The Holy One of Israel
God reveals His name as The Holy One of Israel. It reveals that He is set apart from our world of sin. No one in Israel—nor any of us—can come close to His perfection. He is pure, righteous, great, and greatly to be praised by all of His creation (Psalm 48:1).
Two things about God explain our relationship with Him. First, His holiness is why God cannot be with sin, and it is His holiness that should humble us. /Second, He would not compromise His holiness to save us; so, He made a way to set us apart—to share His holiness with us. How humbling, awe-inspiring, and dumbfounding is this truth. His holiness, alone, makes Him worthy of all of our praise and adoration.
As the Holy One, YHVH is utterly unique, distinct, sacred, and set apart, making Him the only One of His kind. He alone is worthy of true worship and adoration, since He alone is without rival, and stands in relation to the world as Creator and Lord. Yes, only the Lord is infinitely and eternally Other—known to Himself as ‘I AM THAT I AM’ (Exo. 3:15).
This designation of Him is frequent in the prophecy of Isaiah. It serves to place the sins of Isaiah’s society in stark contrast to God’s moral perfection (Isaiah 30:11) and expresses God’s absolute separation from evil (Isaiah 17:7).
God’s purity is far above the most beautiful thing this world has to offer, yet He reaches down to bring us up to Him. Psalm 77:13 reads, “Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God?”