May the mumbling commence!
Who or what is first in our hearts? It’s an important question. Sometimes, we need to purge the evil
influences in our lives so that we can follow God more faithfully. It was true of Jacob. It’s true for us. Read from Peterson’s The Message:
God spoke to Jacob: “Go back to Bethel. Stay there and build an
altar to the God
who revealed himself
to you when you were running for your life from your brother
Esau.”
Jacob
told his family and all those who lived with him, “Throw out all the alien gods which you have, take a good bath
and put on clean
clothes, we’re going to Bethel. I’m going to build an altar
there to the God who answered me when I was
in trouble and has stuck with me everywhere I’ve gone
since.”
They
turned over to Jacob
all the alien gods
they’d been holding on to, along with their lucky-charm earrings. Jacob buried them
under the oak tree in Shechem. Then they
set out. A
paralyzing fear descended on all the surrounding villages so that they were unable
to pursue the sons of Jacob.
Jacob
and his company arrived at Luz, that is, Bethel, in the land of Canaan. He built an altar there and named it El-Bethel (God-of-Bethel) because
that’s where God
revealed himself to him when he was running from his brother.
And that’s
when Rebekah’s nurse, Deborah, died. She was buried just below Bethel under the oak tree. It was named Allon-Bacuth (Weeping Oak). (Genesis
35:1-8)
Now read the same passage from the NIV translation:
Then God said to Jacob, "Go
up to Bethel and settle there, and
build an altar there to God, who appeared
to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau."
So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Get rid of
the foreign gods you have with you,
and purify yourselves and change your
clothes. Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and
who has been with me wherever I have
gone." So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had
and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem. Then they set
out, and the terror of God fell upon the towns all around them so that no one pursued
them.
Jacob and all the people with him came to
Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan. There he built an
altar, and he called the place El Bethel, because it was
there that God revealed himself to him when
he was fleeing from
his brother.
Now Deborah, Rebekah's nurse,
died and was
buried under the oak below Bethel. So it was named Allon Bacuth. (Genesis 35:1-8)
I don’t know that to purify yourself (NIV) is equivalent
to taking a good bath (Peterson). There
is deeper meaning to purifying yourself.
I think Peterson belittles the concept of repentance. Repentance is what is happening here.
Remember what just happened? The sons of Jacob had just massacred the city
of Shechem. Jacob was in fear that the
peoples of the land would gang up on his family and destroy them.
It’s into this mess that God calls Jacob back to Bethel…
the last place he spent the night when he was fleeing in fear. And Jacob finally realized that he needed to
get right with God. Thus, the purge of
evil influences came.
Calling all foreign gods! I wonder if Rachel came forth with her father’s
household gods. Did she keep them? We are not told. Maybe she gave them to someone else to bring
forward. Maybe she came forward with
these gods. It would have greatly
grieved Jacob.
And when we’ve repented and purified ourselves and once
again are following God, we fall under the protection of the Lord. The people of the land fell under the fear of
God… not just a general paralyzing fear as Peterson intimates.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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