It Must Be The Shoes

God said, "Don't come any closer. Remove your sandals from your feet. You're standing on holy ground" (Exodus 3:5)

When I was growing up we had three kinds of shoes: play shoes, school shoes and church shoes. These shoes were to be worn during their designated time and there was hardly ever any overlap. You didn’t wear your church shoes to school, and you didn’t play in your school shoes. Well, one year my brother decided to wear his Easter (church) shoes to school on the Friday before Easter. Of course he scuffed the shoes and was not able to pass the preliminary fashion show we held on the Saturday evening before Easter. Our mother’s indictment against my brother was so severe that he may have received the worst whipping in the history of our household. Well, maybe the spanking my sister received when she forged my mother’s signature on her homework assignment was worst, but I digress. Anyway, our mother’s rationale for the intense discipline was that the scuffed shoes were a poor reflection on her.

Memory of that incident in the life of my family got me to thinking: is it possible that the Lord wanted Moses to take off his shoes because the shoes he had on were a poor reflection on God? Metaphorically speaking the shoes stopped him from making progress or matriculating in the things of God. God said to Moses, “Don’t come any closer. Remove your sandals from your feet. You’re standing on holy ground (Exodus 3:5).” In this passage the shoes Moses wore represented his past. They were reflective of the Egyptians culture in which he was raised, and because of them he could not get closer to God.

According to several scholars Egypt is a typology of the world. Whereas Moses' shoes depicted him as a worldly person, God want him to embrace holiness and righteousness so he was instructed to remove the shoes. Likewise, the apostle told the church of Ephesus you must pull or take off the former ways and behaviors and be renewed in your way of thinking and live a Christ- like life. "Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything--and I do mean everything--connected with that old way of life has to go. It's rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life--a God-fashioned life"(Ephesians 4:22 MSG).

Clearly, removing or eradicating the past is a challenge; and it cannot be met without the aid of the Holy Spirit who is willing to continually and constantly lead us into the truth: “And God's truth -the word of God- will make us free from the bondage of our former life. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free"(John 8:32).  As servants of God we cannot be double minded. We must either love the things of God or the things of the world. There is not room for both. Christians cannot be lukewarm or straddle the fence (see James 1:8; Revelation 3:16).

Therefore, we must be willing to take off our shoes (unrighteousness) in exchange for the opportunity to stand on holy ground (in the presence of God).  Unwillingness, stubbornness or intense failed efforts in this regard can stop or delay our spiritual growth. An eagerness to be in God’s presence should be the motivation for removing our shoes. In God's presence is the fullness of joy, and the joy of the Lord is our strength (see Psalm 16:11; Nehemiah 8:10). God's presence is the refreshing place for the believer: the place of security and safety. "You who sit down in the High God's presence, spend the night in Shaddai's shadow say this: GOD, you're my refuge. I trust in you and I'm safe"(Psalm 91: 1, 2). We should not be willing to hold on to anything that will disturb or distract us from genuinely and authentically being in the will, way, and presence of God.

It must be the shoes.

Prayer: Lord, as I long for a future with you, help me to take off the shoes of yesterday and forget my past, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

God's Peace and Good Journey!
+t. anthony bronner