Genesis 35
Return to Bethel
"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." (Genesis 35:1)
God told Jacob to go back. Back to Bethel, where he’d had the dream, where he’d made the vow, where everything had started. And before he went, Jacob told his household to get rid of the foreign gods. Purify yourselves. Change your clothes.
They did. Jacob buried the foreign gods under the oak at Shechem. And they went.
There’s something about returning to the place where God first showed up. Not as nostalgia. As reorientation. Here is where the vow was made. Here is where the presence was undeniable. Come back to what you know is true.
I’ve needed seasons like that. Not new experiences or new directions, but return. Return to what I know. Return to what I said I would do. Return to the place of first encounter and let it recalibrate what has drifted.
And the foreign gods. What do they represent in a life that has accumulated things that compete with God without ever being named as threats?
