"And when forty years had passed, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai. When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight; and as he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him, saying, 'I AM THE GOD OF YOUR FATHERS--THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB.' And Moses trembled and dared not look. 'Then the LORD said to him, "TAKE YOUR SANDALS OFF YOUR FEET, FOR THE PLACE WHERE YOU STAND IS HOLY GROUND. Acts 7:30-33

Having been the adopted grandson of the Pharaoh, Moses worked for forty years as a lowly shepherd—and shepherds were despised by Egyptians (Genesis 46:34). Talk about a humbling. No one likes to be humbled. But as A.W. Tozer once quipped, “God uses no man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.” Why must this be so? Because when God uses any of us, God demands the glory be His, not ours! So He humbles those He uses. (Pride is the biggest downfall of those God uses.)

Having been humbled, God revealed Himself and spoke to the lowly shepherd from the midst of a burning bush that burned, but was not consumed. That is not something one sees every day. Or ever!

Moses drew near to see what see was seeing. And as he did, God warned Moses to take his shoes off. Why? Because the ground on which Moses was standing was holy. Was the dirt any different than the dirt five feet away? Or even five miles away? Not intrinsically. Dirt is dirt. But the presence of the Almighty on that dirt, made even the dirt holy.

May we humble ourselves that God may be pleased to lift us up for His service (James 4:10). And then may we who were made originally from the dirt (Genesis 2:7), be holy, as God is pleased to dwell in and uses us for His glory.