When God called to Moses from the burning bush in Exodus 3, He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground” (NKJV). God then asked Moses to return to Egypt where the Lord would perform miraculous signs and wonders. Moses argued with God and gave excuses as to why he couldn’t speak to Pharaoh. Eventually, God convinced Moses. He then spoke to Pharaoh, God performed 10 plagues and the Israelites were set free from their bondage because of the things God did.
Fast forward 40 years and Israel is finally permitted to enter the Promised Land. They cross the Jordan and begin to prepare to attack Jericho. While Joshua is surveying it, the Lord appears to him in Joshua 5:15 and says, “Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.” Did you catch the difference? When Moses met God, he had to remove both sandals. When Joshua met with Him, he only had to remove one. I believe it’s because with Moses, God was doing all the work, and with Joshua they were going to work together to subdue Canaan.
I believe God wants you and I to participate with Him in living an overcoming life. We can’t sit back and wait for Him to do all the work. You and I are going to have to step out and face some giants. We are going to have to attack some walled cities in our life. The great news is that God will fight our battles if we’ll have enough faith to get onto the battlefield. If we’re going to live An overcoming life, we’re going to have to quit making excuses and letting fear make our decisions. If God is for you, who can be against you? It’s time to quit camping by the Jordan and to fight for the land God promised you.
Photo by Josh Appel on Unsplash
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Devotions by Chris Hendrix 
Amen
Perfect
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Many translations use the plural, including my Douay. I like your explanation very much, but I feel compelled to trust my 100 year old Bible. Was hoping you could please comment on the differences. There seems to be just as many translations that use the plural. Thank you
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Thanks for reaching out. I use the Strong’s Concordance and Gesenius’ Hebrew- Chaldee Lexicon to study. Here’s what it says:
Strong’s Definitions: נַעַל naʻal, nah’-al; or (feminine) נַעֲלָה naʻălâh; from H5274; properly, a sandal tongue; by extension a sandal or slipper (sometimes as a symbol of occupancy, a refusal to marry, or of something valueless):—dryshod, (pair of) shoe((-latchet), -s).
SyD £ (Deut. 29:4), a shoe, a sandal, Arabic lei Gen. 14:23; Josh. 5:15, etc. In transferring a domain it was customary symbolically to deliver a shoe (as in the middle ages a glove); hence the cast- ing down a shoe upon any country was a symbol of taking possession. Psa. 60:10, ” upon Edom will I cast down my shoe,” i. e. I will take possession of it, I will claim it as my own (see Rosenm. Altes und Neues Morgenland, No. 483), Ps. 108:10. Elsewhere a shoe thong, shoe latchet, and a pair of shoes (Am.
2:6; 8:6), is used for any thing of very little value.
It could possibly be a pair of shoes, but they both put that at the end of their discovery as a secondary meaning.
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