Reid over at FaithGambler themes his post with an interesting question, “What makes a place holy?“. While Reid gets a bit off track from his original subject I’d like to take this idea a bit further and ask for your own thoughts on this matter.
Doing a very quick scan of the bible the first use of the words “Holy” and “Place” in the same sentence is Exodus 3:5 (NIV)
“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”
while the use of “Holy Place” in conjunction is first used in Exodus 26:33 (NIV)
Hang the curtain from the clasps and place the ark of the Testimony behind the curtain. The curtain will separate the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place.
In both these cases it is God who claims the place to be sacred and in both cases it’s due to His actual presence.
The first reference of a man specifying a place as being holy is in
Genesis 28:11-21 (NIV)
18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz.
20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear 21 so that I return safely to my father’s house, then the LORD will be my God.
Unlike Jacob we create; church’s, cathedrals, home based church’s, etc., out of our need to have a common place within which to communally worship. So, when we say holy place what do we mean? I think we need to make a distinction between these edifices that we build because of our own needs and those places which are holy by Gods design. When a community of believers determines the need for a common place in which to worship, do they not enter the undertaking with much prayer and beseeching of God for his guidance and blessing? And, once completed is it not commemorated with much joyful praise for Gods gracious blessing? Even with this in mind does that actually make the place holy?
I believe that unless Gods spirit dwells within the edifice it is not holy. However, by the grace of God and through Christs atoning sacrifice we have been made holy, Hebrews 10:10
And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
It’s not about the building or the place it’s about the people within and more importantly about ourselves. If the Lord dwells within you, you are a holy vessel and the walls within which you worship are made holy by the presence of the Holy Spirit in you.
“It’s not about the building or the place it’s about the people within and more importantly about ourselves. If the Lord dwells within you, you are a holy vessel and the walls within which you worship are made holy by the presence of the Holy Spirit in you.” ~ This is EXACTLY what a holy place is. A “holy place” can be anywhere and IS anywhere you feel the presence of God. All the world’s an altar, holy ground!