CLOG-POPPING

Clog-Popping!

Upon arrival in subtropical Brisbane, Queensland I was surprised to see some people walking around without shoes – downtown! One summer’s day I attempted to walk barefoot on an asphalt path in a Brisbane city park and immediately suffered third degree burns! Subsequently I learned that the more you go barefoot the more you develop thick layers of skin or callouses on the soles of your feet. However, when it comes to God, calloused soles are preferable to calloused souls!

When the LORD appeared to Moses in the burning bush He said, ‘Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground’ Exodus 3:5. And when He appeared as the Angel of the LORD to Joshua He said, ‘Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy’ Joshua 5:15.

When I lived in Canada the custom was to remove your shoes before entering another’s house – not because the place was holy, but so as not to tramp snow into their home! In the Book of Ruth there was different practice of shoe removing: ‘Now there was a custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging, to confirm anything, one man took off his sandal and gave it to the other, and this was a confirmation in Israel’ Ruth 4:7. In the case in point, the man in the Book of Ruth took off his shoe to indicate to Boaz that he was handing over any entitlement he had to a piece of land and everything that came along with it. For the sake of brevity we might say that he ‘gave ground’ to Boaz. In this we can see that by the removal of their shoes Moses and Joshua were to ‘give ground’ to the LORD who was appearing to them.

Scripture says, ‘The earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness, the world and all those who dwell therein’ Psalm 24:1. Therefore, Moses and Joshua were wise to remove their shoes to symbolise that the LORD is entitled to any and every piece of property. He is the lawful owner. The LORD had promised a piece of land to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and then Moses, a land that would serve as a token of the whole world (Romans 4:13). Regarding the ‘Promised Land’ the LORD said to Joshua, ‘Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses’ Joshua 1:3. And so the years of conquest began with the Israelites crossing the Jordan River to redeem the ‘Promised Land’. It had become overrun with tribes of people, all which rejected the living and true God, people who, among many other abominations, even sacrificed their own children to false gods!

To redeem is to buy back. But, ‘buy back’ from whom? From Satan? ‘And the LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?” So Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” Job 2:2. Satan certainly had been staking his claim throughout the earth. And, according to Scripture, Adam and all his descendants (including you and me) have been siding with Satan against God down through the ages. However, Satan does not own anything – lawfully! Therefore the elect of God are not bought back from Satan. It is not he who receives the ransom price paid by Christ Jesus on the cross. Rather the recipient is God. God’s justice demands full payment for our covenant breaking, i.e., our lawlessness.

Eileen Donan Castle & Rowan Berries

God’s Law condemns us. Therefore it is little wonder that a rebellious people would want to remove the Ten Commandments from our Western nations. Even many churches have all but removed God’s Law from within their walls on account of a faulty understanding what it means to be under grace not law. Without God’s Law we cannot understand what God’s grace is! For God’s Law was never given as a means of salvation, rather it was given to convict us of our sins and show us our need for Christ the Saviour of sinners! Sin is the breaking of God’s Law. Therefore, if we don’t know what God’s Law is we don’t know what sin is. And if we don’t know what sin is we don’t know what God’s grace is; because God’s grace is the forgiveness of all our sins. How so? Because Christ Jesus has redeemed us from the penalty of our law-breaking! ‘There is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus’ Romans 8:1.

As the Word who has become flesh Jesus is our kinsman redeemer. All clothing, including His shoes, was removed as He entered into God’s presence on the cross to redeem us from our sins. God demonstrated that His justice was satisfied by raising Jesus from the dead. Scripture says, ‘It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment’ Hebrews 9:27. ‘For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ’ Romans 14:10b. Knowing that each of us has a personal appointed to stand before the LORD gives added meaning to the expression ‘he popped his clogs’! Why wait? Give ground to the LORD today. Humble yourself before Him while there is yet time.