Remove your sandals
20th November 2004
I wrote this post in a hurry this past weekend. Consequently it read awkwardly in parts and needed elaboration in others. So before submitting it to the Christian Carnival, I decided to update it.
In the account of Moses and the Burning Bush, there is an interesting instruction from God that is often taken for granted.
"Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."
I used to think that God was saying "This place is holy ground, therefore do not soil it with your dirty sandals."
However, I find it increasingly difficult to imagine Moses taking off his sandals, tiptoeing to the bottom of the mountain, leaving his sandals there and then coming back up the mountain. Or perhaps he took off his sandals and held onto them. It is possible, but still it seemed improbable. However, if he merely took off his sandals, the sandals would still be touching holy ground. It would be no different whether the sandals were on his feet or not - it would still defile holy ground. It seems to me that God was probably not worried so much about the dirty sandals.
It seems more likely that God’s emphasis was somewhere else. In order to understand my point, let’s consider for what purpose people wore sandals. People usually use sandals to protect their feet from dirt and grime, and also to ease travel on foot. So, as I was thinking perhaps one idea is that since this is holy ground, so symbolically Moses had to remove the sandals to indicate that this place will not defile him.So he had no use for the sandals. The fact that the place is holy is because of the Presence of God. Hence the idea is that when God is present, He cleanses.
This is an important contrast to the typical human response. We tend to shrink away from the presence of God because we feel unclean, blemished and guilty. We are uncomfortable with the idea of a holy God because we feel the holy condemns us. Yet, God assures us that His holiness cleanses us from our sin.
Another possible idea of removing the sandals in the presence of the holy God is that God desires us to stay in His presence. Perhaps the idea is that without the sandals it would be more difficult to run away from God. God who desires our fellowship and company, wants us to stay awhile in His presence.
Again, this goes against our instinct. People typically prefer to shun the shining light of His presence. For instance, Martin Luther cried, "Love God? Love God? Sometimes I hate him!" Luther felt the burning shame of guilt of his own sinfulness when exposed by the holiness of God. Adam and Eve hid from God, but God sought their companionship. When God’s light shine upon our lives, he exposes the darkness. We may prefer to hide, to shrink away, but God desires our presence, and seeks fellowship with us, warts, sins and all. He seeks to fill us with His grace and mercy, and to cleanse us from our sin (1 John 1 tells how he does this through fellowship with the Father, with the Son, and through the Spirit, with each other).
A final thought about removing the sandals in the presence of God could be the idea that God wants us to be bare before Him. By standing on holy ground unprotected by the soles of the sandals, Moses’ bare feet would be touching holy ground. God wants to reach out to the core of our being. Sinners might typically think that they are not good enough to touch holy ground.
Where I went to elementary school there was a good-sized population of Muslim children. One of the periods in the classes the Christian children would attend bible class, the Muslim students, Islamic classes and those who were neither Muslim nor Christian, language or cultural classes. I remember when the Muslim children returned from their classes they were holding a "holy book" and they were made a point to us "infidels" that we were not allowed to touch their holy book for it would defile the book. They called us "unclean infidels." On the one hand, it reinforced the idea of the Holy One, and the need for God’s followers to be perfect even as He is perfect, but on the other hand, it reinforced the misconception that we would defile God’s holiness if we come as we are.
That is the typical human response - humans tend to consider themselves unholy, unclean defiled, and unworthy to come near to God. In order to come to God, we want to have undergone some form of discipline, purification or cleansing, so that we are better than we now are. Perhaps it might be argued that the Old Testament teaches exactly this: that God is holy, and sinners, deviants, and uncleanness defiles the holy. In order to enter into the presence of God, we must either go through extensive ritual cleansing, or go through the intermediary of holy and separated people such as priests and Levites. If the Old Testament teaches this aspect of God’s holiness, then no one in the Old Testament would be able to come before Him. Yet, the Old Testament is also full of narratives of people who were after God’s own heart, and who were friends of God, and yet who were no more holier than the worse sinner. They were all common, impetuous sinners like the best, or worse, of us.
And here in the story of Burning Bush, God reinforces the idea that He is seeking our friendship, our fellowship, and we do not need to wait till we are better, more qualified, or less sinful. We can come right now, remove our sandals and stand there naked before Him. Yes, God wants us to come as we are. I like what Julie Fidler says in her blog, "Come as you are, not as you think you should be" (I can’t find it now in her newly designed page, but I am sure I saw it in her page before!). God invites us to come and bare ourselves before Him. We can tell it like it is. We can come as we are. He invites us to bare our souls (soles?) before Him. We can drop our guards, remove our masks and come before Him and be assured that we are accepted fully. His holiness cleanses us, makes us whole so we can fellowship with Him again and He accepts us as we are, right now.
What a loving, gracious, merciful God!
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November 21st, 2004 at 12:27 am
Lovely post, Bloke.
“He invites us to bare our souls (soles?) before Him.”
Indeed.
November 22nd, 2004 at 1:23 am
I really like your insights into this verse of Bible. You seem to bring me to some thoughts on this phrase of God. And i agree with your points.
November 22nd, 2004 at 8:55 am
I’d be glad to repeat what I said, but I forgot and do not know where to find it. Here are my thoughts now, your thoughts on the meeting between Moses and God were enlightening. I have been a student of the Bible for over 40 years and did not see the point you made until now. God sort of rolled out the red carpet for Moses.
November 22nd, 2004 at 11:39 am
I really enjoyed your take on this and it has opened my eyes better as I read. And thanks for responding to Anonymous in my blog. You say it all well.
November 23rd, 2004 at 8:42 pm
hm. have you thought about a career in the pulpit? i’m not by any stretch a religious person, but have taken up reading the bible to better understand what i need to do for a new client. The folks at Tyndale House would really benefit from someone of your insight & eloquence. Absolutely beautiful interpretation. Thanks for sharing it.
November 24th, 2004 at 6:20 am
Thank you for your insights. In Hawaii, we take off our shoes and sandals and “slippas” when we enter a friend’s house. We often do the same when we enter an Asian shrine or temple. I think there is something of “leaving what touches unclean ground” outside, but also the idea that you’re “at home”–leave your traveling things outside, don’t think about leaving for a while.
God bless you.
November 24th, 2004 at 8:22 pm
Hi Leo,
Thanks for your comments. Yep, I am a Chinese person and we take off our shoes at home too, as well as when we visit our Asian friends here in Southern California. I live in a City with many Koreans, Japanese, Chinese and other Asians, and so many of our non-Asian friends have learned to do the same. Back in Asia, we take off our shoes at home and at places of worship, etc. I remember that some of the people who live in the country and who have dirt floors - yet, there are areas in the house that all footwear are removed.
That was why when I first encountered the passage in Exodus, I didn’t think twice about what it meant when God asked Moses to remove the shoes. It was only recently when I asked myself, “But why?” that I began to see that perhaps there were other reasons. It might be interesting if Biblical scholars and other historians can shed light on this…
November 24th, 2004 at 10:24 pm
I looked at a couple commentaries, and they said there was and still is a tradition in that part of the world to take off your shoes as a sign of respect. I don’t think being cleansed was at all the issue at this point. This is even before the ceremonial laws of cleanness and uncleanness had made explicit which things were holy, which common and which clean and unclean within the category of common.
November 24th, 2004 at 10:26 pm
I should say that the principle you’re talking about is clear in scripture. When Jesus bothers to touch the unclean leper, it’s exactly what you’re saying here. I just don’t think this passage is about that at all. It’s more about Moses being humbled by the glory and holiness of God and being faced with this impossible mission that God has somehow entrusted to him who is unworthy of it.
November 24th, 2004 at 11:15 pm
Hi Jeremy,
Thanks for your input. I think you may have a point about the pre-dating of ceremonial laws of cleanness and uncleanness. But I think the idea that when man meets God some kind of cleansing takes place is clear throughout scripture from Genesis onwards, e.g. Adam & Eve, Cain & Abel and so on. It becomes more particularized in the story of Isaiah’s vision and the cleansing of the touch of the burning coals. So I think that there is precedent in superimposing that concept into this story.
The idea that even now in the Middle East, people take off their footwear as a sign of respect, just like in Asian societies, could have been derived from that particular incident. That is, perhaps there was not a historical practice of removing footwear prior to this incident. Although the practice of washing of feet may mean that this practice could be historical throughout the region and has nothing to do with this particular incident.
However, the question, why God specifically says, “Remove your sandals for (because) the ground you are standing on is holy” still remains. It is not merely a sign of respect like the current social custom of Asians/Middle Eastern society. It has something to do with the holy. And, if that is the case, why remove the sandals if it was merely humbled by the glory and holiness of God? And the feeling of the overwhelmed with the vision came after the removal of the sandals.
Incidentally, I wasn’t saying that this is an experience of cleansing per se, but that it is a meeting between the Holy God and a sinful man. The fact is that the man is instructed to remove his sandals, one of the purposes of which includes protecting the feet. I am saying that this experience might be a sign that God is telling Moses that before the Holy God he can be vulnerable and need no protection - because God is His protector (cleanser, companion, etc).
November 26th, 2004 at 9:26 am
I wasn’t saying that it was a later idea that wouldn’t have been available to this earlier writer. I was saying that it’s a true principle that doesn’t seem to be taught by this text.
November 26th, 2004 at 11:08 am
True. It doesn’t seem to be taught by this text. My purpose wasn’t an exegesis of the text, but I was meditating upon it devotionally. What I uncovered may not have been the main point of the passage, although I would argue that it is not opposed to it, nor is it not conducive to the main point.
I believe we can look at this passage from the perspective that there is a gem here that is often overlooked by students and scholars alike, because (1) we are far removed from the culture of the day and do not understand what the footwear removal’s significance in this text, and (2) there is only one other incident about footwear removal (in Joshua) in the entire scriptures.
Coming from a background where footwear removal is a commonplace practice in our homes, I was intrigued why God would specifically instruct Moses (and later, Joshua) to remove their sandals because the ground upon which they were standing was holy.
No other similar instructions were given in other “holy” ground, such as the Tabernacle and the Temple. I don’t know about Jewish tradition and the synagogues but biblically that isn’t spelt out. This is not even spelt out in the Mount of Transfiguration. So, I was meditating on this passage by asking the question, “Why is this the case?“
I think that it is worth meditating upon, and it is an instructive exercise as a devotional reading of the text.
I do understand your implication that we need to be careful that we do not read into any scriptural passage any bias, assumptions or ideas from external to the passage. In this case, I believe I have been faithful to this passage in that it is not contrary to the overall message of the passage, which essentially is a message of God meeting with a mere human, and the transformational impact of such a meeting. What do you think?