“Do not come near.” Even though God initiated the contact between His representative, the angel, and Moses, Moses could not just walk up to him. God was still too holy to casually approach. Like Aslan the Lion,^a God is just and righteous, but He is not safe. The “fear of God” is more than just simple “respect for God.” Treating God and the things of God in a casual way is not wise. Jesus taught that if you are going to be afraid of anything on earth, God should be at the top of the list (Matt. 10:28). Once Moses understood who he was dealing with, he hid his face (Exod. 3:6).

“Take your sandals off.” In the biblical culture, it was the custom in a holy place to leave your head-covering on and take your shoes off. In the Western culture, we leave our shoes on and take our hats off.