“The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did as he was told.” – Joshua 5:15 NLT

A similar instance occurred with Moses in Exodus:

“There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up. “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.” When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!” “Here I am!” Moses replied. “Do not come any closer,” the Lord warned. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground.” – Exodus 3:2-5 NLT

From our limited understanding, taking off your sandals was also something priests did when entering the Tabernacle. We can gather this from Exodus.

““Make a bronze washbasin with a bronze stand. Place it between the Tabernacle and the altar, and fill it with water. Aaron and his sons will wash their hands and feet there. They must wash with water whenever they go into the Tabernacle to appear before the Lord and when they approach the altar to burn up their special gifts to the Lord—or they will die! They must always wash their hands and feet, or they will die. This is a permanent law for Aaron and his descendants, to be observed from generation to generation.”” – Exodus 30:18-21 NLT

The barefoot idea comes from the idea there little reason to wash one’s feet before entering the temple just to put your dirty sandals back on after. As there is very little information on that time period, but some historical documents that claim that in fact priests didn’t wear sandals in the Tabernacle. There is also no mention that there is no biblical mention of priestly footwear.

So what is the significance behind feet and sacred places? Well, It’s clear God doesn’t want unclean things soiling/touching sacred areas. I believe it to be symbolic of consecration. Throughout the Bible there is mention of cleanliness and consecration to do God’s work. This may be an instance of that.

Regardless a take away from this post is to do research before making claims. Randomly guessing the reason God tells Moses and Joshua to take off their sandals when entering the Holy places he creates doesn’t do the passage justice or actually let you learn or teach others anything.