Forty years have passed since Moses went into his self-imposed exile. He has married Zipporah, one of the women he rescued, and had a son, Gershom. No longer does he rule as the prince of Egypt; now he is a simple shepherd tending the sheep of his father-in-law.
According to the Bible, Moses has taken the flock to a place called Horeb (it will be significant later on) when he sees a strange sight: there is a bush on fire. Now this in and of itself is not unusual. It is the Sinai Desert after all, which is hot and miserable and bushes I imagine catch fire all the time. But there is something strange about this burning bush.
It doesn't burn up.
Instead it continues to burn and burn without the leaves or the branches ever being affected.
Curious and probably a little bored (tending sheep isn't generally an adrenaline rush), Moses goes over to investigate. And that is when his life changes forever. As he steps closer, he hears a voice calling to him.
"Moses! Moses!"
This had to have confused Moses. He was looking at a strange bush that was on fire, yet not consumed and now there was a voice speaking to him. The thought that he had been getting far too much sun must have crossed his mind.
Yet he decides to play along and answers, "Here I am."
"Do not come any closer," the voice commands. "Take off your sandals, for the place you are standing is holy ground."
Again Moses must have just been more confused. He's standing on holy ground? But all there is is a voice and a strange bush. This isn't a temple or a sanctuary; it's the middle of nowhere!
Then the voice identifies himself. "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."
Suddenly everything clicked for Moses. Moses realized with terror that he was standing in the very presence of God himself. So quickly he covered his face because, the Bible says, "he was afraid to look at God."
"Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."
Several years ago, then-President George Bush was giving a speech in Iraq to several Iraqis after the successful (more or less) removal of Saddam Hussein and the Baath Party. During the Q&A part of the speech, an Iraqi threw his shoe at the President, who displayed admirable reflexes in ducking it. While most of us laugh it off as strange and comical, in that culture what that man did was a far greater insult than if one of us had flipped off President Bush.
In many cultures today, the Middle East included, the foot is vilest part of the body. Showing someone the bottom of your foot is a worse insult that the finger is here and taking your shoes off when entering a home or a building is a sign of respect. For example, when I was in Laos, we took our shoes off when going into the sanctuary. To us this tradition may seem strange, but to them it is a matter of reverence and respect.
This brings us back to Moses. God tells him to take his shoes off because he is standing on holy ground. For the former prince of Egypt, being on holy ground certainly wasn't anything new. Egypt was covered with temples and sanctuaries. Even today, the vast complexes at Karnak, Abu Symbel, and Luxor fascinate archaeologists. Taking his shoes off when entering a holy site wasn't something new for Moses.
But this time, he wasn't at a temple or a sanctuary. He was out in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of sheep. There were no priests, no statues, no altars: just him, a bush, and some sheep. And this was holy ground? It begs the question, what makes this place holy?
The answer is obvious: God was there and anywhere God is, is holy. Well of course anywhere God is holy, we all get that. But do we get that God can be anywhere?
When we think of a holy place, for most of us our minds immediately think of the church sanctuary. We even have special rules for the sanctuary: we wear our best clothes, speak softly, and never run. Now there's nothing wrong with that: the sanctuary is a holy place and we do go there to meet God. But so often we treat it as the only holy place in our lives; as if it is the only place we go to meet God.
Yet in the Bible, very rarely do people actually meet God at the sanctuary or temple. They meet God by the sides of roads, on the tops of mountains, in caves, on boats, even at tea time (that's an interesting story). All of these places become "holy ground."
Do we realize that we are walking on holy ground all the time? Anywhere God is is holy ground and God meets us anywhere. He meets us in our bedrooms, in the car, in class, in church, at lunch, even in the bathroom from time to time. Will we, like Moses, recognize that the ground we are standing on is holy and take off our sandals or will we just walk on by?
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