- Name 53 of 70The Holy One of Israel
- HebrewQedosh Yisrael
- In plain wordsThe God who is completely set apart, and who belongs to His people
- Where to find itIsaiah 1:4 and throughout Isaiah; rooted in Isaiah's vision in Isaiah 6
The Holy One of Israel is the name the prophet Isaiah used for God again and again, from the first chapter of his book to chapter 60. In Hebrew it is Qedosh Yisrael. It joins two ideas that seem far apart: a God so pure that heavenly beings cover their faces, and a nation of ordinary, failing people He calls His own.
The year Isaiah saw the throne
Isaiah lived in Jerusalem about seven hundred years before Jesus. King Uzziah's death is usually dated to around 740 BC, though books give dates a few years apart. Isaiah tells us exactly when his vision came.
In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
Isaiah 6:1
Uzziah had ruled Judah for a long time, and his death left the nation uneasy. In that moment Isaiah saw the real King. The edge of the Lord's robe (the train) filled the whole temple. Above Him were seraphim, heavenly beings with six wings each. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. They called out to one another:
And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
Isaiah 6:3
The doorposts shook and smoke filled the house. Isaiah did not feel excited. He felt ruined. He cried, Woe is me! for I am undone
, because he knew his own words were unclean and so were the words of his people. Then one of the seraphim flew to him with a burning coal from the altar and touched his lips. Isaiah heard that his guilt was taken away. When the Lord asked who would go for Him, the man who had just said he was undone answered, Here am I; send me
.
All through his book, Isaiah keeps coming back to one name, starting as early as Isaiah 1:4. Many readers link that name to this vision. Isaiah had seen holiness up close, and he had seen that the Holy One was willing to cleanse a man like him.
What "holy" means in plain words
Qadosh, the Hebrew word for holy, has the basic sense of being set apart. A holy thing is cut off from ordinary use and belongs to God alone. When the word is used for God Himself, it means He is in a class of His own. He is not a stronger human or a brighter angel. He is completely pure, with no darkness in Him, and nothing compares to Him.
The seraphim say the word three times. Hebrew often repeats a word to make it stronger, the way we might say "very, very." Saying it three times makes the point as strong as language can.
Yisrael is Israel, the name God gave to Jacob and then to the nation that came from him. So the full title says something surprising: this utterly set-apart God has tied His name to a particular people. He is not only holy. He is their Holy One.
Key KJV verses about the Holy One of Israel
Isaiah uses the name in two very different moods. Sometimes it comes with a warning.
Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
Isaiah 1:4
Iniquity means wrongdoing. Because God is holy, sin is not a small thing to Him. The people had turned their backs on Him, and Isaiah says so plainly. Some of them even begged their prophets to stop talking about Him and to cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us
.
Other times the very same name comes wrapped in comfort.
When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.
Isaiah 43:2-3
Here the Holy One promises to walk with His people through floods and fire. His holiness is the reason they are safe, not the reason they should run.
Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
Isaiah 41:14
A worm is about as small and weak as a creature gets. God calls His people that, and in the same breath calls Himself their redeemer, the One who buys them back. The distance between those two words is the size of His kindness.
Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
Psalm 78:41
This psalm looks back at the desert years after Egypt. The people kept testing God and acting as if He could only do so much. To limit Him was to treat the Holy One like a small god.
The name is not only Isaiah's. A psalm writer turned it into a song: unto thee will I sing with the harp, O thou Holy One of Israel
. Isaiah himself looked ahead to a day of joy, when the people would shout because the Holy One was living right among them (Isaiah 12:6). The name that once made a prophet tremble became a reason to sing.
What the Holy One of Israel means for you today
It is easy to treat God casually. His name gets used as a swear word, and church can start to feel like one more activity on the calendar. Isaiah's story is a reminder that the people in the Bible who came closest to God were changed by it, not entertained.
At the same time, this name does not tell you to stay away. The Holy One sent a coal from the altar to Isaiah. He came near to clean him up, then gave him a job. Holiness that only pushed people away would never have said thou art mine
.
Holiness is also something God passes on to His people. Long before Isaiah, God told Israel, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy
. That does not mean acting stiff or looking down on others. It means belonging to God so fully that your words, choices and habits slowly start to look like His. Isaiah began with unclean lips. God cleaned them first, and then He used them.
If you are young and think holy means boring, look at Isaiah 6 again: fire, smoke, shaking doorposts, and a voice asking who will go. That is not boring.
- Read Isaiah 6 slowly and notice the order: seeing God, seeing yourself, being cleansed, being sent.
- Think about where you have been limiting what God can do in your life.
- When you pray, start by honoring who He is before asking for anything.
The Holy One of Israel is name 53 of the 70 in the book. It follows the Ancient of Days, and the next name, the Creator of the ends of the earth, comes from a little later in Isaiah. You can also see how this name fits with the other Hebrew names of God.
