Wednesday in the Word: Beautiful Feet

I want to start a new feature on my blog: Wednesday in the Word, a short devotion taken from my personal devotions of the week before. These won’t be deep; they will just be some observations of my own that I’ve written down as I read. My thought is to take one thought from the previous week’s devotions and share it with you. I hope it’ll be a blessing in some way!

This week I want to share what I read near the end of Song of Solomon. This isn’t all I got from this little book that is sometimes pretty hard to understand, and it isn’t an original thought with me. Some of you may remember that I use With the Word, the chapter-by-chapter devotional commentary by Warren Wiersbe, with my Bible reading. I don’t use it all the time, but for Song of Solomon I wanted to see what Mr. Wiersbe had to say.

Song of Solomon is full of the unconditional love of the bridegroom for his bride, his admiration of her beauty (which is how he sees her, not how the rest of the city sees her – beautiful imagery there!) and his longing for deep communion with her. I would encourage you to read through this book – it’s only eight short chapters – and just bask in your Saviour’s love for you and really think about how much He wants to be with you and hear from you.

On to what caught my eye in Song of Solomon 7:1 . . . “How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince’s daughter . . .”

Feet are not usually considered beautiful! I know several people – all women – who literally can’t stand to look at people’s feet; it makes them sick! They can’t rub someone’s feet or sit on the couch next to someone who has their shoes off!

I don’t expose many people to my feet. They’re definitely not pretty. My daughter, Beth, on the other hand, loves to polish her toenails, slather lotion on her feet, and wear cute little sandals and flip flops. After all that work, her feet don’t look too bad!

Did you know God sees our feet as beautiful?

Mr. Wiersbe had a short outline about lovely feet on page 450 . . .

God sees our feet as beautiful when they are clean (John 13:1-11). In the account of Jesus washing His disciples’ feet, we understand that the reason He washed just their feet was because they were already clean (saved), but their feet were dirty. The custom in Bible times was to wash your visitors’ feet when they came to your home, as the dust of the road would have covered their feet as they walked (imagine how good it must have felt to have your tired, dirty feet washed when you got to your friend’s home!) As we walk each day’s path, we’re going to get our feet dirty in the dust of this world. We’ll see and hear things that dirty our feet, we will think on things that dirty our feet, or we’ll do things that dirty our feet. We need to spiritually wash our feet each day, to give us clean feet with which to serve the Lord.

God sees our feet as beautiful when they are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace (Ephesians 6:15). At first I thought this was actually sharing the Gospel. Then I looked up the meanings of the words and noticed that our spiritual feet are to be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace: we are to be saved and filled with the assurance of our salvation through Christ . . . “so fearing nothing from God and content with {our} earthly lot, of whatsoever sort that is” (Taken from Strong’s Concordance, definition #5 of peace in Ephesians 6:15). How can we go through life and share the Gospel with others if we aren’t wearing the shoes of the Gospel ourselves (shoes protect our feet and help us walk confidently)? And if we’re not confident that we have a good foundation, fearing nothing from God and content with our earthly life? I lived in fear for many years before I finally made sure my feet were shod with the gospel of peace! You can’t live an effective life when you’re living in fear all the time. Make sure your spiritual feet are covered and protected with the gospel so that you can walk confidently!

Lastly, God sees our feet as beautiful when they are busy sharing the Gospel(Romans 10:15). I like to tease my preacher-husband that he has beautiful feet (he doesn’t!) because the Lord says the feet of those who publish peace and bring good tidings are beautiful (Isaiah 52:7 and Nahum 1:15). That thought is repeated in the New Testament, in Romans 10:15, “. . . How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!” This isn’t just talking to preachers! It speaks to us ladies, too. Our feet are beautiful to God when we are taking the Gospel to those around us, whether by going out soulwinning, handing a tract to the cashier at the grocery store, sending a card or letter to a lost loved one, or befriending a neighbor in order to give her the Gospel.

So how do your feet look? Could they use a good washin’, as my Granny would say? Are you sure they’re shod with the gospel of peace? Are your feet busy sharing that Gospel in some way? Maybe you need a spiritual pedicure!