9 Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I WILL MAKE YOU PROSPER,’ 10 I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I HAD ONLY MY STAFF WHEN I CROSSED THIS JORDAN, but now I have become two camps. Genesis 32
If we’re serious about following God we may have to shed much surplus baggage. Jacob LEFT EVERYTHING when he fled to Laban and therefore all that he now had came from God. God is still able to bless and prosper His children.
Sukkoth was the place ‘of Shelters’, for him, his family and stock. Shechem had the EXTRA DIMENSION, where he built the altar to the God of Israel, but his sons, Simeon and Levi, BROUGHT TROUBLE ON HIM THERE. It wasn’t his fault but he had to deal with it.
35 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.” Genesis 35
The next place Jacob went to was the place where God had met with him at the beginning of his journey, he’d come full circle back to his First Place.
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.”
Once again the people had to shed everything that wasn’t of God before they went to Bethel.
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.
When they got rid of all the false things that stood between them and God (their idols, we too can ask God to SHOW US what needs to go), they came under HIS PROTECTION from the people all around them. Bethel was a holy place to Jacob, where he’d lay down with only his staff, but now all the rubbish in their camp had to be discarded before they could go back and worship God there.
If God’s calling us to come up higher today we need to make sure we’ve left all the rubbish as we come to Him.
Immanuel, God is with us!
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38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Luke 6
THE LORD IS NO ONE’S DEBTOR, HALLELUJAH.