Shoes and Holy Ground

In a recent Theopolis lecture, James Jordan pointed to the ritual of Ruth 4 to explain the significance of removing shoes on holy ground. There, a man hands over a shoe as a sign of submission and ceding authority to another. To remove shoes is to acknowledge that God is Lord and we are servants.

We can extend this point by looking at Ruth 4 in more detail. Verse 7 says, “this was in former times in Israel concerning the redemption and the exchange [of land] to confirm any matter: a man removed his sandal and gave it to another, and this was the attestation in Israel.” Land is being handed over in the handing over a shoe.

This makes sense, given the biblical idiom that a land extends “wherever your foot treads” (Deuteronomy 11:24; Joshua 1:3). Walking the boundary of the land was a way of claiming it, of “treading it down” and taking dominion over it. As conqueror placed his defeated enemy under his feet, so the owner of a land placed his feet on the “conquered” land. Removing and giving away the shoe was a symbol of giving away ownership and dominion over one’s dominions.

When people come onto holy ground, the come onto Yahweh’s property. Holy ground is the place where Yahweh is present in glory; ground is holy when Yahweh’s feet rest there. And no one should dare to tread down Yahweh’s dominion.

This adds additional light on the historically odd Christian custom of wearing shoes in church. We believe God is present there by His Spirit, yet we treat His ground as if it were ours! Perhaps this is sacrilege; perhaps we’re ignorant of the symbolism. I think rather that our shoes say something profound about the new world we live in: It means God has given us dominion in the place of His dominion; we can tread, with our shoes, on His ground, because in the Seed of Abraham we are, at long last, heirs of God and heirs of the world.