“Barefoot in Midian”

K. Adrian Scott

September 28, 2025

Introduction.

Why is Moses living in Midian, and where is Midian and what did Midian have to offer Moses? Why isn’t Moses in Egypt with his people? Don’t they need him? Sometimes our lives take us in different directions.

Moses committed a crime when he took an Egyptian’s life. His crime was not that he murdered someone as much as it was, he did not control his anger. His sin of a lack of self-control was made manifest when he took a person’s life.

Moses is in Midian out of convenience because he in ‘on the lam’ or he is hiding or escaping from Egyptian authorities to avoid prosecution for his crime. He goes someplace where Egypt has no authority to prosecute, the sovereign country of Midian.

Moses is lead to a woman who is the daughter of a Priest in Midian, and they marry, and she becomes Moses’ first wife. Her name is ‘Zipporah’ and she is a beautiful ‘Cushite’ or African woman from Ethiopia. Zipporah was not only beautiful but wise, and she would prove her value to Moses as a woman of wisdom when she helped Moses at a critical time in Moses’ life when the Lord threatened to kill Moses. Who would have thought; a wife in Midian. Only God could choose some of the unusual places and difficult times in our lives to show us that He, God is watching and listening and knows exactly what we need for God to do for us.

Moses would live in Midian for forty years, and this entire Midian experience was a prolonged lesson in humility and preparation for Moses to eventually lead Israel out of the land of Egypt. Here is Moses, though a former prince in Egypt, is now a sheep herder, and on top of that he could not even afford his own herd of sheep. Moses is shepherding his father-in-law’s sheep (v.1). For some people that would not be an enviable position to be in. Up to now, Midian marks a low place, an extremely low place in Moses’ life. In the will of God, Moses is in Midian for a purpose; God’s purpose. Here is Moses being humbled by his circumstances as he is serving as a shepherd. However, if Moses had the right attitude, he would learn that what God had in mind was not for Moses to continue shepherding his father-in-law's sheep. This was not his destiny, or God’s will for his life, but what God had in mind was for Moses to become the shepherd of Israel! We never know what God is preparing us for!

Hebrews 11. 24-25 – “By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.”

This is a big reason why Moses was to be promoted by God. Here in this verse is Moses willingly choosing to be identified with his own people, Israel, the people of God. With his access to the political power of his grandfather, Pharaoh, Moses could have lived out his life in the lap of luxury and the seat of Egyptian power, but he chose to be loyal to his people, as hated and mistreated as they were because Moses knew Israel had a better future that was planned by God Himself.

It is in this decision by Moses that we are able to see him as a representative of Christ, who despite Christ’s eternal riches in glory, He temporarily disrobed from His timeless majesty in heaven He shared within the trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and stepped into time and was purposefully born as humbly as possible, in an animal stable, a barn, and lived in Palestine among mere spiritually depraved, flawed human beings, poor in character, weak in their bodies and broken in spirit. Yet Christ identified with us to the point where the Lord Jesus was even tempted of sin as we are, and exposed Himself to every human emotion, every opportunity for evil, yet He did not sin. Yes, like Moses three thousand years earlier, Jesus chose to identify with His people, those whom He created and offered us a brighter future than what this world has to offer.

In this we also clearly see the passion, the love both Moses and the Christ had for their people!

Question.

Are you passionate about the mission of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ? What sacrifices are we prepared to make for the cause of Christ and sinners in the world?

Moses never forgot who he was or where he came from, who his real family was and the values and the religious heritage he shared with his people! Despite spending nearly all of the first forty years of his life in Egypt, Moses knew he was an Israelite. He knew he was different even when attending the finest schools of Egypt or learning the etiquette of the king’s palace, or dressing in the best clothes Egypt had to offer, made with the finest materials fit for a king, or riding in chariots pulled by the most beautiful and mostexpensive horses in the world, or eating the most tasteful food Pharaoh’s chefs could ever prepare. Moses was not enamored with the temporary pleasures and fading luxuries of Egypt, because Moses knew Egypt was not his home! There was a pull in the heart of Moses toward Israel, the people called God’s own, and that is all anyone could possibly want, and that is to be called God’s own. Who and what are you identified with? Is God, the people and the work of God in the world the most important thing to you, Christian?If not, it should because God demands to come first in our lives.

The Text.

V. 5; Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

God sanctified the very place where Moses was! What makes a place holy is rather or not God is there! This is not the promised land, Canaan, but it was the God of promise who was speaking. God often chooses to bless us in unusual or unsuspecting places. Paul, alone in Arabia for three years preparing for the work of an Apostle; John, a political prisoner, banished to the isle of Patmos, basically a prison camp; Joseph in Egypt; Daniel forced into Babylon as a prisoner of war; Jacob, just traveling on his way to Padan Aramhere his uncle Laban lived and he traveled through Luz, a place of no reputation, but it became the place where God gives Jacob a sensational dream about a ladder and angels. What a significant dream in Jacob’s life and our lives as well! The experience at the Air BND in Luz was so significant the name of the place was renamed ‘Bethel’, meaning the ‘house of God.’

There are places and times of great spiritual significance that deserve and may even demand our respect. These are the places where God has dwelt, lead us to and met us in a meaningful way.

This time and place in Moses’ life was sacred or holy solely because of God’s presence! And an important takeaway from this text the question, ‘how to approach a holy God?

Question: Where are your places where God is telling you to “take off your shoes, for the place which you are standing on is holy ground?”

God deserves and demands our utmost respect and honor. Approaching God is not the same as approaching Billy, Bob, Sally or Sue. We must recognize and always remember God is holy, just, perfect in all of God’s ways. God is all-knowing, all-powerful and absolutely righteous. Additionally, God is also the definition of kindness, the epitome of love and the most gracious in his thoughts and intent. When we call God’s name it must be for business purposes for prayer is God’s business phone number. We don’tdisrespect God’s name, speaking it for foolish or frivolous purposes, but we call on God knowing we are communicating with the highest power in all the universe; the designer, the Creator and sustainer of everything that exists! We are entering the presence of the One who brings forth life and who alone has the power to take away life. God is the only entity who deserves our worship.

Our approach or worship of God is to be with the highest amount of respect, knowing that to disrespect God’s time and God’s presence is to displease the One who is our only salvation and the only hope for our tomorrows. God is the only one who holds our fate and our future in His hands; do not disrespect God by worshiping other things nor people, for our “God is a consuming fire, a jealous God” (Deuteronomy 4. 24). God is the only one who can reign down blessings upon our homes and our businesses; our jobs and our careers; the only one who can preserve our health, physically and financially by His favor and who can provide opportunities and blessings we do not even anticipate. God is the only one who guides us with clear paths and guards us from all evil. God is our everything and without our holy and gracious Lord we would have nothing, and we would be nothing. God is the one who alone can safely help us navigate life’s choppy waters, stand firm in the midst of life’s storms, provide cover from the torrential rains of evil and bless our going out and our coming in. God is great and greatly to be praised! “Take off your shoes, for the place you are standing is holy ground.”

Question. What is God to you? Is God your counselor, your encourager, your friend, your provider, and your shepherd? Is pleasing God the ultimate goal of your life? Do you look forward to your time alone with God and treasure your conversations with Him? Oris God merely someone you talk to in your spare time, when you’re not too busy or only when you really need something?

Now that we have talked about God’s virtues, let me tell you why we must take off our shoes. Notice that God did not have to take off His shoes!

For Moses to take off his shoes/sandals is a sign of respect for God and it is an acknowledgment by Moses that his feet have been exposed to and in contact with the dirt of this world. Moses is commanded to take off or set aside the unholy things. We know some people do not have much respect for God because for example, they use God’s name in vain, having no more respect for God’s name than they do for their pet dog or cat. In my mind this act by Moses may be perceived as a form of confession by Moses; that he recognizes he is dirty and unfit to come into the presence of God until God changes him. It is a similar experience the prophet Isaiah had when he saw the vision of the Lord and said in Isaiah 6.5, “Woe is me (I am doomed)! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” With his vision of the Lord Almighty, Isaish immediately recognized his unworthiness to stand before God or be one of the Lord’s prophets.Our text is making sure we all know none of us are worthy of God’s goodness and grace in our lives.

But the amazing thing about the mercy of God is that God extends Himself to those who are not worthy of God’s goodness! That is the only reason me and you are here today; it is nothing but the grace of God. Moses had killed a man, but here is the Lord showing His commitment to Moses’ good. My friends, no matter what you have done or what you have planned to do that would be disastrous to your life, God is a forgiving God. Humble yourself, forget about your sinful and selfish plans and give your whole self to the living God.

Can you swallow your pride long enough to “take off your shoes” because even right now, rather you know it or not, you are standing on holy ground. In other words, God is here!