Question: Why did Moses remove his shoes in front of the burning bush? What is the real reason God told Moses to remove his shoes when he started to speak with him?
Answer: Greetings to you in Jesus wonderful name!
Here is the context of the Scripture you are speaking about, "2 And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.” 4 So when the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.”" (Exo 3:2-5).
Simply, the answer to your first question is, Moses removed his shoes in front of the burning bush because God told him to take his sandals off his feet.
To answer your second question, We need to also look why people even in the days of Moses wore sandals? Sandals during biblical times were of important significance, like it was made of dead animals dry leather and were worn to protect the feet from burning sand and dampness. Sandals might also be of wood, with leather straps (Genesis 14:23; Isaiah 5:27). Sandals were not worn in the house nor in the sanctuary (Exodus 3:5; Joshua 5:15).
Sandals picks up the dirt on the roads and every where we walk on, so we always put it outside of the house and enter in to it. To give respect or show a sign of our reverence for someone or someplace, we remove our sandals and enter in with our bare feet. Especially to all places of worship and our living places.
We know that sandals are made of dead animal skins, and therefore represent dead works of the believer, or the sin nature, or the works of sin nature, or any human effort to justify ourselves before anyone (Gen 3:21-22).
The house or the sanctuary is supposed to be kept a holy place, as our Holy God has promised to move in our midst, and he is the one who has redeemed us for Himself (1 Pet 1:16; Lev 11:44-45; 26:11-12). Where ever the Presence of God appears, that place becomes a holy place.
Hence symbolically God said to Moses to remove his sandals, as Moses could not meet God based on his own efforts or works of righteousness which to God is like a rag or dirt picked up by the sandals on the road, or it is like our human nature of sin trying to justify itself before God, our fallen nature picks up sinful tendencies when it works hard like a sandal which God hates (Isa 64:6). So it is not by our efforts of human righteousness, but by faith in God's own righteousness through which He always justifies every person who believes in Him. God reveals Himself to all believers who acknowledges their sin nature and asks God to forgive their sins, just as He revealed to Moses who removed his sandals immediately and began to hear God speak to Him face to face (Php 3:9-11; 1 Cor 1:30-31).
By removing his sandals, Moses acknowledged the holiness of God and was willing to hear what God wanted to say to him.
Another important point is, God commands Moses to cast away his old life and get ready for a new one. God wants Moses to leave shepherding the sheep of his father-in-law Jethro and start shepherding the sheep of his father Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the people of Israel.
God wanted Moses to embrace a new purpose for living, a new righteousness by faith, a new miraculous courage to speak on behalf of God, a new power from heaven to lead His people in to their promised land, a new holiness from heaven by obeying the Word of the Lord spoken to him!
God was calling Moses to wear a new sandals "that will not wear out on [..his] feet” no matter how many years ahead he will use it unlike his old sandals (Deuteronomy 29:5), it will make his feet beautiful when he wears it to fulfill God's purpose for his life (Song 7:1). In short, God was calling Moses to put on the robe of His righteousness and put on the new sandals of the good news of God's redemption to the children of Israel (Acts 12:8; Eph 4:24; 6:14-15). Glory to God!
Much Love and Blessings....
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