August 16th, 2013
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

Burying the Past

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Opening Prayer

Father, thank You for the promise of hope for the future. I praise You for the promise of strength for today.

Read Genesis 35:1-15

[1] 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.” [2] 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. [3] 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.” [4] 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. [5] Then they set out, and the terror of God fell on the towns all around them so that no one pursued them. [6] Jacob and all the people with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan. [7] 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. [8] Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak outside Bethel. So it was named Allon Bakuth. [9] After Jacob returned from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him. [10] God said to him, “Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel.” So he named him Israel. [11] And God said to him, “I am God Almighty; be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will be among your descendants. [12] The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you.” [13] Then God went up from him at the place where he had talked with him. [14] Jacob set up a stone pillar at the place where God had talked with him, and he poured out a drink offering on it; he also poured oil on it. [15] Jacob called the place where God had talked with him Bethel.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of International Bible Society.

Meditate

“But one thing I (Paul) do; forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal…for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13,14).

Think Further

After his reconciliation with Esau, instead of heading directly for Bethel, Jacob settled in Shechem and must have been there a number of years. It’s the shocking events of ch. 34, along with the repeated command from God, that seem to have been the final stimulus to his returning there. Bethel was a holy place. Commentators suggest that this journey was in the nature of a pilgrimage: note the use of the phrase “go up” and the need for them to be purified ceremonially first. This is signified by the change of clothes but, more importantly, by the burial of anything that was connection to, or a symbol of, the worship of foreign gods. Adornments also had to be left; elsewhere they, too, are associated with idolatrous imagery (Exod. 32; Judg. 8:22-27). It was after making these preparations that they set out for Bethel, with God clearly preventing any interference from anyone around.

At Bethel, Jacob commemorates the place where he first met God for himself by building another altar and is, again, named “Israel” by God. The repetition of events can be explained by the editor of Genesis drawing on various strands of tradition, oral or otherwise, and incorporating them into the account. Recent scholarship, however, while acknowledging this approach, focuses more on a thematic view of how the stories were compiled.

Leaving this aside, we see Jacob making a final, definitive severance between himself and his family on the one hand, and any lingering connection with worship of, or affiliation to other gods on the other, and receiving God’s promises again. He is doing what the writer to the Hebrews exhorts all of us to do: throwing off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, so that we may follow Christ with determination and single-mindedness (Heb. 12:1).

Apply

Today, pray for those (including yourself) who may have difficulty leaving the past behind, or are still affected by past traumas.

Closing prayer

Lord Jesus, I need to forget the past and take hold of Your future. To do this, I need Your strength.

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