Dirt, Sandals & Holiness

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. - Exodus 3:5-6 ( NIV )

As I read this scripture recently I asked the question, “Why take off the sandals?” What is it about “holy ground” and sandals that doesn’t work for God?

Taking one’s shoes off is still a custom in the east and no Brahmin enters a pagoda or Muslim a mosque, without first taking off his shoes. The purpose, from what I’ve read, is so they do not to defile the place of worship with dirt. But what we find here in Exodus is quite a different scenario because Moses is in the desert with nothing but dirt or sand everywhere! So what’s with the sandals?

At a glance, God telling Moses, “Do not come any closer” can translate in our minds to God wanting to be distant from Moses, but if that’s the case why would He then ask him to take his sandals off? Wouldn’t that actually bring him closer to the ground that is holy and not further away? Could it be that part of what God actually wanted was for Moses to be closer in some way, perhaps to touch Moses with His holiness with nothing, not even a sandal between them?

It’s wonderful the change that takes place in Moses’ life from this point. Here we read that he falls to the ground and hides his face, afraid to look at God. But time passes and in a later encounter we read that instead of hiding, Moses actually wants more than anything to see the very face of God, but is denied because no one can see God and live (Exodus 33), which may be part of why God told him not to come any closer the first time.

Now, everything I’ve read seems to agree that the ground itself was not holy, but became that way because of God’s presence. When God “left”, the place went back to being just plain ol’ desert. I know there have been times in my life where the place I stood seemed to change from that of something ordinary, to one that was holy… to a dimension where the invisible presence of God touched me in a very tangible way. It has happened in buildings during times of teaching or singing, in my truck while praying, outside a school dorm in Swansea, Wales and each time it has left me

wishing I could stay in that moment forever. I believe that may be what happened to Naaman in 2 Kings 5 and why he took the dirt from Israel where he was healed of his leprosy back to Syria, trying to take a piece of that “holy” place back with him; why Jacob built a monument of rocks after his dream, saying “surely God was in this place and I did not know it”; why Peter (though misguided) wanted to build the tabernacles on the mount where Jesus was transfigured, each of them wanting something tangible as a reminder of what had taken place.

Maybe what God was doing with Moses here was drawing him into a relationship with nothing between them allowing His holiness to touch and forever change Moses’ life. And this holiness instead of pushing Moses away changed him from a man who was afraid to look at God, to a man who wanted to see God more than anything else.

I hope that if we ever find ourselves in a place confronted with God’s holiness, we will refrain from turning away or putting a guard up, but will instead… take our sandals off.