You who are of purer eyes than to see evil
Habakkuk 1:13
and cannot look at wrong,
why do you idly look at traitors
and remain silent when the wicked swallows up
the man more righteous than he?
When Habakkuk complained about the injustice and violence around him in Israel, the Lord responded that he was sending the Chaldeans to punish them. This raises a difficult question: Israel certainly had problems, but Babylon was even worse! How can the Holy God who cannot look upon evil use the pagan city of Babylon to punish Israel?
Pure God, Pure People
A couple of weeks ago we examined what it meant for God (and us) to be holy. Verse 13 describes God using a related concept, describing him as having pure (טָהוֹר, tahor) eyes. What does it mean to call God pure? What does it mean for us?
Tahor (adjective) stems from the verb taher, meaning to be clean or to cleanse/purify. These words are used a couple of hundreds of times throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. Its Greek equivalents carry over throughout the New Testament, as well.
The word first appears in Genesis 7:2 when God commands Noah to bring seven pairs of clean animals on the ark. Interestingly, God doesn’t describe the difference between clean and unclean animals to Noah. Other ancient civilizations contained the concepts of clean and unclean, so he likely already understood it. Leviticus talks the most about distinguishing between the clean and unclean, like animals (Leviticus 11), leprosy (Leviticus 13-14), people’s conditions (Leviticus 15), and more.
Does that mean that unclean animals are evil or that having a bodily discharge is a sin? No! These are all part of the natural world that God made. Giving birth is a blessing, yet it makes the mother unclean (Leviticus 12). Burying the dead makes one unclean (Numbers 19:14-16), but taking care of the dead was also a good act. The sin is being unclean and entering the tabernacle (Number 19:13). God cannot come in contact with what is unclean. When the people had defiled his house, God had to leave.
Pure House and Heart
Since God is holy, his dwelling needs to be holy and clean. The second half of Exodus describes the construction of the tabernacle. God commands that various items are to be made out of pure (tahor) gold (e.g. Exodus 25:11). Likewise, Solomon’s temple contains pure gold (e.g. 2 Chronicles 3:4).
We find tahor appearing in more abstract contexts, too. The Psalmist describes God’s words as pure/clean (Psalm 12:6). Kind words are pure (Proverbs 15:26). David asks God to create in him a “clean (tahor) heart” (Psalm 51:10). The physical condition is supposed to be mirrored by a deeper spiritual reality.
Jesus Cleans Up
When the Bible was translated from Hebrew into Greek, they translated the adjective tahor into katharos (καθαρός) and the verb taher into katharizo (καθαρίζω). You’ve probably been told that laws about clean and unclean have been done away with in Jesus. While Gentile believers are not held to the same standard around things like unclean animals, the New Testament repeatedly calls for believers to be katharos.
We see cleansing throughout the Gospels. Jesus cleansed lepers (e.g. Mark 1:44, Luke 5:12-14) and commanded them to show themselves to the priest for their cleansing in keeping with God’s commands.
However, we also see him teaching in a more spiritual sense, too. Jesus says in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the pure (katharos) in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8, hinting at Psalm 51:10). He criticized the Pharisees for cleaning the outside of cups and dishes but not cleansing the inside (Luke 11:39-41, harkening to Proverbs 30:12). While affirming the need for ritual cleanness, he lifts them to a higher standard that the heart needs to be cleansed, too. Being spiritually clean is connected with outer actions (see James 1:27).
Aren’t All Things Clean?
But wasn’t Jesus against the rules of clean and unclean? Didn’t Jesus “declared all foods clean” (Mark 7:19)? Peter had a vision of unclean animals with the command to kill and eat (Acts 10:10-15). Does that mean God was going against his own commands? While God had been angry enough at his people’s uncleanness to eject them from the land, now he was calling them to ignore those commands? This does not make sense.
In Mark, Jesus is addressing Pharisees who feel food is unclean simply because the person eating it has unclean hands, a command not in the Torah. In Peter’s vision, Peter interprets the vision: “God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean” (Acts 10:28). Jewish law considered all Gentiles inherently unclean, which was also not in the Torah. God was breaking down the walls built between these two groups to bring the Gentiles into his fold.
The Final Cleansing
The writer of Hebrews says the sacrifices performed only purified the flesh, but Jesus’ sacrifice purified our conscience (Hebrews 9:13-14). Revelation describes the angels as wearing pure linen (Revelation 15:6) and the New Jerusalem is will be of pure gold (Revelation 21:18, 21). Nothing unclean will enter it (Revelation 21:27). God’s ultimate goal is to purify us from all that contaminates us.
Habakkuk questioned how the pure eyes of God can look at wrong. God’s ultimate response is that he will cleanse the world. We will not have to put up with such filth anymore!
To Ponder…
What does it mean to live a pure life? What is a “clean heart”?
How have you not been living a clean, pure life? Is there anything of which you need to repent? What needs to be purified in your life? What would a spiritual detox look like?
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses (katharizo) us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse (katharizo) us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:5-9