The tabernacle of the righteous is where the voice of rejoicing is heard. These humble hearts that have willingly unfolded in the Son’s light to be cleansed are the place where the Lord dwells. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Cast me not away from Your presence and take not Your Holy Spirit from me. … Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my guilt and iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me. Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. It will be a heart that has willingly submitted to Lord’s searching and cleansing. The heart of one with a “sincere” devotion to the Lord will be found pure when examined and judged by the Son, the light of the world. What a beautiful picture of a sincere heart, a heart willing to ‘take off its shoes’! So the two parts together mean to be found pure when unfolded and examined by the sun’s light! The first part comes from heile (the sun’s ray), the second from krino (to judge). Looking more closely at this word, we see it is actually a compound word. In v10 the strong’s word heilikrines for sincere is very interesting. This is holy ground!Īnd this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be *sincere and blameless until the day of Christ being filled with the fruits of righteousness which come through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. This is where the Lord dwells and reveals Himself. It appears that taking off your shoes is a symbol for a heart willing to humble itself before the Lord and be cleansed. I didn’t see that it was a symbol for removing or excluding the dirt and sin of the world or that it was really a command linked to preparing your heart.įor thus says the high and lofty One–He Who inhabits eternity, Whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, but with him also who is of a thoroughly penitent and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the thoroughly penitent -Isa 57:15 AMP I saw it as obedience and as a sign of reverence, worship and humility. I didn’t see before the whole significance of the Lord’s command to take off your shoes. This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him w ho seek Your face. He shall receive blessing from the LORD, a nd righteousness from the God of his salvation. Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, n or sworn deceitfully. Who can ‘see’ God? Who can ‘stand’ on holy ground?īlessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. ‘But only those who see, take off their shoes’. Holy ground is holy, ‘set apart, unique, distinct’ because this is ground that the Lord chooses to reveal Himself in. Every part of the earth bears witness that He is good.
The Lord’s mercy or goodness is manifest everywhere. The earth is full of the goodness of God. The heavens are telling of the glory of God And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. It was a way of excluding the dust and dirt of the world.įrom the above it appears that ‘holy ground’ is the place where God is active revealing Himself. The removal of sandals was, and still is in the East, a sign of humility and reverence in the presence of the Holy One. Because God was in this place, the ground was different – it was holy. The word קֹדֶשׁ (qodesh, “holy”) indicates “set apart, distinct, unique.” What made a mountain or other place holy was the fact that God chose that place to reveal himself or to reside among his people. The place where he is active in revealing himself is a holy place. The phrase holy ground points to the fact that God is not limited to a particular locale. I knew the flaming bush and taking off of shoes was referring to Moses and the burning bush.Īcts 7:33 … The LORD said to him, “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground”.Ī quotation from Exod 3:5. The rest sit around it and pluck blackberries.” – Elizabeth Browning But only those who see, take off their shoes