Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Genesis 35:1-3; I Samuel 15:22-23 ESV

1 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."

2 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.

3 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."

22 And Samuel said,
"Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the LORD?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to listen than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
he has also rejected you from being king."

Jacob doesn’t seem to have a lot to recommend him. He was deceitful. He wasn’t brave. He wasn’t a good father in many ways. He was greedy and he was self-serving. What about Jacob does commend him to the Bible reader? Jacob was obedient to whomever he served. He was obedient to his parents. He was obedient to his father-in-law, Laban, as long as it was possible for him to be. But above all he was obedient to God.

It was not that Jacob did what God told him to do. He did that but he also did it with zeal and understanding of the command. In Genesis 35:2, as he prepares to obey God, he takes the vital step of cleansing his people of idolatry. This is not spoken in the command but Jacob, with the heart of a believer, understood that walking with God was not compatible with transporting idols.

Note 35:3 “Then let us arise and go up to Bethel.” Compare this with Abraham’s preparation for the sacrifice of Isaac, Genesis 22:5-6. When fellowship with God is one’s purpose he can take neither what the world can offer nor anything such as the idols of Jacob’s company with. Jacob was going to the “House of God, Bethel”

The writer of Hebrews in 13:10 directs us to the altar we have.

10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat.

This day there is the call “Let us arise and with boldness go up to our altar to worship the true and living God. Amen”