Wholly Other

Acts 5:1-11

“Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet. Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.” When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him. About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?” “Yes,” she said, “that is the price.” Peter said to her, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.” At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband; real fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.”

This is a story that is confounding as it is scary: https://youtu.be/YRRsPUeuhZY Living Life explains, “rather than being motivated by the love of Christ, Ananias and Sapphira are motivated by greed and pride. Their sin is not in choosing to keep a part of the money for themselves. Their sin is in lying and making it seem as though they are giving away all the money they received from the sale of their property because they want to receive recognition and praise… Ananias and Sapphira are punished because they have allowed Satan to rule their hearts rather than following the Spirit’s leading. If sin is left unpunished, it can corrupt an entire community and allow injustice to prevail.” God sought purity in His earliest followers, He still does too among us. Right away, in the church’s infancy, gotquestions.org notes “God made it plain that hypocrisy and dissimulation were not going to be tolerated, and His judgment of Ananias and Sapphira helped guard the church against future pretense. God laid the bodies of Ananias and Sapphira in the path of every hypocrite who would seek to enter the church” (although I still maintain the huge difference between pretense and immaturity, but let us always check ourselves, I Cor 11:28). It reminds me of another instantaneous death and judgment of God: “Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to His command. So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. Moses then said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD spoke of when He said: “‘Among those who approach Me

    I will be proved holy;

in the sight of all the people

    I will be honored.’”

Aaron remained silent (Lev 10:1-4).” God is our Holy Father, He is as close as can be and yet He still is wholly separate by His holiness and this is why we need Christ, the atoning sacrifice, the Second Person of the trinity, only God Himself can cover us, sinful creation from the Holy creator. Our LORD Jesus Christ came near, and brought us close to God the Father. We approach God in confidence only through Christ, and we still must fear and respect Him in reverence and humility. CS Lewis spoke of Aslan the Lion, a metaphor for God: "Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion" said Susan..."Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you." God breathed out fiery galaxies and stars, the universe is a testament to His glory, and His awesome powers, we are right to fear Him, but we are also not wrong to have faith, to humbly trust that this magnificent creator considers us His children because of the ‘first-born’ of all creation, Jesus Christ (Col 1:15). Thank You LORD Jesus, we humbly submit to Your awesome power and great love, may we glorify You in living integrity.