After all the problems of the previous chapter God is still in control and Jacob is still listening and following Almighty God. How is it that God is so patient with us? What is it that caused Jacob to hold fast to his 'God Encounter' and not give up? The answer is because God had not given up on him.
We find Jacob, in chapter 35, having to move on because of the disastrous actions of his sons. But he is not alone, the chapter starts "Then God said", "Arise, go up to Bethel". God is at work in all our situations and here He is bringing Jacob back to the place where he started his changed life, the place of the 'God Encounter'. God wants to remind Jacob that he has not forgotten him and that He is still interested in his life and surprisingly that of his family. It is comforting to know that God does not give up on us even when we fail Him.
Jacob has really learnt what it is to follow Almighty God. He instructs all his household in Genesis 35:2 to "Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments."
We can read more about this 'putting off' and 'putting on' in Colossians 3:8-11.
What Jacob is doing is calling his household to repentance.
- Put away
- identify what it is that is getting in the way of God working in our lives.
- Purify yourselves
- take action call on God to free us.
- Change your clothes.
- take off the old, the condemned, that which causes the problem and put on new fresh clothes, clothes supplied by God's amazing work of salvation.
True repentance will cost and requires action. We have to be willing to acknowledge that there are things in our lives which constitute as idols, things that get in the way of us following God. We then have to confess and "get right" which is to bring ourselves back into line with God. We call this being justified, we do this in conjunction with God not without Him. Jesus died to bring an end to Sin and in one selfless act justified us, or in other words made it possible for us to be right with God. That act of justification alone is useless if we as individuals do not allow ourselves to be justified.
Hebrews 12:1-3 talks about laying aside the things that hinder us from having a relationship with God. It calls us to look to Jesus the author and finisher of FAITH and then to consider HIM.
Jacob has called his household to repentance in Genesis 35:2 and in Genesis 35:3 he intercedes for them and leads the way back to Bethel, "The House of God", and to the place where Jacob had his first encounter with God Almighty. By his actions, Jacob assures his household that he will stand in the gap, he will take the initiative and call on God Almighty who had heard his cry and had held faithful to the promise that He would be with him.
We then find this decisive action and leadership that Jacob was demonstrating is the very thing that causes his household to heed his command in Genesis 35:2 "Put away the strange gods among you". Then in Genesis 35:4 they bring all their strange gods and their earrings in their ears and Jacob buries them underneath a great oak tree. When Jesus calls us to repentance the cost is great but necessary if we are to see the hand of Almighty God at work in our lives and situations. The call of repentance will always call us back to the original place where we first encountered God. We know that this ground is secure and that God can reiterate His original calling on this piece of land, He can also refresh us and equip us for the future as this is sacred, hallowed ground, the ground of our 'God Encounter'. Jesus takes all our "strange gods", those things that hinder us from getting to know Him and buries them at the foot of the cross, gone forever out of sight.
Jacob has called his family to repentance, he has dealt with 'the foreign gods' by buying them under the great oak tree, they are gone forever, and he is now set to move on. The cross is not the end of our life it is just the beginning we cannot always live in the shadow of the cross, yes we may need to return to it through out our lives but only to remind ourselves of the wonderful work of Salvation, to refresh ourselves and to equip ourselves for our continued journey.
Jacob had proved his faith, the Faith that had been imparted to him in his 'God Encounter', "Christ in you the hope of glory".
What we find here in Genesis 35:5 is that it would have been useless for Jacob's household to continue their journey had the repentance and justification not taken place. This one act of 'getting right', allowing themselves to be justified was the very act that protected them along the way. We read in Genesis 35:5 that "the terror of God was on the cities around them and they did not pursue them". This demonstrates that when we walk with God, in His ways, confessing our sin before Him then He is at liberty to protect us. Notice I use the word liberty because God does nothing to violate free will. In other words there has to be a partnership, a working together with Almighty God.
Jacob arrives at the place of his 'God Encounter', how many of us have ever revisited that place, the place where we first heard God speak, that decisive, defining moment when everything became clear. We need to hold onto that place as there will be times in our lives when we will need to remind ourselves of God's absolute faithfulness. Times when all seems lost yet as we see with Jacob he returned and built an alter for the second time and called it El-Bethel, God of the house of God.
Jacob has arrived at Padan-Aram, the place where he started out from some 20 years earlier. His troubles are not over, yet there is this kind of acceptance that God Almighty is in control. Jacob has come a long way from the days when he wanted to be in control, to a place where God is now in control.
God has a way with mankind that when we seek after Him He accomplishes within us that which causes us to be able to follow Him, even through adverse circumstances.
God appears to Jacob again at the same place where he had had his 'God Encounter' and blesses him. We can imagine God reminding Jacob of the wrestling match that they had together, you know the one where Jacob got injured, and says to him "your name is now Israel". In other words Jacob, "start living as a prince", "be different", "you have wrestled and prevailed and I love you and care for you".
It's as if God is saying things like "through all the trials of your life I have been with you, I have given good things to you because I love to give, I can't do any thing else, that is what I do, I give and I create".
God then says something that He says to all mankind. "Be fruitful and Multiply". This command was given to the first beings, Adam and Eve, and has been given down through the ages to all who would choose to follow Christ. 'Be fruitful and Multiply' God wants us to exercise that which is in Himself, to give and give and enable others to live.
Jacobs response is one of thankfulness, one of gratitude and worship. He builds an alter and pours a drink offering over it in recognition of the Almighty God who is over all and in all.
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