There is holy and then there is Holy!

There is holy and then there is Holy! 

There is holy and then there is Holy!

https://www.bible.com/bible/111/gen.15.niv - God established the Old Testament Covenant with Abraham, Jesus came to die to fulfill it and thus bring Salvation to all who will believe!

Part of the misunderstanding in Islam and Christianity, especially Catholicism, is the understanding of Holy. It comes from the Greek Word "Hagios" (pronounced - Ha-gee-as). First of all, Holiness is the exclusive nature of God. From the same root, the word Saint comes, and it means, "those called to be Holy." When it comes to absolute perfection, that is in the realm of God, so where does Human perfection even begin? Part of it has to do with Sanctification, again coming from the Greek word "Hagios" but Sanctification being called "Hagiosmos" (pronounced - Ha-gee-as-mos - with mos sounding like most, minus the "t"). When something or someone is Sanctified, it or they are set aside for Holy use, or it or they are dedicated to Holy use. In Hebrew times, the temple and everything in it was considered "Holy" because it was set aside to God, and only in the temple, could one sacrifice a clean animal for their "sins", for without sacrifice, there is no forgiveness of sins in Hebrew culture, meaning the Jews have been unable to be cleansed of their sins since the destruction of their temple.

Of course, why does one need to sacrifice an animal in the first place? Part of it is the understanding of Covenant (see Genesis 15:2-7). In Old Testament times, a Covenant may be made between a stronger Nomadic family and a weaker. The policy was that the weaker family, represented by the head of its household, would take various animals, cut them in two (front quarters, back quarters) and make a line of death. The weaker party then walked through the bloodstained centerline, as a symbol to say, "If I or any of my house break this covenant, may we be torn in two as these animals." The other part of the agreement was that the stronger Nomadic family would always be there to protect the weaker as though they were their own blood kin. The word Covenant literally means to "make a cut" and later came to mean "to make a contract", and hence many of the world's first tattoos, made on the wrist, were meant to show "who" you were in covenant with. Let us say you are moving your family and herds through a region, and you see other families, you would "wave" at them, and display the tattoo or cut on your wrist to show who you were in alliance with, so that if a bigger family than your own thought about trying to take possession of anything or anyone in your family, they would realize you had an alliance with a stronger Nomadic family.

A couple of interesting things about the Abraham story, God does give himself a place to "cut" himself, but it is not something he can show off like a fancy Tattoo, for he gives him the sign of circumcision (who says God doesn't have a sense of humor?). Next of all, is that Abraham never walks the "line of death" in the story. He thinks about it, even chases the buzzards off, and finally falls asleep considering it. Then God appears in the form of a smoldering pot of fire, and walks or passes between the sacrifices, thus establishing the covenant with Abraham. But God is still the stronger party, so if He requires anything of Abraham or feels that he has failed in him some way, He can demand for Abraham to honor the "contract." Abraham lies on several occasions about his relationship with Sarah, saying she is his sister and fails God by having a "son" with someone other than Sarah, so it is no surprise after God has promised Abraham Isaac, that once he is a young adolescent man, that God demands Abraham sacrifice his son. God doesn't need to wipe out Abraham and Sarah, for they are old and dying anyway, the only vital part of this Nomadic Family or house is Isaac.

But in the end, we find out God is only testing Abraham and does not require Isaac, to be sacrificed, but instead, a Ram is, hence the tradition of the temple sacrifice, because you see, it doesn't matter if the head of the household dies, as Abraham did, his Family or House must honor the covenant with the "stronger party" for as long as that Family or House exists, and since God is Eternal, the House of Abraham must honor the "covenant" but when they fail in it, or "sin" they now make a sacrifice, which can never really atone for their sins, but rather remind them of God's mercy in that just as God didn't destroy Isaac, so God won't destroy the Children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The sacrifice, in the end, is a mnemonic device meant to remind them of the power and mercy of God.

However, if you remember, the person who walks the line of death is ultimately responsible, and the irony is that God has walked the line of death. 2000 years later after Abraham, Jesus is "torn" in two on a cross, and fulfills the Covenant God made with Abraham, and being "Holy" his sacrifice forgives all "sins" for all times, and in a marriage covenant, the covenant ends once one spouse "dies." So once "God in Jesus" dies, the Covenant with Abraham (the sacrifices of animals stops - the Old Testament or Old Covenant) ends. However, before God in Jesus dies, he establishes a "New Covenant" that does not require animals, but instead, a feast to remind them of the former covenant and his sacrifice, hence communion (the wine representing Jesus' blood and the bread representing his body - which were sacrificed). In the New Covenant, what does God want? What He wanted from the beginning, fellowship with man, conversation with man. When a redeemed sinner is made a saint (called to be holy) but then stumbles in that new covenant walk, what does God now demand? Confession that we have sinned, and repentance (walking away from that old sinful way which we used to walk in), and the New Testament or New Covenant, says that when we die, instead of us being damned, because of God's love in Jesus, we will not die, but inherit the Eternal Life God meant for Adam and Eve before they fell in the Garden.

Of course, the story of the Tree of Life and Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil are metaphorical and spiritual. Would we make Adam and Eve's mistake today? Their mistake was not in going to the "Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil" to become their own god, and hence forget the life-giving God and damn themselves in the process; no their mistake was in partaking of all the good trees in the Garden and sampling them first, instead of going to the Tree of Life first to get Eternal Life. We tell God, "Well I'll get my act together as soon as I have money, fame, fortune, a good marriage, self-fulfillment, etc", and before we know it we have walked away from fellowship with God, and damned ourselves. That is why prayer is important in the daily life of a Christian. One should always start the day in fellowship with God, and before you go to bed, end the day in conversation or fellowship with God. Talk about what you have learned, be willing to listen to the tugging of God's Spirit, in case you are walking in a wrong direction.

Marriages can be Holy in that they can represent the image of God (He made them in his image, male and female), we have children participating in the act of God's procreation, we nurture one another and our children (for how could God ever hate himself or be divided against himself). The Bible, the Church ( the place where you worship) can be Holy in that they are dedicated or set aside to remind you of your Holy relationship you were meant to have with God in the beginning. Ultimately it is God and His people who are Holy, and things such as Bibles or Churches can never be as Holy, although they can be instruments of Holiness. The problem with seeing the Koran and Muslim Temples as Holy is putting them on a higher value than Human life, which they should never be. The problem with Islam and much of Catholicism and Judaism are that they believe Icons or works (acts of righteousness) can make them Holy. Because we are born with "sin" (an inclination to be our own god and desire to know evil (an absence of good), we can never be Holy on our own. Holiness must be brought from God to us in Jesus Christ, and we must grow in that relationship to become what we are not, and ultimately it is not about how good we are, because "Abraham" believed God and it was credited to him as "righteousness" and we know Abraham was far from perfect, and so are we.

The line of death here is key in understanding the covenant. God has Abraham kill the animals and then cut them in two separating hind quarter from front quarters, and blood and guts strew the middle of the line between each half of the now-dead animals. It is the bloody and guts strewn line that that weaker party is supposed to pass between, signifying that if I or any of my descendants in my house break the covenant, may we be torn in two as these animals. Covenant is where the word "contract" comes from meaning literally "to make a cut" - this is a contract that is not to be broken, and if it is, the penalty is explicitly written in front of the very eyes and smelled in the nose and felt in the feet of the one who walks the line of death. This is not something to be easily forgotten.

Now the Covenant lasts for as long as the two houses exist. God since he is eternal, never dies, and so Abraham's house is under this covenant, but when Abraham fails, God provides the Ram to be sacrificed in Isaac's place and thus will set the stage of the later tradition of sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem. In Hebrew Theology, there is no forgiveness of sins without sacrifice. And so the House of Israel, the descendants of Abraham have a covenant to keep, and the sacrifice of a spotless animal is simply a reminder of their imperfection and sin, and so it must be made again and again and again, because yes Abraham and all his decedents fail that follow fail - until Yeshua - Yahweh is Salvation - what we translate "Jesus" in English appears. He is the 2nd Adam, and he brings life, not death, he is spotless, he has no sin. So why does Jesus have to die? What does Yeshua the only begotten of Yahweh have to die? Look back, who walked the line of death? Abraham never did, but Yahweh did sealing the covenant and taking its ultimate penalty upon himself for Abraham and all his descendants' sin - Jesus - Yeshua is torn in two on a tree. Yahweh is salvation dies bringing an end to the House of Yahweh on earth to fulfill the original contract of blood and guts with the penalty of death. So the House of Abraham is finally set free from the Old Covenant or the reason we call the first part of the Bible the Old Testament.

But before Yeshua - Yahweh is salvation - dies on the cross he establishes a New Covenant in a fellowship meal of remembrance. The bread represents the torn body, the wine represents the shed blood, and this New Covenant is one of faith and relationship.

This is why Christian marriages are considered Covenants. The line of death is still there, except instead of dead animals halves and a blood and guts filled line of death, we have an aisle in the Church and witnesses on both sides, as the weaker party, the Bride walks the line of death to begin her commitment to a marriage covenant for as long as they both shall live, but as they finish their vows, the Bride Groom walks the aisle of death beside her in between the witnesses representing Christ love and death for his own bride and his commitment to a New Covenant with her - his Church - the Ecclessia - "the called out ones" as the NT Greek literally translates.

But like the Old Covenant which was a mirror of what was to come in Christ's death, so the marriage is but a mirror of an Eternal Covenant which will not end for either House - in this is the Christian Faith.

Addendum: How did NASA's trip to Mars with the Mariner 9 spacecraft in 1971 lead to the formation of the Shroud Of Turin Research Project? https://haqodeshim.blogspot.com/2020/11/how-did-nasas-trip-to-mars-with-mariner.html