Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale Daily DevotionalSample

Jehovah-qadesh When we read the story of the Israelites in Scripture, it's easy to overlook the sinful environment they found themselves immersed in. Every nation around them engaged in practices that would be considered horrific, even in this day and age. Ritualistic torture, human sacrifices, sexual practices that we won't even mention...it was all an accepted part of the world they lived in. But God had a different plan for His people. They weren't to be like all the others around them. They were to stand out and stand apart from the world's wickedness. They were to be a pure and a holy people. They were to be sanctified. In Hebrew, the word for sanctified is qadesh, and many scholars submit that it originates from another word that means "to cut." This makes a lot of sense, because the effect of cutting is to separate, and the essence of sanctification is separation. Imagine an object that's cut into separate pieces and you get the sense of what the word qadesh represents. The idea is to make something separate and distinct from the thing it was once a part of. Now, when we take this word qadesh and combine it with the divine name Jehovah, it opens our eyes to yet another aspect of His nature. Jehovah-qadesh, or "the LORD who sanctifies you," speaks of God's divine influence upon His people. It speaks of the manner in which He takes those who are His and purifies and sanctifies them, or separates them, from the world they were once a part of. This is exactly what He did with Israel as they were set apart from the godless and wicked cultures around them. And it's what He does in us as we're called out and set apart from the world around us by the power of Jehovah-qadesh. It is God's plan for His people that they aren't to be like all the others around them. They are meant to stand out and stand apart from the world's wickedness. Think about it... What does this passage reveal to me about God? What does this passage reveal to me about myself? Based on this, what changes do I need to make? What is my prayer for today?