Isaiah 6:1-8
1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because 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.
6 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

Isaiah was a prophet who proclaimed to Judah their sins against God and His coming judgment for those sins. But he also spoke of a time to come beyond the captivity, of judgment on the nations, and of a coming Messiah who would provide for both Jews and Gentiles the ultimate deliverance. The sin of the people was evident, repulsive, and nearly all-consuming. Their God is holy, righteous, and undefiled. His sinless perfection clashed with the evil within them. He was the righteous Judge, perfectly just and right to bring about the consequence of their disobedience. But even in the midst of such a dark time, the thread of redemption was being woven into their story.

Near the beginning of his ministry, Isaiah had a life-changing vision. He saw the Lord and His glory in heaven. He witnessed the angels and heard them cry, “Holy, holy, holy.” And in that moment, Isaiah came undone. In the presence of holiness, his sin was magnified, but so was the graciousness of God. And so from then on, Isaiah would exalt the Holy One of Israel and magnify His splendor to a people who had forsaken Him. His is a vision renewed of the awesome holiness of God, the one who resides above all others in pure righteousness and yet still comes pleading to a rebellious people to offer them forgiveness.

Qadosh is the Holy One, occupying the sacred place of holiness, set apart, consecrated, perfectly just and good, pure, immaculate, complete in moral character, and totally free of any sin or unrighteousness. This is Isaiah’s God, the exclusive God of Israel, the One to be proclaimed as the only God. It is a unique name of God that magnifies this all-important aspect of His character. It is at the heart of who He is and why our sin is such an affront to Him and so unbecoming of His saints. No other gods could accurately be called holy, and so He stands alone.

Isaiah 43:1-15
1 But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.
2 When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
3 For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.
4 Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life.
5 Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west;
6 I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth;
7 Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.
8 Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears.
9 Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and shew us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth.
10 Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.
11 I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.
12 I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God.
13 Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?
14 Thus saith the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships.
15 I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King.

Isaiah 47:4
As for our redeemer, the LORD of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.

Isaiah 48:12-19
12 Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.
13 Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together.
14 All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; which among them hath declared these things? The LORD hath loved him: he will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.
15 I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.
16 Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me.
17 Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.
18 O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:
19 Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me.

Isaiah 54:1-9
1 Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.
2 Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;
3 For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.
4 Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.
5 For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.
6 For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.
7 For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.
8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.
9 For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.

The ultimate goal of the Holy One is to bring about redemption. The Holy One is the Redeemer, and He is the Savior. It is He Himself who must accomplish that work. Only He has the ability and, really, the desire and the will to do it. It was not just the redemption of Israel from their enemies. It wasn’t just a deliverance from the nations who had enslaved and oppressed and overcame their nation. It wasn’t just about freedom from tyranny and war and the grips of a conquering king. But it was about setting Israel (and everyone else) free from the ultimate enemy who goes about seeking our destruction. It was about deliverance from the bondage of sin. It’s victory over the battle of the flesh and the darkness within our hearts. It is true freedom, and it comes about in an almost unthinkable way. The Redeemer, Christ, is sinless and spotless. The Redeemer is innocent. The Redeemer is righteous and uncondemned, completely good and just in all His ways. And yet He’s the one who takes the sin upon Himself. Takes the punishment for it. Dies for it. The One whose blood is shed for it.

Christ was set apart to be the sacrifice for sin. All along, creation had groaned for something to come along and make right what had gone so wrong. It wasn’t the blood of bulls and goats. It wasn’t a ritual or a prayer. It wasn’t a ceremony or an accomplishment. It was Christ that was needed, the Holy One, to be the perfect offering, the only one that could be accepted by a holy God. The only act that could satisfy a holy Judge. The only thing needed to wash away all the guilt and shame of a unholy world.

Leviticus 11:44-45
44 For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
45 For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.

Leviticus 20:22-26
22 Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out.
23 And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.
24 But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from other people.
25 Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean: and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast, or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that creepeth on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean.
26 And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine.

But redemption is not the end of the story. Because now we are to be holy as God is holy, because we are to be like Him. “Holy” can mean set apart for the service and worship of God. So many things in the book of Leviticus, which lays out the work of the priests and the offerings and the feats and the clean and unclean, are called holy, and that is because they are set apart for God’s use, to serve Him, to worship Him, to accomplish His purpose. He severed Israel unto Himself to be a special nation, to belong to Him like a wife to a husband. And likewise, we are to separate ourselves unto Him, to serve Him alone, to be separate from the world, to be like Him. There should be a distinct difference in us. In a way, God’s holiness is what sets Him apart, and as the Holy One, only He can make us holy, and the things He makes holy are meant to be His alone.

1 Peter 1:13-16
13 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.

This holiness is to permeate every aspect of our lives. For the Jews in the Old Testament, it was all-encompassing. The Sabbath was set apart. The feats and the sacrifices. The tabernacle and then the temple. The vessels therein. The animals they could eat and the ones they couldn’t. It was all meant to signify a difference from the nations around them who worshiped false gods and to whom nothing was off-limits. But for God’s people, His standards become ours. His notion of righteousness is ours. His way is ours. So as Peter says, we are to be holy in every aspect of our lives. It’s not about following rules and a dutiful observance of rituals. It’s a life lived on purpose for God’s purpose. With a mind and heart devoted to His cause. With a determined interest in leaving behind all that is old and sinful and unbefitting of those who call themselves Christ’s and instead being conformed to His image. The point of holiness is to be separate from sin. God is separate from sin, and we should strive for that, as well, until we go to be with Him in His holy place where no sin can ever dwell.

Psalm 99:1-9
1 The LORD reigneth; let the people tremble: he sitteth between the cherubims; let the earth be moved.
2 The LORD is great in Zion; and he is high above all the people.
3 Let them praise thy great and terrible name; for it is holy.
4 The king’s strength also loveth judgment; thou dost establish equity, thou executest judgment and righteousness in Jacob.
5 Exalt ye the LORD our God, and worship at his footstool; for he is holy.
6 Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among them that call upon his name; they called upon the LORD, and he answered them.
7 He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar: they kept his testimonies, and the ordinance that he gave them.
8 Thou answeredst them, O LORD our God: thou wast a God that forgavest them, though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions.
9 Exalt the LORD our God, and worship at his holy hill; for the LORD our God is holy.

And then the holiness of God prompts worship and praise. It is a reason to exalt Him and to glorify Him. It is a worthy part of Him that warrants a response from us. It should compel us to bow low, to humble ourselves, to sing a song, to pray a prayer, to offer thanksgiving, to proclaim His name to people around us. We set Him apart as the One above all others. We look to Him alone as our Lord and Savior. We reserve our time, our abilities, our gifts, our lives to the One worthy of them. We acknowledge Him for all that He does, all the ways He blesses, the great things He has done. God personifies holiness, and it is a characteristic that is intrinsic and vital to who He is.

Revelation 4:8
And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

And the praise and recognition of God’s holiness is not something that will ever end. The story comes full circle. The scene that Isaiah witnessed has not stopped playing out. The continual cry is still, “Holy, holy, holy.” The three in one, God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, each is holy. Each is eternal. And thus each is exalted and acknowledge as such for all of eternity. Through Qadosh and our faith in Him, we become His holy ones, saints set apart to eternal life and separated from the ones who will face His wrath and eternal death, which is really eternal separation from Him and His love and goodness.

Through Isaiah’s writings, through the whole of Scripture, we’ve caught the vision for ourselves. Seated on His throne is a holy God, high and lifted up, worthy of all praise and honor and power and blessing. He is merciful and loving enough to forgive our sins, to give us new life, to separate us unto Himself as a special people, adopted into His family, part of His body in the church, and called out for a specific purpose. How will we respond? Is it with a “send me” like Isaiah? Is it with a determination to forsake sin, to forsake our own desires, and to allow ourselves to be vessels set apart for the Master’s use however He would see fit to use us?