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November 10, 2025 |
| The Mystery of the Sandals | ||
I might be appropriating someone's shtick with the style of the title of this study, but I think it is appropriate. There is a mystery here that no one I know of has ever even noticed.
The topic here is Moses removing his sandals at the burning bush. If you ask someone why Moses needed to remove his sandals, they will answer with either "Because God said to," or "Because the ground was holy." Those answers are correct, but neither of them gets to the heart of the question: why the sandals? Why not remove his coat or throw away his walking stick? How does removing the sandals fix a problem God was having? And what was the problem?
In this study, we'll see that there is a good reason for removing the sandals, and there is a message behind it for us as well.
Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. (Exodus 3:1)
The main purpose of this verse is not to tell us how to find our way to the mountain of God. The verses are telling us:
And the angel of Yahweh appeared to [Moses] in a blazing fire from the midst of the bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. 3 So Moses said, “I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight. Why is the bush not burned up?” (Exodus 3:2-3)
The verse tells us, the readers, what will be going on. An angel will appear as a fire in a bush. Moses doesn't get that right away.
Moses sees a fire burning in a bush. That would have happened from time to time, either from a lightning strike or someone's campfire getting out of control. His first concern would have been for the sheep he was shepherding. But as he looks at it, he notices, "That's just a little bush. Why is it burning so long? Wait a minute. The bush isn't being burned away." Who wouldn't go and check that out? It's a lot more interesting than watching sheep eat.
4 And Yahweh saw that he turned aside to look, so God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then He said, “Do not come near here. Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” (Exodus 3:4-5)
Verse 2 said there was an angel in the bush. This verse says God is calling from the bush. Which is correct? They both are. This happens in other places, including in the New Testament, in Revelation. The angel is speaking God's words … speaking for God, much like a prophet would. God doesn't appear physically to hardly anyone. Partly, the reason is that there was a risk of death. Moses knows this, as we'll see.
Now we get to the key verse for our topic. God tells Moses to take his sandals off. The reason given is "you are standing on holy ground." The problem for us is that there is a missing connection.
If your wife shouts out, "Take your shoes off, I just mopped the floor," we understand the connection. Dirty shoes will make the floor dirty, mopping the floor takes time and effort, and it's nice to have it stay clean for a while, even though its destiny is to have shoes tromping on it again.
With "Moses, take your sandals off, you're standing on holy ground," we don't get the connection. We'll come back to that.
6 He said also, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. (Exodus 3:6)
The voice identifies itself as the Abrahamic God whom Moses knows of through Jethro. Moses understands the risk. Though the voice says, "I am the God of …," the voice is coming from an angel, and Moses is not in the presence of God and, therefore, not at risk of dying.
When God says the ground is holy, he doesn't mean there is something magical about the ground. If Moses collected some of it, he couldn't use it later to heal people or anything. It's just dirt. It is holy because God has separated it out for his purpose.
The problem is that Moses is lying, but he doesn't know it. Lying won't be acceptable on holy ground.
Moses' lie is one of hypocrisy. I did a study about hypocrisy and said that we are bad at identifying hypocrisy. We are better at identifying it in others than in ourselves, but still bad at identifying it overall.
The problem is that God sees us differently from the way we see ourselves. As early as Genesis 3, God shows how he sees us.
By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19)
We think of ourselves as being more than dust.
We also see why the consequences for the serpent were appropriate.
And Yahweh God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you more than any of the cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you will go, and dust you will eat all the days of your life (Genesis 3:14)
The serpent had been devouring Eve and Adam, so now the serpent will continue to devour dust.
We forget our place. When we vacuum the dust out of our house, we don't realize there is still dust in the house. In fact, the dust has been cleaning out the dust. As we clean, cells shed from our skin and fall to the floor, where they become dust.
Moses wearing sandals to avoid walking in the dust is a hypocrisy because he thinks he is better than dust.
Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth. (Numbers 12:3)
As humble as Moses was, he had missed this.
This idea of removing sandals due to holy ground isn't unique. It occurs again with Joshua.
The commander of the host of Yahweh said to Joshua, “Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so. (Joshua 5:15)
There is reference to removing sandals for this reason in the New Testament, but it occurs when Stephen is relating the history of Israel's rejection of God and the story of the burning bush.
Fellow dust bunnies, do not think highly of yourselves.
This doesn't mean you shouldn't wear sandals or shoes. The message is about humility, especially in our relationship with God.
Another takeaway from this study is how difficult it is to see things from God's point of view and to lie from a lack of knowledge.