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"In their mouth was found no lie, for they are without fault before the throne of God"
(Rev. 14: 5).
The Greek word "without blemish" is amomos, the privative a and the word momos.
This Greek word is evidently closely allied with the Hebrew mum, which occurs in
Lev. 21: 17, 18, 21; 22: 20, 21; Numb 19: 2 and II Sam. 14: 25. These passages
deal with physical perfection, and throw light upon the scriptural idea inherent in
holiness. Look at the physical qualifications of the priesthood.
"Whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach; a blind man, or a
lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or anything superfluous. Or a man that is brokenfooted,
or brokenhanded, or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be
scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken. No man that hath a blemish of the seed of
Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire"
(Lev. 21: 17-21).
We must, of course, remember that this physical perfection was typical of things
moral and spiritual, and we rejoice to-day to know that the blind and the lame, and the
crookbackt and the dwarf may render acceptable service unto the Lord. Nevertheless, we
must recognize that such are used in spite of such blemishes, and not otherwise. We
cannot conceive of an angel of heaven being flat-nosed, lame, scabbed or ugly--and
perfect holiness is unreached until body, soul and spirit alike attain to their full and
complete expression--in other words, holiness and the resurrection likeness to the Lord
are practically synonymous.
The demands of God are no less stringent when we come to the offering than when we
consider the priest. Lev. 22: 20-25 contains another list of blemishes that disqualify a
sheep, ox or goat from being accepted. The verses should be read. They summed up in
the words:--
"It shall be PERFECT to be accepted: there shall be no blemish therein" (Lev. 22: 21).
Here "perfect" (Hebrew tamin) means something "whole or complete", and suggests
that further light upon the inherent meaning of holiness will be found in the study of the
scriptural use of the term "perfect".
Mere physical perfection, of course, is not holiness, nor can ever approach it, the case
of Absalom in II Sam. 14: 25 being sufficient to show this. All that we intend by these
references is that the reader should be made aware of the figure called to mind in the
words, "Holy and without blemish", remembering that even in Ephesians we have the
expression "spot, wrinkle, or any such thing". While beauty may not be holy, true
holiness will always be beautiful, and the more we realize that holiness means the
complete and the perfect, and not the neglected, the stunted, and the dwarfed, the more
we "grow", "are strong", and approximate to the image of Christ, the nearer shall we
approach to that holiness without which none shall see the Lord.