the New Testament and in Matthew 16:21 we see that Jesus starts to predict his death. The weight of his purpose must have been heavy on his heart. It is around this time that Jesus took Peter, James and John up to a “high mountaintop to be alone”. We read in Matthew 17 and Luke 9, that while on this mountaintop, Moses and Elijah appear to Jesus! The two men who faced imminent death, fled to a mountaintop, received a direct revelation from God, were told to “go back” and finish the work God had begun in them, and were ultimately used for the saving of many lives and the changing of history. How much more was this the story of Jesus?!
Jesus was facing imminent death and his next step was to go back down the mountain and finish the work that The Father had set in motion the moment that humanity first sinned– to be used for the saving of many lives and changing the entire course of human history!
Moses and Elijah escaped death from the people they were running from, but Jesus faced it head on and in doing so, He conquered death once and for all!!
Praise The LORD!!
FINAL THOUGHTS
As we wrap up today, I have to leave you with a few verses to remind you of the hope we have in Christ– you are holy and dearly loved!
Hebrews 10:10-14 reminds us that we are sanctified by the death of Jesus– He was the ultimate sacrifice once and for all!
“By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. And every priest stands daily ministering and offering time and time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting for that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for his feet. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.”
John 17:15-19 tells us that we are made holy by the truth of The Word of God.
“My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.”
And finally, I want 1 Thessalonians 5:23 to be my closing prayer over you:
“Now may the God peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming for our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Amen!
NEXT STEPS
Here are a few action steps to help you dip deeper this week!
Reflect on the concept of Sabbath and its importance in keeping us rooted in our identity and creating a rhythm of rest and refocus. Set aside a specific time each week that you will practice Sabbath.
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