5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”
God is always in charge of His space. Since He created everything, He gets to define the meaning of that space. In one place God says that heaven is His throne and earth is His footstool. God defines His relationship to creation, we don’t. With Moses walking toward the burning bush, God begins by defining that space by calling it holy. The Lord always defines His space as holy. Any place that God makes Himself known is holy. I sometimes think of holy like this. If I want to be part of an exclusive county club, I must qualify according to their rules. Often those rules include income, position in the community, connection to other influential people, and willingness to play the country club game. There is only One who qualifies for the ‘Holy’ country club and that is God Himself. He is the only One who possesses the unique quality called holiness. We could spend a lot of time defining holiness, but that will have to wait for another time. God begins to define his relationship with Moses by saying that Moses is not qualified to be there. God calls Moses closer and then tells him to stop. I don’t think there is anything special about Moses’ sandals. God wants to define the space. This space is holy space. I am here and I get to define what is expected. Moses, you don’t get to make the rules. So often we want to define our relationship with God. We want to set the rules and limits. We want to be in charge. We want salvation on our terms, instead of on God’s terms. We like being the one to define the relationship. We can keep God on Sunday and have the rest of the week to ourselves. But God says to Moses, I get to make the rules. If you want a relationship with me, then you must live by my definition of who I am, and by extension, who you are. Are you willing to live with God’s definition of who you are? Do you even know how God defines you?
The Arnold Journey 