Established

Deuteronomy 28:9 The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways.

Prior to this verse there are multiple passages about keeping a holy convocation (gathering of people) on the seventh day.  God wanted to establish that in order to be in his presence, holiness was required…not an option…but required.

Keeping God’s commandments has always been a requirement of a relationship with God.

However, as we all know, we’re not good at keeping them.  We sin.  We turn away from his holiness,  we mess up, we become unclean in attitude and deed.  But God has always been about establishing us in holiness.

Why?

So that we can be with him and experience all that He is.

God cannot change who he is, he is the same always.  However, he requires change in us, and that’s done by the work of His Spirit, through the blood of his son, who came to be the holy one, so that we could then be holy…as he is holy.

It’s always been a requirement and it always will be.  Nothing unholy or impure can stand in his presence.

And that’s a safe place to be.