Everyday Gospel: A Daily Devotional Connecting Scripture to All of LifeExemplo

It is important for us to frequently and humbly examine our hearts, to purge them of the idols that have gripped us, and to recommit ourselves to worship and serve God alone.

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.” (Gen. 35:1–3)

We’ve come to another significant moment in Jacob’s life with his Lord. It is a beautiful thing that it has been recorded and preserved for our example, for our instruction, and for the reclamation of our hearts. God calls Jacob to build an altar to “the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” He is reminding Jacob of who the one true God is, the one who meets his chosen children at just the right time and blesses them in just the right way. Jacob knows that if he is going to build an altar for the worship of God, there is something else he must do. While he was dwelling in a foreign land with his extended family, they opened themselves up to the idols of the people around them. Jacob knows that if he and his family are going to offer acceptable worship to the one true God, these foreign gods have to go. So, he tells his family to rid themselves of these idols and to purify themselves in preparation for building an altar to the one who answered Jacob in distress and has been present with him wherever he has gone.

This moment of purification is not just about getting rid of physical idols. The presence of the physical idols in Jacob’s family is a picture of what had happened to their hearts. While away from Canaan, the hearts of Jacob’s people had wandered away from worship and service of the one true God.

Scripture reminds us that these accounts have been preserved for us because these people were just like us. It is possible for us, like Jacob, to name ourselves as God-fearers but to have collected idols along the way. An idol is anything that for a moment, a season, or a lifetime exercises the rule or control over your heart that only the Lord should have. Whatever controls your heart controls your thoughts and shapes your desires and, because it does, it controls your choices and actions. As long as sin still lives inside of us, we will struggle with idols of the heart. God meets us not with condemnation but with convicting and empowering grace, so that he may purify us again to serve him and him alone.

For further study and encouragement: Colossians 3:5–10