Holy Ground

Today's Reading: Exodus 3:1-15

I love this story in Exodus about Moses' calling to lead the Israelites. For a lonely encounter in the desert, it is full of danger (a burning bush, really?), mystery (who's voice is that?), and action (go where? to do what?). A veritable plethora of things that leave you scratching your head.

But what has always intrigued me the most about this encounter is God's command to Moses to remove his shoes because he was standing on holy ground. What was it about the holiness of that place that required the removal of one's shoes? 

It seems to me that the shoes simply represented the things that were not holy in Moses' life. Shoes often track in dirt and mud...God's holiness can not co-exist with the dirt and mud of our lives. Shoes were part of the tools of Moses' trade as a shepherd...God was planning to provide Moses all that he would need to meet this new calling. And shoes are relied upon to keep our feet safe...what God was calling Moses to do was not going to be safe.

So in order to walk into the presence of the holy God, Moses had to remove the shoes that represented the things he would have to leave behind. His old life and any sin in it, anything he would normally rely on other than God, and the safety of the life he was living as a shepherd. Walking away from those things would qualify Moses to meet the call of leader of the Israelite nation.

Moses of course asked who should he say sent him all the way to Egypt to rescue the Israelites. And God told Moses to tell them, "I AM sent you." Couched in this question, I believe Moses was really asking, "Who is it that is calling me into holiness?" And the answer is the same - the great I AM. God Almighty. God, who is, and was, and always will be.

So what is the I AM calling you to leave behind in order to walk in His holiness? And are you willing to take off those "shoes" to answer His call?

- Holly Barrett