"Take off Your Sandals"

Then He said, "Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet for the place where you stand is holy ground."    - Ex 3:5

Then the Commander of the LORD's army said to Joshua, "Take you sandal off your foot for the place where you stand is holy." And Joshua did so.  -Josh 5:15

Hmmmmm...., so why did God ask Moses and Joshua to take off their sandals? (Just one sandal in Joshua's case; was he one-legged??)

And what made the places they were standing on holy?

The reason that these two men were ased to take off their sandals is given in the text itself: "for the place where you stand is holy...".  Here in India we can easily relate to this; people of all religions here (Except Christians!!!) take off their shoes or sandals before entering their places of worship. (Well, in the 'traditional' churches the priest does take off his shoes before stepping onto the church altar)

The primary and most obvious reason for this is to keep the place clean; allowing footwear inside would dirty the place in no time at all because of all the dust and dirt that could come in stuck to the shoes. This is also why shoes and sandals used outside are not allowed inside so many homes, especially in the kitchen.

 Moses and Joshua also lived in a culture where such respect was shown for places of worship or 'houses of gods', ie- holy places. So when the Angel of the LORD commanded them to take off their sandals, they realized that they were in the presence of God. And it was this Presence that seems to have made that ground holy. Though Mt Sinai does seem to have had some sort of history as it is called the 'mountain of God' in Ex 3.

But then what do sandals signify spiritually? Sandals generally accumulate a lot of dust as they are being used, even more so in ancient times. Man has been formed out of dust, in other words, the flesh is dust; that is to say, dust signifies flesh.

So when these men of God were told to take off their sandals, God was telling them to get rid of the flesh, not in the literal sense of course but in the figurative sense with the flesh meaning carnality and all human weaknesses. Because now, the LORD Himself was going to transform and empower them for the mighty works that they were going to do.

So we too, when we enter into the presence of God, must put off our flesh, or as the apostle Paul put it, mortify our flesh; so that God will be able to breathe His life into us and empower us to do the work that He has called us for.

Now about Joshua, why did the Angel of the LORD tell him to take off his sandal from his foot instead of his sandals from his feet?

That's for the next post ....