Christ in the Old Testament

Exodus 3:5

 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” (NIV)

Today’s Reading: Exodus 3:1-6 and Hebrews 10:1-10

Picking up where we left off yesterday in verse 3, Moses goes over to the burning bush out of curiosity. God calls to him from within the bush and tells him to take off his sandals because he’s standing on holy ground. Then God tells Moses who He is and Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.

God is revealing himself to Moses in this moment. God is going to show and tell Moses who He is in several different ways. God is pulling back the curtain here. God wants Moses to have a deep understanding of himself. We are going to try to get our minds around the character of our God as He reveals himself to Moses here. God also wants us to know who He is and it will help us better understand who Jesus is as well. Just to set expectations, this may take us a few days.

The first is that He is holy. This is the first recorded use of the word “holy” with reference to God in Scripture. You may have a preconceived idea of what the word “holy” means. When I think of holy I think of God being holy. But how is holy used in Scripture? We know these things are called holy:

• God is holy (Rev 4:8)
• God calls his people to be holy (Lev 19:2)
• Some people are said to be holy (2 Kings 4:9)
• The Sabbath Day is holy (Gen 2:3)
• Certain places are holy (1 Chr 6:49)
• Tithes are holy (2 Chr 31:6)
• Offerings are holy (Neh 10:33)
• God’s throne is holy (Psalm 47:8)
• Jesus is holy (Acts 4:27)
• God sent the Holy Spirit (John 14:26)
• The ground around the burning bush was holy (Ex 3:5)

I think the definition of holy fails us a bit in our understanding of holy. Holy is often defined as “separate” or “set apart.” This is true but it is so much more than that. What makes something holy? God makes things holy. Don’t miss this: Anything that is directly connected to God and to the service of God is holy.

God himself is holy because He’s the origin. In the same way God is love and you can love or be loved. Anything God does is love just like anything God uses is holy. So look back at our list of things we found in Scripture that are holy. These things are holy because they’re being used for God’s purposes. You can be holy just like a day, or throne, or sacrificial lamb can be holy. Holy refers to anything that has been set apart by God Himself for a specific use or purpose.

God told Moses to take off his sandals before stepping on the holy ground. So what’s going on here? Of course there’s symbology in the sandals! The sandals are an image of circumcision which we will cover on another day. But they are also an image of the coverings Adam and Eve donned on the day they sinned. Adam and Eve were given garments of animal skin to cover them due to their sin – garments of death to protect them from death. We must remove our animal garments (sin) in order to come into contact with the revelation of God.

So was Moses about to make the ground unholy by stepping on it with his sandals? No. Moses could have defiled the area by refusing to take off his shoes, but that would not have somehow made the ground unholy. Whether something is holy or unholy is independent of human conduct. We may defile something that is holy, but we can never make something that is holy to now be unholy.

So this is good news! Hebrews 10:10 says, “we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” What God makes holy, we cannot make unholy. We have been made holy through the blood of Jesus. If you believe in Jesus, you are set apart by God to be connected to Him and to be in service of His purposes. That makes you holy! You are filled with the Holy Spirit and you are now God’s holy temple (2 Cor 6:16). You are His!

Today’s Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for making me holy, chosen by you for you. Help me to want to act accordingly! Help me to desire to do all things I do today as if I’m doing them for you.