God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments. Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.” So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that was near Shechem.
And as they journeyed, a terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them, so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. And Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him, and there he built an altar and called the place El-bethel, because there God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother. And Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried under an oak below Bethel. So he called its name Allon-bacuth.
Comment: Coming back into Genesis to continue that book, we have a passage which doesn’t initially seem very relevant to my walk of faith. It is one of those bits of scripture which, I guess, has been quickly glossed over and not thought very deeply about. But without having to look very hard I can see several very significant thoughts. 1. God was still very much involved in Jacob’s life and I’m not sure how God did it, but Jacob understood what God wanted him to do. 2. Jacob knew that within his household there was a lot going on which was not right with God. So they were told to purify themselves, get rid of things they worshipped other that Jehovah God, and spruce themselves up. I do not understand why he hid them and didn’t destroy them! 3. Somehow God protected them from being attacked as they travelled. Certainly God does promise to travel life with us but that fact doesn’t always keep us out of troubles or attacks. 4. They came to the appointed place and set up for worship. 5. His father’s wife’s handmaid, Deborah, after the earlier death of Rebekah had been in Jacob’s household and was treated with honour and dignity. This is an important lesson for us all to learn – treating people or their memory in a wholesome manner.
Prayer: Help me in the mundane periods of my life to ‘do it well’, O God!
As I read it! 