As I was reading through Exodus 2 this morning, I was thinking about God’s comment to Moses as he spoke through the burning bush. Moses is about to approach and check the situaiton out and it’s interesting to notice God’s first command to Moses- “take off your shoes for this place you’re standing is holy ground.”
Why’s God say this to him? I haven’t seen a lot of commentaries take much time to explore the significance of this in depth. We can make some points though. Obviously this is meant to be a sign of reverence. Shoes have some negative connotations within the culture of the near east (just think of the images of people hitting that old statue of Saddam Hussein with their shoes or the now infamous shoe throwing incident with President Bush). One can also call to mind how in many Eastern cultures people still remove their shoes when they enter a house. Sometimes we do that in our own homes. We are signifying that the space we’re entering is special, not to be tramped on with the dirt that is carried in from the outside.
So what does this speak to us? When Moses came before God in this special way, he was supposed to notice it, to use his body and clothing to mark his reverence. How do we do that today? How will you do it tomorrow morning when you enter church? How do you do it in you personal time with God? There’s something special about letting the physical, our body, etc remind us when we’re in holy space and time with our Lord.
