Solomon Aggrey - Following His Glory

Moses realised that the fire was not only strange but alive. The fire had a voice. It can talk in a language he could understand. And it knew his name. God began to warn Moses.

‘Do not draw near this place, take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.’

Exodus 3.5

Oh my God! The fire was not just living but holy as well. For a long time, over two hundred years since the children of Israel lived in Egypt, God had not manifested Himself to anyone, but in the time of Moses He manifested Himself to Moses as a flame of fire and began to draw the parameters of their relationship. For the first time we have an idea how God manifests Himself. Fire!

1 Do not draw near this place.

2 Take the sandals off your feet.

3 The place where you stand is holy ground.

There are always parameters when it comes to a communion with someone superior, more so with the supreme God. Let us take a cursory look at these parameters.

Do Not Draw Near This Place

‘Do not draw near this place…’ was a command and a warning. Moses saw the flame of fire and was stopped getting closer for his own good. He would have come under God’s immediate judgement and possibly might have been burnt alive. It gave Moses the chance to have an appreciation of who he was, where he was and whom he was communicating with. The restriction drew a boundary and set up limits between God and Moses. No one is righteous before God, and no one is holy like the Lord (Romans 3.10, 1 Samuel 2.2). Therefore, Moses was deemed unholy before God, and needed to be sanctified first.

Moses told the children of Israel later, ‘For the Lord our God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.’ (Deuteronomy 4.24). Apostle Paul also describes God as ‘He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light which no man has seen or can see …’ ‘For our God is a consuming fire.’ (1 Timothy 6.15-16, Hebrews 12.29). God is a consuming fire, a Jealous God and dwells in unapproachable Light. He will consume anyone before Him who is unholy.

Take The Sandals Off Your Feet

The obvious physical reason why it was necessary for Moses to take off his sandals was that there was dust on them, so Moses would have trampled upon the place with dust and made it dirty. Spiritually, it meant his walk or life was unclean. To keep the sandals on would have meant spiritually defiling the place. Taking the sandals off symbolically removed the uncleanness and the unholiness. In another episode, the Commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, ‘Take the sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.’ (Joshua 5.15). Therefore, the main reason for removing the sandals was because the place he was standing was holy and was not to be defiled.

Secondly, a sandal is a sign of authority and taking it off indicates the surrender of one’s authority. In the story of Ruth in the Bible, the close relative of Boaz removed his sandals because he decided not to redeem the estate of Naomi which fell to him (Ruth 4.8). Therefore, his honour or authority was taken from him and given to Boaz, who was next in line to redeem the family estate. Moses took off his honour and authority before God when he took off his sandals. It was a sign of humility and surrender before God.

Thirdly, it was the sign of honour and respect to God and to the place where God had manifested His presence. It was and is the practice in the Middle East, including Egypt, to take off the sandals when one went to temples and holy places. Before the true and holy God Moses was not expected to keep his sandals on.

The Place where You Stand Is Holy

Every place God reveals Himself becomes holy. The patriarchs would build altars to mark such places and to consecrate them. At the time God called Moses, he had not been sanctified or consecrated. In other words, he was unholy. However, the fact that the tree was not consumed meant that God’s holiness had overshadowed the tree and the place. To see the fire of God is one thing but to enter into it is quite another thing altogether; they are not the same. Moses would later be invited to enter the fire of God, but at that first encounter he was not invited because he was deemed unholy. This suggests a process of transformation or sanctification.

If we want to know God, before we can ‘party’ with Him, perhaps the first thing we should know and understand is, ‘God is holy’. God is the source of all holiness. Holiness is God’s nature. It is the very essence of His being; His invisible, proper, and essential nature, that which makes Him who He is. If His holiness is breached, God will no longer be God. Modern Christianity has reduced God only to a ‘good natured benevolent person’ upstairs whose purpose is to attend to and supply her needs and wants. We have come to approach God as if He is just anybody, sometimes with such disrespect. No! The God of the Bible is a holy God. And there is none holy like Him.

Psalmist says, ‘Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at His holy hill; for the Lord our God is holy.’ (Psalms 99.9). Not only is God holy but He alone is holy as Scriptures reveal. ‘No one is holy like the Lord, for there is none besides You, nor is there any rock like our God.’ (1 Samuel 2.2). The victorious saints sung in Revelations 15, ‘Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy …’ (Revelations 15.4).

Speaking through prophet Isaiah, God said, ‘And there is no other God besides Me, a just and a Saviour; there is none besides me.’ (Isaiah 45.21b). In Isaiah 46.9-10 God says, ‘Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God and there is none like Me. Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done.’ (Isaiah 46.9-10). God’s holiness, therefore, separates Him from man, angels, anyone or anything in the universe whether living or not.

The common Hebrew words used for holy are ‘qados’, meaning separated or set apart and ‘qodesh’, meaning separateness or apartness. When used of God, it refers to God’s absolute separateness, uniqueness, and distinctness over and above everyone and everything in all things. He cannot be touched or be influenced by sin, evil, death, space, or time. He cannot be mixed with anything. God is therefore absolute pure and perfection in word and deed. No one therefore can be in God’s dimension and know Him and describe Him unless he reveals Himself.

As a flame of fire, God has infinite ability to judge, cleanse, purify, expose, empower, consume or destroy as the physical copy of spiritual fire and light. Moses later warned the children of Israel that the Lord God is a consuming fire, a jealous God (Deuteronomy 4.24). The Fire of God is jealous. It will consume everything that is unholy before it, including man but it will not consume anything declared holy. He is the sole object of our love and worship and will judge and consume any idolatry, sin, or rebellion.

When Moses obeyed God and removed his sandals, God continued to speak to him and put him in line with the promises and the covenants He made to Abraham and his seed.

‘Moreover He said, ‘I am the God of your father – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon Him.’

Exodus 3.6

God did not say, ‘I was,’ but ‘I am’ the God of your father. Even though Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were dead, hundreds of years ago, they were still alive, and God was still their God. It meant Abraham, Isaac and Jacob found the city they were waiting for, the heavenly city (Hebrews 11.10). Jesus Christ referred to this passage and said that “God is not the God of the dead but of the living.” (Matthew 22.32). God also did not say ‘your fathers’ but ‘your father,’ referring directly to Abraham. So Moses was going to inherit or walk in the promises of Abraham, even though Moses was the seventh generation after Abraham.