I am the LORD your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy … for I am the LORD who brings you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” (Leviticus. 11:44-45)  

God is always there,  the Psalmist wrote (Psalms 139:8-12, Complete Jewish Bible), If I climb up to heaven, you are there; if I lie down in Sh’ol (hell), you are there, if I fly away with the wings of the dawn and land beyond the sea, even there you hand would lead me, your right hand would hold me fast, If I say, “Let darkness surround me, let the light around me be night” even darkness like this is not too dark for you; rather, night is clear as day, darkness and light are the same. 

Understanding the Psalmist, “If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. Descending into the lowest imaginable depths among the dead, there should we find the Lord. THOU! Says the Psalmist, knowing that God is truly the “one great Existence” in all places; whatever Hades may be, or whoever may be there, one thing is certain, God Almighty is there.  Two regions, the one of glory and the other of darkness, are set in contrast, and this one fact is asserted of both -- "thou art there." Whether we rise up or lie down, take our wing or make our bed, we shall find God near us. 

Whether we ascend into heaven or descend into hell, God’s Presence will be there (Psalms 139:8). So we understand that, if you want to find Him, He can be found (Matthew. 7:7). God is everywhere – in the mountains, in the breeze, even within His people (1 Corinthians. 6:19). Yet, when you find Him, how does one describe God? What words can be used to express His divine nature? For millennia, people have tried and always come up short.

In Plain Words:

God is present, not only in every place but, in every situation. Truly He is omnipresent and, yet, He cannot be defined by words - in which we discern Him for He transcends them all. Although God is to be “found in all that He has created,” He is nevertheless set apart from all that He has created – He is separate. In Hebrew, to be “set apart” or “separate” is kadosh translated as “holy.” He is קדוש kadosh and because our God is holy, He calls upon us, His people, to be קדוש kadosh (holy).

Holiness is set apart (Shabbat) and, represents the Holy One.  Likewise, those who seek to emulate the Holy One of Israel – those called to be “set apart.”  These faithful people desire to live by God’s righteous standards; they are regarded in Scripture as a “holy nation” or, in Hebrew, קדוש גין goy kadosh (Exodus 19:6, 1 Pet. 2:9).  Those who desire to draw close to Him – those who hunger and thirst after righteousness (Matthew 5:6) – are pressing toward His holiness that we may also be deemed holy.

There is an inherent cost in this process, however. As a consequence of coming close to Him, we must be willing to crucify our own flesh (Galatians 5:24) and, as Paul wrote: “… present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” (Romans 12:1). 

The word קרבן korban comes from the root קרב karav , which means “to come close.” These offerings, then, were designed to bring people closer to God and bring them into that most intimate relationship

that exists between a Father and His children. Interestingly, the word קרבן korban , separated into two words – בן קר (kar and ben) – could be interpreted as “to call a son.” So then, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those who desire to “come close” to Him and live according to His standards are defined by Scripture as the sons (and daughters) of God. Paul explains that:  “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” (Romans 8:14)

The Crown of Holiness

2 Timothy 4:8, “All that awaits me now is the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the Righteous Judge,” will award to me on that Day – and only to me, but also to all who have longed for him to appear. 

Judaism teaches that these three crowns represent, respectively, the crown of the Torah (the tablets of the Law were kept in the Ark), the crown of the Kingdom (twelve loaves according to the twelve tribes of Israel were arrayed on the Table), and the crown of the Priesthood (the incense burned as the priest entered God’s presence). The Torah, of course, speaks of God’s Word and the obligation to keep God’s instructions – hungering and thirsting after His Holy righteousness. The Kingdom speaks of that “holy nation” that is comprised of those who desire to live by God’s holy standards and the Priesthood speaks to our designation as a “royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9) and those responsible for being oracles of the most High God (1 Peter 4:11).

Another Crown Mentioned

There is another crown mentioned where God’s house was concerned and that was “the crown of the High Priest of Israel.”  The scripture declares in Exodus 39:30, “They made the ornament for the holy turban of pure gold; wrote on it an inscription like the engraving of a signet: HOLINESS TO THE LORD.”  

The Hebrew term translated here as “crown” is נזר nezer. The word נזר nezer denotes something that is truly set apart for devotion and divine service.

This specific crown designates him as the High Priest and, consequently, most holy, set apart and authorized to lead other priests in the worship of the Almighty. So then, this crown separated him further, even from the others of the “kingdom of priests” and elevated him above all those who comprised the “holy nation.” In fact, it signified that the others were to submit to and follow his leadership even as he submitted to and followed God’s instructions.

The Crown
This crown, speaks ultimately of the one that can be worn only by our heavenly High Priest Yeshua (Jesus) (Hebrew 8:1).  It is our High Priest, Yeshua HaMashiach who provided the means that we might “become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  It is Yeshua (Jesus) who has made us “kings and priests to His God and Father” (Revelation 1:6). Yeshua (Jesus) will bestow upon the faithful a crown – a זר zer – a word synonymous with the form of the letter ק kuf , which in turn is the letter used to designate or “crown” those vessels considered as holy.

The Mystery of His Holiness  

Isaiah 55:8-9 declares, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.” For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

He Can Be Found

Seeking is looking for Him; however, it should also be understood that, He is hidden.  His creation declares His glory (Psalms 19:1). 

God Purposely Hides Himself

God hides Himself that He might provoke us “to look for Him” (Proverbs 25:2).  In other words, the extent of His glory, His majesty and His holiness, is a mystery.   

Spending A Lifetime To Know God                                                                                              
Understand, even in our lifetime, getting to know the Lord God, “only scratches the surface.”  Isaiah 46:9, “Remember things that happened at the beginning, long ago – that I am God, and there is none like me.  God is truly set apart from all – He is holy. There are times that He will allow His precious Holy Spirit to reveal to us, beyond our human limitations and “see Him: within His Creation and within His Word.   

Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 2:8-9, “Not one of this world’s leaders has understood it; because if they had, they would not have executed the Lord from whom this glory flows.  But as the Tanakh (Old Testament) says, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard and no one’s heart has imagined all the things that God has prepared for those who love Him.”

Paul also gives us his encounters “God has revealed them (the mysteries) to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.” (1 Corinthians. 2:10)

There are times that the Holy Spirit touches us and permits us to peer into these mysteries and “see Him.” I should point out here that the word ק kuf actually means “to touch.”  In order for you and me to “see” Him, the Spirit of God must “touch” ( קוף kuf ) us. Consider an experience Abraham had.

Encountering The Lord
“Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off.”  (Genesis 22:4).  In Genesis 22, God instructed Abraham to take his “only son Isaac” and offer Him as a burnt offering on a mountain that God would show him (Genesis 22:2). On the next morning, Abraham, Isaac and two servants journeyed to the land of Moriah. On the third day of the journey, Abraham looked and saw in the distance the place to which he was to go. After viewing the place, he then turns to his servants and tells them to wait where they are while he and Isaac go and worship. Notice, He tells them that both he and Isaac "would return" to them (Genesis 22:5).

We know that Isaac was the son of promise through whom God would propagate the covenant made with Abraham (Genesis 17:19). As Abraham prepared to offer Isaac as God had commanded, Scripture says that Abraham "laid the wood of the burnt offering" – literally, the “tree” - upon Isaac (Genesis 22:6).

Seeing the Promise
Abraham takes his one and only promised son, places a tree upon him that he must carry up to the top of a hill, where he is to then be offered "as a sacrifice." Why? The writer of Hebrews says, “That God was able to raise him up, even from the dead (Hebrews 11:19).

In Abraham’s heart, Isaac was as good as dead but, because he believed God’s promise concerning Isaac, he was confident that God would be obligated by His own Word to raise Isaac up from the dead.  Isaac is the picture (a foreshadow) of the one and only Son of the Father – the Promised Seed – who carried the tree to the hill to become the perfect sacrifice and who the Father raised from the dead to live forevermore. 

A Vision of the Lord 
Avraham (Abraham) was walking out a Messianic prophecy, the question remains: what made Abraham so confident? According to Yeshua (Jesus), Abraham saw something that caused him to rejoice.  John 8:56, "Avraham (Abraham), your father, was glad that he would see my day; then he saw it and was overjoyed." 

How and when was Abraham able to see Yeshua's (Jesus') day? I believe that it was when he saw “the place afar off.” Remember that המקום ha’makom – “the place” - is a phrase synonymous with “the LORD.” So, when Abraham saw “the place,” not only did he view the spot on Mt. Moriah he was to take Isaac but, he saw a vision of the LORD. The word translated as “afar off” is מרחק merchok . This word can mean in the distance of space – from where Abraham stood to the top of the mountain – or it can mean in the distance of time.  In other words, Abraham saw the place on Moriah that the Lord had spoken to him of and, in that place, he saw the Lord in the distance of time. Notice that after this, he then tells the servants to wait for both him and Isaac!

God “touched” Abraham, permitting him "to see" Him in that “place” and in that situation. That is when Abraham knew that both he and his son would be returning.  Abraham, when queried by Isaac as to "where the sacrificial lamb was," Abraham confidently replied that God would provide Himself a lamb (Genesis. 22:8).  Here we see "that a ram, not a lamb," was the animal God provided in the thicket. Why? It was that Abraham saw Yeshua's (Jesus) day "a far off."  

God providing Himself as a Lamb – and he rejoiced! Thus, he called the name of that place יראה יהוה YHVH Yireh , literally, “the LORD, He will be seen.” However, it is also understood to say, “the LORD, He will see to it” – that is, that God would provide HIMSELF a Lamb.

Remember, though God is in every situation and in every place; however, He is nevertheless hidden. Still, there are times when God’s Spirit touches ( קוף kuf ) us and allows us to see Him and, when we do, we will see "Yeshua (Jesus) guess who we see? Y’shua told us that if you have seen Him you have seen the Father (Jn. 14:9). So when we see God revealed in this place or that situation, we, like Abraham, see Y’shua, the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8)!

Many years later, Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, returned to this same place on his flight from Esau. Scripture tells us that he decided to stay there for the night and, so, placed stones at his head and went to sleep. He dreamed of a ladder that reached up into heaven upon which the holy angels of God ascended and descended and, standing at the top of the ladder was the LORD. Jacob awakens to acknowledge that “the LORD is in this place” (Gen. 28:16) and so he called that place “the house of God” and “the gate of heaven” (Gen. 28:17).

That this “holy place” was where Jacob saw angels “ascending and descending” is very important because of something we have learned from the letter ק kuf . Remember, the words זר zer and רז raz represent the ascending and descending aspect of ק kuf , which is the letter that represents the Omnipresent and Holy One of Israel. Scripture tells us that the Holy One – Y’shua – ascended up on high and gave gifts unto men (Eph. 4:8). However, we understand that also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.” (Eph. 4:9-10).

I believe this passage teaches us that Y’shua descended from heaven to earth that He might save us from our sin. The mystery ( רז raz ) of this descent is that God became flesh in order to save mankind. By that I mean, God provided Himself a Lamb. Yet, how does one explain what, to human comprehension, is unexplainable? It is a mystery and, yet, it is a fact. Because He did descend, He has also ascended and now wears the crown ( זר zer ) of King and Priest. Furthermore, as King and Priest, He has promised “gifts” to those who descend to their knee and confess Him as Lord. To those who humble themselves even as He humbled Himself, He promises that we may one day ascend and “sit together in the heavenly places” (Eph. 2:6). On that day, the most important aspect of these promises will become reality, for on that day, He will no longer be hidden from us – we shall see Him “as He is” when He is revealed (1 Jn. 3:2).

Thus, the LORD will be seen in all of His glory and, perhaps for the first time, we will begin to truly grasp the immeasurable extent of what has been, to this point, hard to contemplate and define – His holiness. In the meantime, there are mysteries that, by His Spirit, He has allowed us to understand, questions He has already answered. In my opinion, chief among them is this:

“Who has ascended into heaven, or descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has bound the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is His Son's name, if you know?” (Prov. 30:4).