ESOCS Devotional 6 August 2025 – God’s Personality of Holiness
MEMORY VERSE: “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cast not look on iniquity…” Habakkuk 1:13
TEXT: HABAKKUK 1:1–17
The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw.
2 O Lord, how long shall I cry,
And You will not hear?
Even cry out to You, “Violence!”
And You will not save.
3 Why do You show me iniquity,
And cause me to see trouble?
For plundering and violence are before me;
There is strife, and contention arises.
4 Therefore the law is powerless,
And justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
Therefore perverse judgment proceeds.
5 “Look among the nations and watch—
Be utterly astounded!
For I will work a work in your days
Which you would not believe, though it were told you.
6 For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans,
A bitter and hasty nation
Which marches through the breadth of the earth,
To possess dwelling places that are not theirs.
7 They are terrible and dreadful;
Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.
8 Their horses also are swifter than leopards,
And more fierce than evening wolves.
Their chargers charge ahead;
Their cavalry comes from afar;
They fly as the eagle that hastens to eat.
9 “They all come for violence;
Their faces are set like the east wind.
They gather captives like sand.
10 They scoff at kings,
And princes are scorned by them.
They deride every stronghold,
For they heap up earthen mounds and seize it.
11 Then his mind changes, and he transgresses;
He commits offense,
Ascribing this power to his god.”
12 Are You not from everlasting,
O Lord my God, my Holy One?
We shall not die.
O Lord, You have appointed them for judgment;
O Rock, You have marked them for correction.
13 You are of purer eyes than to behold evil,
And cannot look on wickedness.
Why do You look on those who deal treacherously,
And hold Your tongue when the wicked devours
A person more righteous than he?
14 Why do You make men like fish of the sea,
Like creeping things that have no ruler over them?
15 They take up all of them with a hook,
They catch them in their net,
And gather them in their dragnet.
Therefore they rejoice and are glad.
16 Therefore they sacrifice to their net,
And burn incense to their dragnet;
Because by them their share is sumptuous
And their food plentiful.
17 Shall they therefore empty their net,
And continue to slay nations without pity?
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One of God’s most cherished personality is the character of Holiness and He never fails to admonish and warn everyone that wants to experience a close walk and relationship with Him. Look at these “And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me and be thou perfect” (Gen. 17:1). This is God introducing Himself to a ninety-nine years old man and demanding holiness from him; Leviticus 11:45: “For I am the LORD that bringeth you up of the land of Egypt, to be your God; ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” The meaning of that is, I brought you out of bondage, if we must continue our journey successfully, then be holy, just the way I am.
1 Peter 1:16 caps it by saying, “Because it is written, be ye holy for I am holy.” Certainly, the holiness of God is never in doubt and He has never failed to declare and maintain His stand on holiness, for everyone who must have something to do with Him. The demand for holiness is so strong that even in our praise to Him, God requires us to do it in the atmosphere of holiness: “O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness …” (Ps. 96:9).
It must therefore be stated that God is uncompromising in His holiness. Our text reveals that the purity, holiness of His eyes forbids Him from beholding evil. The eyes of God are too holy that they cannot look on iniquity. Sin is disgusting and irritating to God. No wonder, when the entire sins of the world were placed upon Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary, God looked away.
Beloved, this message therefore is a clarion call for us to possess and manifest the character of holiness. If God must do anything serious with our lives, holiness must be fully instituted. You can’t be comfortably living in sin and all manner of atrocities and expect God to take you serious in His relationship with you. The God you are coming to be associated with, walk and work with His holiness, demands that we too be holy.
CHALLENGES
- Understand that the uncompromising personality of God is holiness.
- Be determined to possess the character of holiness.
- Always be a true ambassador of God in your holy living.
PRAYER POINT
- Lord, we are grateful for your personality of Holiness. Help us to always possess the same personality and exemplify holiness every single day of our lives, in Jesus name. Amen.
FURTHER READING: Habakkuk 2:13-31; Mark 12:13-42
ESOCS Devotional 6 August 2025
