These are my notes from a teaching/sermon I presented at our home church, Freedom Hill KC. Feel free to contact me if you’d like more information about our church.

Holy unto the Lord. Or “unto” something else. Not covering plain old “be holy”. I want to look at the “unto”.

Things that are holy unto the Lord

Exodus 28:36 High priest head band.
Exodus 30:10 High priest sacrifice on Yom Kippur. “kodesh kodashim” (noun)
Leviticus 21:6-8 Priests (kadosh)
Leviticus 27. Every devoted thing (verse 28), most holy (“kodesh kodashim”) to Lord. House. Field. Tithe of the land, trees, and animals.
Numbers 6:8 Nazirite (kadosh)
Leviticus 20:26 We are to be (kadosh, adj). More on what we should do to be holy later (chapter is full of it).
Deuteronomy 7. We as a people are to be (come back to this later).
2 Chronicles 35:3 Levites. Why did I have to go this far to find the Levites? Hmm…
Ezra 8:28 Chief priests. Maybe the vessels too?
Nehemiah 8:9. Ezra brought out the book of the Torah to read to everyone from wood pulpit. That day is holy unto the Lord.

This wasn’t the time that they just found it somewhere in the temple and realized how broken they were, right? Looks like they’ve just finished re-building the wall of Jerusalem. Like a dedication of the walls of Jerusalem. They found out about Sukkot, so they did it. Did this mark a day of turning back to obedience, so that’s why it was holy?

Jeremiah 31:40 Valley of dead bodies. Looks to be after tribulation. Wait, this is unclean! How can this be?? Think about the deeper meaning of holiness here. Compare to “holy” like the temple.

“Plucked up”. Verse 27, 28. Picture of Lord’s building up and tearing down, following our obedience and disobedience (see, most of the OT). The valley of dead bodies, the byproduct of the final destruction. Now all the disobedience and sin is done away with. I, the Lord, am keeping this in the state I want it to be (without disobedience). I’m taking it back, it’s mine. It’s set apart to me.

Ezekiel 48:14 Levites’ / Priests’ firstfruits of land. Zechariah 14:20 Inscribed on bells of horses after tribulation. Maybe the pots too. Zechariah 14:21 Every cooking pot in Jersulem and Judah after tribulation. Will be used to cook sacrifices.

Luke 2:23 Every male the opens the womb.

The picture? Holy unto the Lord = This is something special to me (the Lord).

Things that are holy unto something/someone else

Exodus 30:32 Holy anointing oil. Holy to you. (kodesh, noun)
Exodus 30:36 Incense. “kodesh kodashim” to you.
Exodus 30:37 Incense “holy to you for the Lord”. To you?
Exodus 31:14 Sabbath. Holy to you. (kodesh, noun)
Leviticus 24:9. Weekly bread memorial offering. Most holy (“kodesh kodashim”) unto the priest, not holy unto God.
Leviticus 25:12. Jubilee year. Holy to you. (kodesh, noun)

The picture? Holy unto you = Yall better be careful with these and do it right?

What can we do to be holy unto the Lord?

Deuteronomy 7:1-6 As a nation: Don’t make covenants with nations being cast out. Don’t intermarry with the pagans.
Deuteronomy 14. Eat clean animals

Deuteronomy 26:19. To be a holy people unto Lord, keep his commandments. Remind God you’ve kept them.

Numbers 15:37-40 Tzitzit helps us be. Perhaps tzitzit -> keep commandments -> holy unto Lord.
First time studying I actually found “kadosh” (adjective). Many others up till now = noun form.

Leviticus 19 - 20. Group them together, because it starts and ends with “be holy”. Chapter 21 goes on to talk about priests. Chapter 18 enumerates sexual sins.

Chapter 19: Honor parents. Sabbath. Sacrifices correctly. Don’t glean your field. Stealing. Lying. Stumbling block. Blind justice. Don’t hate brother, DO rebuke him. Don’t mix animals, seed, garments. Wait to eat fruit. Eating blood. Marring corners of beard. Tattoos, possibly for dead, possibly any tattoos. Stand before elderly. Oppressing foreigners. Just weights.
Chapter 20: No Molech. No cursing mom/dad. Sexual sins. The way the nations walked before. Clean/unclean animals.

Divorce, priests, and us

Leviticus 21:6-8 If you’re a priest, don’t marry a divorced woman.
Food for thought: we should be a kingdom of priests. Should we strive to uphold ourselves to standards of priests? I know a guy who does this.
Matthew 19:9. Divorce then remarry = committing adultery (unless there was already adultery).

Marrying someone who did this = you’re committing adultery.

So:

Priests can’t marry a divorced woman, regardless of the reason for divorce.
We men can only marry a divorced woman if her ex-husband committed adultery.

I think it’s fair to reverse husband/wife in today’s society (meaning: a woman can only marry a divorced man if that man’s ex-wife committed adultery).