Put Off Thy Shoes From Off Thy Feet

Grace and Peace brothers, sisters, and friends in Christ Jesus and in Adam.

You know, it can be difficult at times to know how to talk to God.  After all, He is God: Creator of the Universe, Sovereign of All Things whether in heaven, in earth, or under the earth.  The First and the Last.  The Beginning and The End.  Wow.  He, as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, is over everyone and everything.  Yet, how many of us remember this when we go to Him in prayer?

Remember that when God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, He said,

“Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5).

Did you know that when we come before the Lord in prayer we are actually in God’s presence?  Have you any idea what an awesome privilege this is?  You and I will likely never gain an audience with an actual king, queen, or president, and even if we did we would have to first go through a lot of protocol before even being allowed in the room where the king, queen, or president sits.  I have no idea what that protocol might be, and frankly, I’m not interested enough to even go through the trouble to research it.  The point is that we cannot come before any king or queen at our leisure, when we want to.  It must be at their leisure and when and if they want to.

But God in His love for us has given us permission to come before His sovereign presence whenever we please.  Why?  because God loves His Son Jesus, Who in suffering and dying for the sins of the world, was “obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8).  The Lord Jesus did not have to allow Himself to suffer humiliation at the hands of sinners (Hebrews 12:3), nor, being innocent, did He have to allow Himself to be condemned as an evil-doer by evil-doers.  But the Lord Jesus did this and more: for He saw this evil all the way to its conclusion and allowed Himself to be crucified on the cross (a death reserved for criminals) for the sins of the whole world.  And this man had never sinned a day in His entire life.

For this, God, who rewards righteousness (Mathew 6:6), has highly exalted Jesus (Philippians 2:9) and given Him a name that is above every name.  He will give Jesus whatever He asks.  Jesus said that anything that we ask of the Father in His (Jesus’) name, He (Jesus) would give it to us (John 14:13-14).  (Incidentally, if Roman Catholics, who pray in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which is unscriptural, receive anything that they “pray” for, it is only because of the grace of God.)

Now, Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well that the day was coming when people would neither worship God “in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem” (John 4:21).  This meant that we would no longer be required to go to a certain place to worship God as the Jews had to, but that we could worship Him wherever we are.

Jesus next told her why this would be.  Please pay attention to this, because it is very important.  Jesus said,

“The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.  God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth.”

Jesus said that the true worshippers of God would one day worship Him “in spirit.”  We know that this is true, because the Bible says,

“For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit” (Philippians 3:3).

Paul draws an important contrast here.  Scripture tells us that another name for the Jews was “the circumcision” because they were chosen of God to be His people, and the circumcision of all male children was a token in the flesh of the Jews’ covenant with God. Non-Jews, or Gentiles, were known as the “uncircumcision,” which name denotes not only a physical reality, but also the fact that they had no covenant with God.  In other words, they were not a chosen people.  The Jewish worship of God, prior to the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ, entailed a person going to the priest with an animal sacrifice (usually a lamb or a goat) which he would present to the priest at the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.  The priest would then sacrifice it and shed its blood on behalf of that person as an atonement to God for that person’s sins.  The priest then, was the mediator between God and man.

But God in His love for us, sent His Son Jesus to die and shed his blood for the sins of the world.  As the Lamb of God, Jesus performs two roles:

1) As the final sacrifice for the sins of all men, Jesus eliminated the need for us to physically present a sacrifice to God for the atonement of our sins.

2) As our Great High Priest (Hebrews 9:11) Jesus is now our mediator to God under the New Covenant (Hebrews 9:7, 12:24). There is no longer any need for an earthly priest.

So, whereas the Jews (the Circumcised in the flesh) had to present themselves bodily in order to worship God, we Christians (the Circumcised in the spirit) need not so to do.   We are free to worship God whenever and wherever we are through the spirit.

This enormous blessing is not without its problems though, because oftentimes we forget that we are talking to The King of Kings.  If we had to travel all the way to Washington in our best clothes, at our own expense, and after much correspondence and protocol, for a once-in-a-lifetime, brief, fifteen-minute audience with God, it would immediately become clear to us how big a deal it was.  And we would not only wear the best clothes we had, but we would probably buy new clothes specifically for the occasion.  Worship would become a chore if we had to do this once a year, let alone once a month, a week, or—God forbid—every day.  But because of the grace of God we don’t have to.

Let me put this in perspective for you.  Precious few of the over one billion Roman Catholics in the world will ever gain an audience with the pope, the head of their religion.  The pope is only one man, and if it were required for every Roman Catholic to travel to Rome to visit him even once in their lifetime, it would be a Herculean undertaking for the pope and certainly of no small consequence on the part of the individual.  On a smaller scale, a Roman Catholic must still present himself bodily before the priest to confess his sins and receive absolution, or forgiveness (which is unscriptural, by the way).  Likewise, it is also a requirement of Islam that every Muslim who is physically able must make the pilgrimage to Mecca at some time in his lifetime.  Because of the planning, financing, and logistics involved, this would be a major task in the life of a Muslim—especially the poorer ones.

Our God, however, has given us the awesome privilege, because of His love for us and because of His love and regard for His Son Jesus, to come to Him in spirit rather than in person.  What a blessing!  We need not go to the holy mountain in Jerusalem to worship the Lord.

But, just because we are allowed to come before God in spirit rather than in person does not mean that we ought to forget that He is The King.  That means that our attitude should be one of humility.  Humility is first reflected bodily, and for this reason it is customary to kneel in prayer.  But we should at times humble ourselves more than by merely kneeling before Him.  Notice that God told Moses to take off his shoes because he was on “holy ground.”  For most of us, this will not be a problem because we pray in the morning before getting dressed and at night after disrobing.  But we also pray in the street: asking God to protect us from evil, help us to resist sin, to let us reflect His holiness in our dealings with people, to let this interview turn out alright, to help us to not react to certain ungodly people, etc.  We should spiritually take off our shoes when we talk to God even at these times.  Let us not forget that He is The King.

How do we spiritually take off our shoes?  We address God in a way that reflects who He is and our reverence for His position.  We use any one of His many names and titles that are found in the Bible.  But you won’t know what they are unless you read your Bible.  It is when addressing God in prayer that I know whether or not I have been lax—not necessarily in reading the Bible, but in remembering Him and His sovereignty when reading the Bible.  I can tell you, while writing this, that I have been somewhat lax in this area, as I have been going through a difficult time lately.  When I go through these trials often my prayers are me groaning out my problems to Him, thanking Him for counting me worthy to go through these trials for His name, and telling Him that He is still worthy of all praise and honor.  But I neglect to praise and honor Him.  Funny huh?

I thank God that He knows I am just dust.  So, since I have been sleeping on this, you can walk through the Bible with me, and we’ll find some of His names and titles together.  I like it this way.  Let’s see…I have always liked John 17, Jesus’ Great Priestly Prayer to God on behalf of His disciples and the Church.  In verse 11, Jesus calls God “Holy Father.”  That is a great title, because God is Holy.  Remembering that will insure that we won’t address Him as merely a friend or a relative, though He is both, but also as His Holiness.  Only God is Holy.  Remembering this should also enflame you against all pretenders to that title.  But I digress.

In verse 25, Jesus calls God “Righteous Father.”  I especially like this since I can see the actor portraying Jesus in the movie, “The Gospel According to John.”  He did a really good job conveying the love and humanity of Jesus and the love He had for God the Father.  When he said, “O Righteous Father” it touched something in me that I still feel whenever I read those words.  God is Righteous—meaning Just—and we need to always remember that His judgments are never out of animosity.  Even when He acts out of anger or vengeance it is always righteous anger and righteous vengeance, for He is Righteous.

Now let us turn to Psalms, for if there were anyone who ever knew how to pray, it was David.  The psalms, besides the example of Jesus, are a great way to learn how to pray, by learning how David addressed God.

Let’s begin with Psalm 91, the Psalm of Security.  Here, David calls God the “Most High” and “The Almighty.”  As Most High, there is no one and no thing higher than He.  Therefore He is deserving of more praise than anyone.  He is deserving of more honor than anyone.  He is deserving of more reverence than anyone.  He is deserving of more respect than anyone.  And He alone deserves our worship.  As the Almighty, He is the most powerful being in existence, and is able to do anything and everything.  And, most happily, He is also our God and Father.  Let me tell you something: if I were a child and my father were a king, I would not be worried about too much in this world, because I would know that my father has the resources to handle most of life’s problems because he is king.  And if he can’t fix it, he knows someone who can.  Our heavenly father, God Almighty, is King of Kings.  All resources are His.  Not only can He fix anything He pleases, but He has the power to compel and empower anyone He wants to fix anything on our behalf.

But look at line 2.  Because God is the Most High and the Almighty, we can say of Him, “He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust.”  We can trust God to do what He says He will do, because He has the power and authority to do it.  Let me tell you something.  That is a big deal.  Presidents and kings can do many things, but rarely do they promise to do anything but try, because, though they may have authority, they do not always have power.  Authority is nothing without power, and without power there are no guarantees.  Politicians often make promises, but rarely do they deliver, because they don’t have the power to deliver.  They may have the authority to promise, but they do not always have the power to make good on their promises, even if they were so inclined (which is not often).  God has all power and all authority.  He is the only one who can deliver on all His promises.

Even the Roman centurion knew this.  Being someone in a position of authority, and being invested with the power of the one who gave him the position, he understood that Jesus could not do the things He did without having both authority and power (Luke 7:1-10).  Jesus has all power and authority, because He is King.  Think about that the next time you pray.

Let’s look at Psalm 90:

“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”

Before there was ever a king, God was, and after all kings have longed passed away, God will be.  He is eternal.  However you choose to express this to Him: be it Eternal God, Everlasting God, Father of the Everlasting, Eternal One, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, the important thing is to recognize His eternal nature; for if you understand His eternal nature, you understand His authority and power: for who can promote or demote an Eternal God?

Perhaps no psalm conveys the message of God’s absolute authority like Psalm 5, for here the psalmist says: “Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King and my God: for unto thee will I pray.”

God is called both King and God.  These titles convey both His temporal (worldly) and spiritual authority and power.  As King He is Lord of the temporal, because he created the physical world.  The Scripture tells us in many places that it is He that sets up and deposes rulers at His pleasure.  If He sets up kings, then He is King of the Kings, and, as such, He is worthy of our honor.  As God, He is over all gods, who in fact are no gods, for He alone is God.  As God, He is worthy of our worship.  We would do well to remember this when we come before Him in prayer.

Let us revisit the issue of humility once more: for if we humble ourselves in deed, it is a mere detail to humble ourselves in word.  As you will recall, when Moses was speaking to God in the burning bush, Scripture tells us, “Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God” (Exodus 3:6).  There are a couple of important things to consider about this verse.  First, it is important to note that Moses was not told to do this.  His heart, which was already subject to God, knew instantly to render due respect and fear to the Sovereign of the Universe.  He didn’t have to be prompted to do it.  Second, notice that God never told Moses to uncover his face.  God expects our fear and reverence, and it was not improper, humiliating, or unmanly for Moses to act in this manner.  Even though God doesn’t demand this show of reverence when we come to Him in prayer, if your heart is right with God, at some point the Spirit will reveal to you the need to render this honor to Him.

When I would pray with my children, I would always bow myself to the ground on all fours with my face to the ground.  I would not always cover my face when doing so, but somehow my children (one in particular) felt the necessity for this.  If we understand that it is to the King of the universe to Whom we are praying, and we display this in our attitude and words by a reverential and humble attitude, our children will understand this right away; for children, being subject to everyone, understand nothing if not authority.  But when we display an irreverent, careless attitude when addressing God, believe me when I tell you that our children will pick up on this too, and will be likewise irreverent and careless in their dialogue with the Lord.  This ought not to be.

Let us by all means come to the Lord whenever we choose, being thankful that Jesus has made it possible, through His selfless sacrifice for us, to worship God how and where we are.  But let us not forget that God is a Sovereign and Holy King, Who deserves not only our love and gratitude, but also our utmost respect and reverence.

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Be encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

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