GROUNDING IN HOLINESS Written by Kelly Gellert

Moses spent the first 40 years of his life in Egypt.  The next 40 years he spent in the wilderness with a Midianite family who took him in and became his family.  At 80 years old he was shepherding sheep for his father-in-law when he came across a curious sight that forever altered his life.

There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush.  Moses stared in amazement.  Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up.  “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself, “Why isn’t that bush burning up?  I must go see it.”  Exodus 3:2-3 NLT

Moses allowed curiosity to draw him in.  When he was closer and his attention was held, God spoke.  “Moses! You’re standing on holy ground, take off your shoes?” 

We often view this request as a call to reverence.  The holiness of God is here! Show respect!  What if we shift perspective and read this as God saying, “This ground is holy because I am here.  Remove the barrier between us and let my holiness touch your being.”

It was, or at least became, common Jewish thinking and law that if you touched something unclean you became unclean.  But with God, as we see multiple times in the stories of Jesus, when God touches the unclean they become clean.  His holiness is contagious.  Perhaps in the story of Moses, this experience and interaction is about the fact that where God is is holy and Moses is asked to take off his shoes so the holiness of God comes into connection with him because he is being set apart for something specific.  This is the call to stand up for Israel as God’s representative and lead them.  God’s response to their cries and His promise.  God’s holiness making Moses holy.

I am reminded of the lie I broke up with a while ago and the truth God gave me to replace it.  “I am not broken.  I am holy, sacred.”  Sometimes I seem so ‘other’ when I look at my life and heart, I don’t know how to make sense of things I’ve experienced, my story feeling disjointed or wandering, and I interpret it as broken.  But God, saying the truth is I am holy, was a curious opposite.  When I thought of holy as being set apart and sacred, it began shifting my perspective.  Putting my experiences alongside Moses’ story brings new perspective too.

He was given up at three months old to the Nile River.  Set afloat in hopes that his life would be spared from the infanticide ordered by Pharaoh.  Scooped up by the princess and adopted, it was arranged for a Hebrew to wean him.  Moses ended up back in the arms of his birth mother for likely 3 years.  Old enough to learn the stories of his family history and have some Hebrew culture ingrained.  He grew up in the palace as an Egyptian.  Educated, privileged, familiar with power—both positive and negative I imagine—yet aware of his Hebrew heritage.  Probably feeling like he didn’t fit in.  Too Hebrew to be Egyptian.  Too Egyptian to be Hebrew.  ‘Who am I?’ battles probably plagued his life.  Potentially Pharaoh humouring his daughter in raising Moses causing Moses to live in a state of tension.  I can imagine Pharaoh even saying, “I’m letting my daughter take you in but you put one foot wrong and you’re out of here.”  Moses still has a connection to his people of heritage.  He tries to step in and gets it wrong, killing an Egyptian.  He tries stepping in again and the Hebrews ask if he is going to kill them like the Egyptian.  Moses freaks realising people know.  He flees for his life and he was right to do so.  In Midian, viewed as an Egyptian, he steps in again and does better this time, ending up being adopted into the family of the shepherdesses he stood up for.  There he becomes a husband and a father and a shepherd.  A life far different from his upbringing.

Moses probably looks at his life and sees so much awkwardness, failure and brokenness.  Frequent struggles and tension.  His life has been a mess.  At the burning bush, God begins saying, “You’re not broken.  You are holy.”  All these journeys he’s taken in life look like a mess from his point of view but he was weaned with a connection to his Hebrew heritage, impactful enough to remain with him through life.  He was raised in a place of education, leadership and power.  What he wasn’t taught he probably witnessed firsthand and experienced around him.  His heart was compassionate, wanting to step in for others.  Even after premeditated murder and fleeing for his life, he got to experience a different kind of family, and he learnt to shepherd and live in the wilderness.  Jethro, his father-in-law, was a “priest of Midian”.  Maybe of God Almighty and maybe he learnt more about God with them.  So much of these experiences would be useful for what his future held. 

At the burning bush, God begins to show Moses he is not broken, but holy.  He begins to speak into his true identity.  But it’s a perspective that will take time to understand and adjust to.  He’s had 80 years viewing life from his perspective.  Now God is showing Moses what he’s been set aside for and Moses is experiencing a lot of anxiety. 

I love the fact that there’s this whole raw conversation between them.  Perhaps, as a friend suggested, it’s a reflection of Moses growing up in the Egyptian palace and talking with people that most would feel inadequate to even have a voice with.  Moses seems to just talk like normal.  My favourite way to communicate with God.  Through the rest of Moses’ story, we see him grow and learn and settle into his full identity.  He and God have a unique relationship, a closeness and a realness that not too many other characters in the Bible are displayed as having.  Not until the disciples. 

It was always God’s intent to have close relationship with humankind, to walk in the garden together in the cool of the evening.  Companionship.  Partnership.  But we’re all aware of the choices humans made and the trauma that has followed.  Jesus came to fully remove those barriers between us.  Now with Him living with us and in us, His holiness is a permanent part of our being.  If where God is is holy ground, then anywhere we stand is holy ground. We ARE holy ground.  Yet, as I read Moses’ story and reflect on how God told him to take off his shoes, I wonder if I’ve slipped on shoes of my own.   I am not broken, I am holy, sacred.  God speaking that truth over me is an invitation to take off my shoes, remove any self-imposed barrier between His holiness and I.  Because God has always, always wanted us to be together.

Sincerely,

Kelly Gellert