​Steve Hammer

Steve Hammer

Holiness is celebrated in heaven as one of

those aspects of the divine character that

give ineffable delight. Isaiah saw the

seraphim standing around the throne of God,

and crying one to another, “Holy! Holy! Holy!”

John also had a vision of the worship of

heaven, and says “They rest not day nor

night, saying, Holy! Holy! Holy! Lord God

Almighty” When Isaiah beheld the holiness of

God, he cried out “Woe is me! I am undone. I

am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the

midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine

eyes have seen the King, the Lord of

hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5).

God’s holiness is infinite, and it is no wonder

that a perception of it should thus affect the

prophet.

Finite holiness must forever feel itself awed in

the presence of infinite holiness. Job says, “I

have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear,

but now mine eye seeth Thee: wherefore I

abhor myself, and repent in dust and

ashes” (Job 42:5). There is no comparing

finite with infinite. The time will never come

when creatures can with open face

contemplate the infinite holiness of God,

without being like persons overcome with a

harmony too intensely delightful to be calmly

borne. Heaven seems not able to endure it

without breaking forth into strains of

inexpressible rapture!

Audra Baerga