Holy Ground
In Exodus 3:1-6, Moses is going about his normal everyday business when God reveals Himself to him. Have you ever thought about what this would be like? How would we react if we suddenly found ourselves in the presence of God?
There seems to be too casual of a perspective on what God is like in the Church today. It is as if God is one of us and we can approach Him without a second thought. While He is approachable because Jesus has reconciled us to Him, we must not forget who we are dealing with.
As Moses approached the burning bush God told him to do two things. He told him to keep his distance and to remove his shoes. In our current sin corrupted state we cannot come into the very presence of God without being destroyed. This is because God is absolutely holy and separate from sin. Physically, we have to keep our distance until we have a new body that has been transformed into the image of Christ.
God also told Moses to remove his shoes. In eastern culture “the removal of the shoes is a confession of personal defilement and conscious unworthiness to stand in the presence of unspotted holiness.” (Jamieson, Fausset, & Brown) In the church today, we seem to approach God with brazen indifference to His holiness. We must never lose sight of our unworthiness to stand on our own before Him.
Moses’ immediate response to being in God’s presence was to hide his face and be afraid to look at God. Fear and hiding seems to be the common response of people who come into the presence of God’s holiness. Nothing will ever expose our sin like the holiness of God. If we want to eradicate sin in our life then we need to seek greater knowledge and awareness of God’s absolute holiness.
As we think about what it would be like to come into the presence of God we need to keep in mind that He is a holy God. We must show Him reverence and fear as well as love and thankfulness.
