….Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments. Genesis 35:2
In this verse Jacob addresses his household. Jacob’s servants were all Syrians and were worshipping idols. These gods belonged to them and others that Rachel stole and they treated these idols as gods and depended on them instead of their creator God. These idols were made of silver, gold with great workmanship which were found in the city of Shechem. Jacob orders his household to put those idols (gods) away before heading to Bethel to meet God. Jacob buries all their foreign gods, charms, pagan jewelry, and they set out to Bethel from polluted Shechem.
Like Jacob, if we want to truly experience spiritual revival, renewal in our life and want to start over, we have to get rid of anything that competes with God being first. One of the 10 commandments is “You shall have no other gods before me”. Our God is a jealous God and He demands loyalty. God is not one god among many. He is the only true God and the only good God. Our way out of idolatry and into the fullness of Christ is by confessing our idols, and He will replace our idols with himself. Let us change our polluted clothes and put on clean clothes representing holiness.