Reclaiming the Sacred Hush
March 2, 2010
There is a sacred hush about the Old Testament faith that is refreshing when compared to the barrage of noisy information that characterizes our day. Consider the awe-infused silence that the children of Abraham must have experienced as they saw Aaron and his sons consecrated as priests (Leviticus 8). Moses washed Aaron and his sons with water, clothed them piece-by-piece with the priestly garments that had been specifically designed by YHWH, then sacrificed a bull, a ram, and a second ram. The blood of these animals was sprinkled on Aaron and his sons and sprinkled on the alter, then the priests were sequestered in the temple for seven days for the remainder of the ordination process.
This ceremony must have accentuated the holiness with which the Israelites were dealing. This God was not to be approached blithely or casually. He was to be approached through priests, who were required to undergo this week’s worth of consecration requiring the death of animals to even be in such a position. And when Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, offered “unauthorized fire before the LORD” (Leviticus 10:1), they were immediately killed by God’s fire. The verdict was simple: “This is what the LORD has said, ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified’” (Leviticus 10:3). Such transcendence, such holiness demands stunned silence, as the rest of the verse implies: “And Aaron held his peace.”
Our age does not condition us for this sacred hush. It is not natural in our culture to practice Psalm 46:10-”Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” Furthermore, the New Covenant does not involve the sacrificing of bulls and rams, high priests in special garments, or a holiest place that can only be entered by one person once a year. With these factors in view, how is it that we can pursue the sacred hush that our holy God deserves?
We experience holy silence the same way our forebears in the faith did: in the presence of the high priest who alone can present us acceptable before God; in the presence of the sacrifice in which blood was spilled for our holy standing; in the presence of God’s great prophet who communicates God’s word. And ours is the advantage here, for we have the final and true expression of all these realities in the person of Jesus Christ.
In other words, we reclaim the sacred hush when we hold fast to the gospel, when we dig deep into what it means that Christ died for our sins. And though Jesus’ death has made God’s presence more accessible than it was for the children of Israel, it has not made it any less holy or transcendent. So let us daily press into the meaning of Christ’s sacrifice for us, and let us be awed that his work brings us into God’s holy presence. The veil has been torn; we do not need to travel to Jerusalem to experience God’s special presence. But as we do commune with our God, let us proceed with a sacred hush.
Pastor Chris