“Change Your Garments” (Gen 35)

And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments. "Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have gone." (vs2-3)

The Lord Jesus commands us to “put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments”. We are to walk in newness of life, giving thanks to God continually. One man said, “Christ could give thanks at all times. He goes out with a hymn to His agony in the garden. For us, how simple, where there is nothing of this sort really awaiting us, no darkness such as He was in, nothing but the blessed light itself, how easy it should be for us to give thanks!” And wheter easy or not, it has been commanded and must be done by grace (Eph 5:20). We must be finished with sin and committed to Christ, not tolerating, “the little foxes that spoil the vines”, or dwelling in the little city Zoar, because we're timid about full surrender, alegiance to Christ alone, and battling sin (Song 2:15; Gen 19:17-22, 30). You are in a war, indeed, but the Son helps. We read, “So they gave Jacob all the forgeign gods which were in their hands, and the earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree which was by Shechem”, so that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to both forgive and cleanse (Gen 35:4).

Secondly, we don't have to worry that we're on our own. God is the reason we conquer sin. It reads, “And they journeyed, and the terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him”, so that God fights for us and rules the devil, which is why we aren't conquered by sin (vs5-6).

I'm not the reason for the grace that I've received, not my strength, intelligence, wisdom, or zeal. All of this was given to me by grace, but they are not the cause. In election, God decided to save us... in redemption, Christ died for us particularly... and in regeneration, unlike the perishing, we've been given the Spirit. We conquer sin and have not gone too far into it, because God shut the door of our ambitions and wouldn't allow us to depart. The devil and the world haven't swallowed you and me, and we have fellowship with God, because God has kept them at bay, only allowing them to work together for our good.

Thirdly, we are blessed. We haven't earned it, but we receive it freely. He told Jacob, “Your name is Jacob (him who wants the blessing at all costs); your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name (hinm who has the blessing, a prince having power with God and man). So He called his name Israel. Also God said to him: I am God Almighty”, all the help you need is mine to give, “Be fruitful and multiply”, I've blessed you, “a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body” (vs10-12).

Don't fear. The God of Luther, Spurgeon, Paul, and Peter... the God of Sarah, Rebekah, and Mary is your God, the Ruler of all the earth, and He is on your side. You and I are BLESSED for Christ's sake with promises, strength, and victory.

Finally, know that amidst the misery of this world, even the misery of believers, we have REDEMPTION and hope in God. Just like Jacob and Esau buried their father Isaac, we bury the problems of this world in the hope of Christ, knowing that sin is atoned, reconciliation is accomplished, and God has a better resurrection for us, a place to weep and sin no more.

When Jacob's son Reuben slept with his concubine, it was shameful and painful to hear. We read, “And it happened, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concumbine, and israel heard about it” (vs22). Before this, his favorite wife has died in childbirth, but we see a key to Jacob's success. He looked at the situation positively, as we must, believing Christ amidst our sin, the wrongs that we receive, and the misery of earth. He called the boys name “Son of the Right Hand”, Benjamin, while his agonizing wife called him, “Son of My Sorrow”. We can see the same situation differently, and one be comforted, and the other not.

Receive God's goodness, no matter what is happening down here.