Most of us know what it feels like to have been somewhere with God that we are no longer at. Life moves on, and we can find ourselves far from where we once were. This is exactly where Jacob found himself. And it is exactly where God met him.
“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.” (Genesis 35:1-7)
Were you closer to God in the past than you are today? Things have happened, and compromise can easily settle in. You may have drifted from where you once were.
Jacob was not perfect when God called him. He had failed his daughter. He had failed God. His family were not close to God. Yet God graciously called him back.
God doesn’t wait for you to be acceptable before He comes to you. He always takes the initiative. Before Jacob had tidied everything up, God demonstrated his love.
What needs to be got rid of? We cannot carry our idols to Bethel. We have to bury them.
Then build an altar. Jacob’s return was not to a place, it was to a Person. Genuine return to God expresses itself in genuine, deliberate worship, not as performance, but as the natural overflow of a heart that has found again what it has been missing.
Wherever you are, whether you are close to Bethel or you have drifted a long way off, the same God who called Jacob is calling you. He is the God who answered in the day of distress. He is El Bethel, the God who reveals himself.
He says to you today, “Go up to Bethel. Settle there. Build an altar.”
Come, let us go up.
Missions Paul 