Exodus 3:1-5 "Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground."
The scriptures tell us that Moses had now been in Midian for forty years (Acts 7:30). He had made his home here and built a life for himself. He was raised in the courts of the king of Egypt with all the privileges that entailed. Yet here he was being a simple shepherd in a strange land over a flock that was not his.
Men would say that Moses had fallen a long way in his social standing. He had gone from being a prince of Egypt to a common shepherd on the backside of the wilderness. In this wilderness where he had nothing to claim as his own, He came to the mountain of God. There he saw the first of many miraculous wonders that God would show him.
Moses saw a bush burning that was unharmed by the flames. This sight caused him to turn aside from his course. God revealed Himself to Moses and called to him out of the midst of the bush where the fire was. When God called his name, Moses responded “Here am I.” Then God told him not to come any closer until he had removed his shoes.
Like Moses, we began our lives being raised in a home where our needs were provided for on a daily basis. As God worked in our lives, we discovered that we had brethren we knew little about. Eventually, we grew, and as we did so, we found ourselves laboring for others and building lives we were content with. Then, one day we found ourselves spiritually on the backside of the wilderness.
God revealed something of His glory and saving grace to us, and we turned aside from our path to take a closer look at this wonder. God called to us in the midst of this miraculous revelation that we belonged to Him and He knew our name. In that moment, we learned that we were not worthy to approach unto the holiness of God. The shoes (things of this world) that we had walked in would have to come off for us to stand on the holy ground of God.
Dear ones, anywhere we are that God, through the Spirit, makes Himself known to us is holy ground. It might be at church or in Walmart or driving down the road. Wherever it is, we cannot continue to walk in the “shoes” of our choosing and stand on that ground. We must put aside our own willful walk to know the glory of standing in His presence.