Put Away the Foreign Gods

Note from today’s Bible reading: Genesis 32-35

God called Jacob to “go up to Bethel and live there, and make an altar there” (Genesis 35:1). Jacob told his household that they would do what God called him to do because God had “answered [him] in the day of [his] distress and has been with [him] wherever [he had] gone” (Genesis 35:3).

However, God was not just Jacob’s preferred deity among the many “gods” that the people around him served. He alone was worthy of man’s worship and devotion. None of the other “gods” of men could do what the Lord had done.

Knowing this, Jacob told his household, “Put away the foreign gods which are among you” (Genesis 35:2). They did so, and he hid them so that when they journeyed, they left them behind.

It is rare to find people in our culture who worship graven images like those in Jacob’s day. Yet the people around us certainly do have “gods” that they serve – money, pleasure, comfort, emotion, civil rulers, and so on. If we want to be faithful to the Lord, we need to serve the Lord wholeheartedly and exclusively, not dividing our allegiance with any modern-day idols.

So put away the foreign gods. The God of heaven is the only one who will always be with us and bless us. Let us give our allegiance wholly to Him.