Genesis 35

Genesis Chapter 35

Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments: And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went. And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.
(Gen 35:2-4)

Yesterday we saw just how important the decisions we make are. Today we see that it is never to late to turn those bad decisions around. Jacob had failed to lead his family in a Godly way. They had lived a worldly life, He had not properly taken action when the world acted against his family, and here we also see that they had become Idolatrous. The Lord gives Jacob a chance to make things right by taking his family BACK to the place where they had met the Lord. When we feel separated from the Lord, like we have been neglecting Him for a period of time, the best way to deal with it is go back to the place where you were right with Him. That is exactly what Jacob does, He returns with his family to the place where the Lord had met Him. He is going back to the altar to get things set straight once again.

Look what happens when they arrive at Bethel… They take all of the things that had come between them and the Lord, and bury them under this big tree. They took there Idols, those things that had occupied them, the things they had worshipped rather than the Lord. They took there earrings, symbolic of trying to find worth and substance in this world, satisfaction in it’s riches. They take these things and they bury them under the tree. What an example for us! When we find ourselves in a place we shouldn’t be, we need to come back to the tree and dump all of our junk there. All of the stuff the Lord wants to see us be rid of. The tree is symbolic of the cross. If we will come back to the cross, and bury the things there that have hindered us in our walk and relationship with the Lord, we can have a clean start. This is what the clean garments symbolized… a new beginning!