The first time Moses “runs into” the God of his fathers, even the God of the universe, one of the first things the LORD says to him … “remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” (Ex. 3:5b – NASB)
When Joshua is on the verge of taking the very first city within the land promised to them by the LORD, he sees a man standing in front of him with His sword drawn, and Joshua asks this man if He is for them or against them. The man tells him, “No”, that He is captain of the LORD’s host. Joshua falls with his face to the ground and asks what he should do … and the Man tells him, “Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” (Josh. 5:15 NASB)
When you read the account of the Levites’ wardrobe in their service of the tabernacle, what you don’t see … are sandals. The priests had to be bare footed … touching & walking on … HOLINESS … by the intentional will of YHVH !
When Deity, the Word of God, became flesh and blood, and dwelt among us, this perfect Man, prior to His arrest and crucifixion, lowers Himself to the status of a house slave, takes off His garment, and girds Himself with a towel … and proceeds to wash the feet of His twelve disciples, including those of Judas.
In the early 80’s I was a missionary to deaf children in Bolivia, S.A. The country, though officially “Spanish”, is made up also of other people groups, the two other predominant languages of which I recall, are Aymara and Quechua, indigenous Indians who were in that land way before the Spanish ever settled it. They are extremely poor. I remember that most wore sandals … their “ragged” feet showed the years of wear and tear. The streets were extremely dusty, many then just dirt roads. I learned, while there, that it was rude, when sitting down, to cross your legs so as to show the underside of your foot; for the underside of one’s feet were considered the filthiest part of one’s body … and if you realized that their feet were always exposed and touched by the filthy elements, you clearly understood why.
It was then that I saw Jesus’ washing of the disciples’ feet in a whole new light. Deity was stooping very low to clean mankind’s feet so that we could touch unblemished … holiness … without being condemned for it. God did not tell Moses or Joshua to hide the parts of their feet that could be seen, but to remove the part attached to their feet that kept them from realizing Holy God was touching earth.
YHVH does not want you and I, Beloved, immune from His touching the dirt that He used to form us. I am overwhelmed that Deity, Holy God, in His perfect Son, wants to wash my feet AND wants me to touch the earth that He is touching, that His manifest presence is touching. He doesn’t want Believers immune to His presence touching the earth. He doesn’t want unbelievers immune, either, from His presence touching the earth. Jesus was most comfortable, not around those who knew the scriptures, but among those who didn’t, who didn’t do “religion”, who were tax collectors and adulterers, and every other sinner we could tag a label to.
That He told Moses and then later Joshua to remove their sandals because the place they were standing was holy had nothing to do with the Law. It had to do with YHVH not wanting them immune to His Holiness, which was touching the earth.
But there is something more …
Moses, Joshua, the priests, and the twelve, all whose feet He touched, all whose feet He wanted to touch His presence, were leaders who were to take the revelation of YHVH’s “Holiness” to the world. That “revelation” was not to be a theological doctrine, as it were, not to be some teaching that declared God was too holy for us to stand uncondemned in His presence, but the real, the true, the actual touch of heaven’s touch of the earth … It is God, Almighty God, wanting us to touch, with our feet, His Holiness. Our standing, our foundation our Savior and LORD wants us to confidently feel under our feet.
… Selah …