Other Gods

God said o Jacob, "Arise, go up to Bethel, and settle there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau." -Genesis 35:1

When I think about the biblical patriarchs, I think of them as people that might mess up a lot but always while acknowledging the One True God who seems to speak and even appear to them fairly often. But that is not so. In this passage, God had to remind Jacob about his experience at Bethel and to put away all his "foreign" gods that had accumulated among his family and workers. It seems that as Jacob wandered physically, he also wandered spiritually.

It's easy to do. We can get caught up in the spiritual dynamics of other groups we are involved in... our workplace, community groups and clubs, even family that may worship differently or not at all. We may still call God, "God," but it may not be the same version of God that first made himself known to us. This is not always a bad thing. Our knowledge of God does indeed change and shift according to our spiritual maturity, but there is a basic-ness to God's identity that needs to always be at the core of our belief. If we stray too far, God will find a way to remind us. And he usually does so by drawing us back to specific times when we knew God was acting on a very personal level in our lives... an unexpected and immediate answer to prayer, a form of comfort in grief that seems almost other-worldly, a healing, a sense of heavenly guidance when we are at an important crossroad. 

He always works to pull us back when we stray too far. We may get too occupied with those "foreign gods" and miss his urging, but he will be trying again and again. That's what he does. He did it with Jacob and he will do it for us. 

Father of Wandering Sheep,

We do have a tendency to wander and to find other gods to occupy our attention. Remind us of our promises to you. Thank you for being so patient and for coming back for us time and time again. Amen.