Bare Your Sole

Bare your 'soles'

We should have 'nothing' between 'the glory of God' and our 'walk with God' (our feet)

The thing that God 'borrowed' from earth 'His flesh' was stripped and bared on the 'instrument' that would take Him from earth to glory. He allowed Himself to be stripped bare of earthly encumbrances before reentering the Glory world.

God appeared as a burning bush to Moses, His intended commander, and God gave Him the command to 'bare his sole'. (Take his shoes off)

Instead, Moses covered his face and he entered into a contest of wills with God.

Joshua was chosen by God to take Moses' place, and don't you know it, before his first solo flight/fight, God ran him by this same trial.

^{Joshua 5:13} As Joshua approached the city of Jericho, he looked up and saw a man facing him with sword in hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you friend or foe?"

¹⁴ "Neither one," he replied. "I am commander of the LORD's army." At this, Joshua fell with his face to the ground in reverence. "I am at your command," Joshua said. "What do you want your servant to do?"

¹⁵ The commander of the LORD's army (came all the way from Heaven for one thing) (He)replied, "Take off your sandals, for this is holy ground." And Joshua did as he was told.

God appeared to Joshua as a man with a sword and gave him the exact same command – take the shoes from off your feet for the ground whereon thou standest is holy ground – bare your 'sole'. Joshua fell on his face in submission and obeyed instantly.

The difference was that Moses at the time of his trial had only heard of God. Joshua was Moses' servant and went everywhere with him, even up the mountain and inside the tabernacle. He stayed in the tabernacle for over thirty days one time in the presence of God. He knew God. He was aware of God's love and he was ready and willing to obey God's every command.

Before Joshua's holy encounter, God instructed him to complete the commitment made between God and Abraham.

^Josh5:7 So Joshua circumcised their sons who had not been circumcised on the way to the Promised Land

The Bible is a book of facts and you want to put in the emotions. How many 'flint knives' would it take and how many 'surgeons' to do this enormous task of several thousand males?

⁸ After all the males had been circumcised, . . . (hear the groans, witness the pain and agony)

⁹ Then (after obeying what was commanded 5 generations plus 120 years ago) the LORD said to Joshua, "Today I have rolled away the shame of your slavery in Egypt."

When the Lord made a covenant with Abraham, He instituted the act of circumcision as the thing that would set the Israelites apart for God and as His people.

After forty years of being free from enslavement to Egypt, their shame was still intact but the shame and awkwardness was finally removed on their obedience to this covenant.

Circumcision confessed to God, “We belong to You.”

Achan was circumcised. Achan confessed that he belonged to God. But Achan said that gold belongs to me and he entered into a contest of wills with God Who had already laid claim to the gold and silver of Jericho. Achan took the things set apart or consecrated for or to God. Within ten days of consecrating himself to God through circumcision, Achan reneged on God and did what is our want to do. He said, I want what I want and there shouldn't be anything stopping me from getting exactly whatever it is I want. What my eyes see, my hands want.

I'm afraid the rock pile covering Achan and his family, would be a lot bigger if it happened in our day . . .amen?? How long does it take us to renege on what we have consecrated to God?

Jesus said if there is any way for this cup to be removed . . .even He was tempted to renege . . . BUT . . .thank God He finished that prayer with but not My will but Thine.

Bare your sole; get rid of whatever stands between you and God; remove the encumbrances holding you back from total commitment.

Bear your covenant; pick it up and carry it with sanctified pride. Not my will but Thine be done.

Enter and dwell in the inheritance that was purchased and conquered for you.

What is the covenant that is between us and God in this dispensation?

Repentance – bare your soul

Baptism – bear your covenant – I will become Yours by taking on Your Name

accept His initial evidence of speaking in other tongues as the Spirit bear witness and allow that

Indwelling Spirit – to change your life bearing witness of the goodness of God

Moses was told to take his shoes off but he covered his face instead. Joshua was told to remove his shoes and he obeyed and fell face downward also in affect covering his face. Now let me tell you one last story.

It was like a violent storm had gone through leaving destruction in its wake – earthquake Friday and another one very early Sunday. But now all is quiet -- the lull after the storm -- or so it seems to Mary. First, there is Jesus, the leader and prophet from Galilee. When his popularity was running high in Jerusalem just a week before, many had considered him the Messiah. But on Friday, his enemies had succeeded in executing him by crucifixion.

There are soldiers guarding his tomb. Why? His enemies had heard a report that Jesus was supposed to "rise again" on the third day. Preposterous, his enemies said, but they could take no chances. If there were a guard -- especially a Roman guard -- his disciples wouldn't dare steal the body and claim he'd been raised. Keep a lid on any stories that might re-inflame the populace -- that was the plan.

Isn't it strange that the enemy was afraid it might happen and his disciples never expected it to happen?

In the moist, bone-chilling darkness, the soldiers huddle around a sputtering fire that flickers ghostly images amidst the shadows of tombs. They're not afraid, mind you, just ill at ease, anxious for the dawn that will soon brighten the horizon.

Jesus' disciples make up another part of the story, too, but they are afraid -- terrified that they too will be arrested because of their close association with Jesus. They're in hiding within the city. "No worries from them now," their enemies smirk.

The crowds of pilgrims that had swelled Jerusalem to the bursting point over the Passover weekend have gone home now, back to their villages, bearing a disquieting story of how the Galilean healer had been killed.

That's how things stood just before dawn. Sad, tragic. So much hope, so much promise. But now it had come to nothing. A movement so full exuberance had been crushed -- its famous leader cut down, its lieutenants in hiding, its followers scattered.

But after the storm, life must go on. And now we meet Mary Magdalene. She has been one of the Nazarene's most devoted followers. She and some of the women have risen very early to honor the teacher's body and are headed for the garden tomb just outside the city walls. Within the sepulcher he lies, cold and lifeless on a rock slab. Mary Magdalene had been there and seen it all Friday night.

The women turn into the cemetery garden, walking numbly, one foot in front of the other. Mary looks up and  suddenly the air is rent as she shouts: "The stone has been moved!" she runs into the garden, past remnants of a smoky fire, soldiers' equipment in disarray, abandoned in haste. She sprints to the now-open tomb. The ribbon and Roman seal that have guaranteed its security limply stirring in the morning air.

"Where is he?" she shrieks, as she rushes inside. The darkness of the tomb overwhelms her for a moment. As her eyes adjust, there on a shelf, she can make out something on the stone ledge. On closer examination it was only grave clothes, neatly folded. But where is Jesus?

Out in a flash, she begins to run back into the city yelling over her shoulder, "I'll tell Peter and John," as she speeds on. She pauses for a moment at the head of the street where the disciples are staying. Hands on her legs, heaving, trying to catch her breath. Now she pounds on the door.

They thought it was all over. Jesus' disciples had followed him faithfully. They had given up everything and devoted their lives to His cause. They were expecting a revolution, the in-breaking of God's Kingdom! What they got was a cross. What they got was the end of their dream. It didn't matter who would be first and who would be last in the Kingdom now. Even Peter, the most passionate of Jesus' followers, the one who had

walked on water, denied that he ever knew Jesus. The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus was able to endure the cross because of the joy set before Him. He knew that on the other side of that excruciating pain and humiliation, death would be defeated. The Kingdom of God would break through. It wouldn't look like an earthly kingdom. It would be far, far better. On Friday, the disciples didn't see what Jesus saw. They didn't know that Sunday was coming. What a glorious surprise awaited them...

“Peter, Peter!” Mary calls out, banging on the door.

After a long pause, the disciple who, until recently, everyone acknowledged as the leader, opens the door a crack, looks up the street, then down it. Finally, he motions Mary inside and quickly shuts the door.

"Somebody has taken his body out of the tomb! We can't find him!"

Now Peter and John are in panic mode. They pull on tunics and sandals and dash towards the cemetery. Mary follows. Slowly now, head down, she walks and weeps. By the time she arrives back at the tomb, Peter and John have come and gone. The women are nowhere to be seen. Mary is there alone. All alone.

She pauses by the door for a long moment, weeping uncontrollably. Then she gathers herself and steps back into the cold chamber. The sun is rising now, casting long shadows across the garden. But this time, the tomb seems lit, also. Two men in bright white, dressed in long robes that extend down to their feet, rise as she enters.

How would you feel if you encountered two people inside a tomb that you knew was EMPTY?

"Why are you crying?"

She sobs out her story. "They have taken my Lord away, and I don't know where they have put him." She dissolves into tears.

When she looks up the men are gone. She turns to look and there, the sun silhouetting him in the doorway, is another man -- the gardener, she supposes. Perhaps he'll know.

"Why are you crying?" he asks quietly. "Who are you looking for?"

She begins her sad tale for a third time, of grave robbers who have desecrated the tomb and of the teacher who had healed her and restored her very life to wholeness. "If you have taken him," she pleads, "tell me where his body is and I'll see that it is retrieved."

"Mary!" The voice so familiar.

She looks up in sudden recognition. "Rabbi!" she cries and falls at his feet.

She has done something neither Moses nor Joshua dared to do. She looked square into His dear face.

It is Jesus. It is the Lord. He is not dead. He is risen from the grave. He is alive. He is resurrected as he had said.

There is Jesus' bared, scared feet in open invitation to Mary who has thrown herself at His feet. She grabs them for dear life. She's done something neither Moses nor Joshua would have dared to do. She reached out to actually touch His feet.

The storm has passed and the sun has broken through the clouds into a new day.

What does it mean?

What did it mean to Mary?

First, her discredited Lord no longer lay in shame. He had been authenticated by God himself who had raised him from the dead.

With his lifeless body in the tomb, confusing doubts had come.

But now, everything he had taught took on new meaning.

She actually was forgiven by God.

He would return.

It was all true. True indeed!

What does it mean to you?

Over the next few years, Mary would watch the Christian movement grow in spurts, from 100 to 3,000 in a single day. Then to 5,000 men -- more than a fifth of the Jerusalem's entire population. Persecution came, but instead of snuffing out this story of the resurrection of Jesus, persecution caused it to spread all the more. The movement raced like wildfire to the farthest reaches of the world. He is alive! Jesus is alive. Untold millions call him Lord.

Now old, facing her own impending death, Mary realizes one more thing that the resurrection means to her. That day in the garden as she knelt before him, she had looked on his bared, pierced feet . They were warm. They were alive. He had bared His sole for us.

Yes, death will come soon, but she no longer fears it. For she has touched the feet of the One who has conquered death.