The Vision (3.7.25): Put away the strange gods

 

Image: "The Theraphim of the Hebrews," from Oedipus Aegypticus, Athanasius Kircher, 1652-1654.

Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis chapters 35-36.

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 (Genesis 35:2).

After his sons took vengeance on Shechem for the abuse of their sister Dinah, Jacob worried that he would be made “to stink” among the inhabitants of that land, and they would destroy him and his house (Genesis 34:30).

The LORD graciously intervened and directed Jacob to return to Bethel, “and make there an altar unto God” (Genesis 35:1).

Jacob then called for spiritual reformation in his family, starting in v. 2. He had gone to Padanaram to find a wife among his extended kinfolk, from those who knew Jehovah. He found there Leah and Rachel and remained 20 years.

Though Laban had known Jehovah, he was spiritually compromised and had also taken up household gods (the teraphim), which Rachel had stolen in their flight from Laban (30:19). Paganism had been mixed in with the worship of the one true God. The God of the Bible, however, is a jealous God. He will share devotion with no one or nothing.

Jacob exercised spiritual leadership and offered three commands to his household in v. 2:

First, “put away the strange gods that are among you.” The apostle John will echo this when he concludes 1 John exhorting, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21).

Second, “be clean.” This is a call for spiritual purity. David will later write in Psalm 24 that those who approach the LORD in worship must have “clean hands, and a pure heart” (v. 4).

Third, “and change your garments.” This was to be a spiritually symbolic gesture. In the Old Testament it is common to hear that those who repented put on “sack cloth and ashes.” Here, however, they were apparently called to take off their old dirty garments and put on new, clean garments. The apostle Paul will later offer a similar metaphor in Ephesians 4 to illustrate the transformation that takes place in the life of believers, calling for the Ephesians to “put off… old man” and “put on the new man” (vv.21-24).

We, who were once not a people, have been made, by grace, part of the family of God. We are called to personal reformation, to remove idols, to be clean, and to change our garments. Salvation also means sanctification.

We may be discouraged at times by our slow progress and even our outright failures. Let us remember, however, that we have been saved by the one who never bent a knee to any idol, who knew no sin or uncleanness, and who has given to his saints his own righteous life to cover them.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle