Buried
Read Genesis 35:1-15.
What do you do with false gods?
That's the question Jacob must have thought about at least a bit. He obviously knows that some in his household still have idols and other symbols of their old religion, because when God calls him back to Bethel ("house of God," where he had dreamed about the stairway to heaven), he tells everyone in his household to get rid of their false gods.
But what do you do with false gods once they're turned in?
In Jacob's world, the idols and other things (rings, clothes, etc.) were easy to identify. The signs and symbols of the false religion were easy to see. Today, we hide them better. Clothes can still become an idol; they often represent status and prominence or they at least tell something about our position in society. Money, power, sex—those are the "big three" things that we worship today. Children and their activities can become an idol as we try to live out our "missed opportunities" through them. Success, jobs, physical things we collect—the list could go on and on. All of these things can take the place of God in our lives. Any or all of these things can become that which we center our lives on. That is, after all, what an idol is. Anything that takes the place in our lives that rightly belongs to God. And we each have to come to a point in our lives where we're willing to get rid of our idols (notice how many times this has to happen in the Bible—in every generation!) if we are going to be able to fully serve God.
So what do you do with false gods?
Jacob chooses to bury all the idols and symbols of the false religion. Before they head to Bethel, Jacob buries the symbols of their old life under an oak at Shechem. That's an interesting choice, for two reasons. For one, he doesn't destroy them completely. Those things still exist, albeit in the ground. But he can go back and get them if this "God thing" doesn't work out. And that's why, secondly, he buries them in a significant place. He doesn't just dig a hole somewhere out in the desert. He puts these false gods somewhere he can remember. He can come back to this place and know for sure those things are buried there. (Even the author, generations later, knows where they are.) Jacob makes a show of giving up his false gods, but he still knows where they are in case he thinks he needs them.
So what do you do with false gods?
The call to "put away our idols" should not be a "put them away until you need them again." If we're going to follow Jesus, he says we have to not look back. Don't put your old gods where you can find them. Destroy them. Remove them completely from your life. Now, obviously, in some cases that doesn't mean to literally destroy those things. You still need a job, and you still love your children. It means doing whatever is necessary to absolutely remove the influence they have had from your lives. Many of these things are not inherently bad, they just have a bad influence over you. Don't bury them. Get rid of them. Eliminate the ways you have allowed them to influence you.
So...what do you do with false gods?
By the way...when you do a Google search of "idol," you get all sorts of pictures of singers and performers (as well as "American Idol" logos). What does that say about who and what we worship in America today?
What do you do with false gods?
That's the question Jacob must have thought about at least a bit. He obviously knows that some in his household still have idols and other symbols of their old religion, because when God calls him back to Bethel ("house of God," where he had dreamed about the stairway to heaven), he tells everyone in his household to get rid of their false gods.
But what do you do with false gods once they're turned in?
In Jacob's world, the idols and other things (rings, clothes, etc.) were easy to identify. The signs and symbols of the false religion were easy to see. Today, we hide them better. Clothes can still become an idol; they often represent status and prominence or they at least tell something about our position in society. Money, power, sex—those are the "big three" things that we worship today. Children and their activities can become an idol as we try to live out our "missed opportunities" through them. Success, jobs, physical things we collect—the list could go on and on. All of these things can take the place of God in our lives. Any or all of these things can become that which we center our lives on. That is, after all, what an idol is. Anything that takes the place in our lives that rightly belongs to God. And we each have to come to a point in our lives where we're willing to get rid of our idols (notice how many times this has to happen in the Bible—in every generation!) if we are going to be able to fully serve God.
So what do you do with false gods?
Jacob chooses to bury all the idols and symbols of the false religion. Before they head to Bethel, Jacob buries the symbols of their old life under an oak at Shechem. That's an interesting choice, for two reasons. For one, he doesn't destroy them completely. Those things still exist, albeit in the ground. But he can go back and get them if this "God thing" doesn't work out. And that's why, secondly, he buries them in a significant place. He doesn't just dig a hole somewhere out in the desert. He puts these false gods somewhere he can remember. He can come back to this place and know for sure those things are buried there. (Even the author, generations later, knows where they are.) Jacob makes a show of giving up his false gods, but he still knows where they are in case he thinks he needs them.
So what do you do with false gods?
The call to "put away our idols" should not be a "put them away until you need them again." If we're going to follow Jesus, he says we have to not look back. Don't put your old gods where you can find them. Destroy them. Remove them completely from your life. Now, obviously, in some cases that doesn't mean to literally destroy those things. You still need a job, and you still love your children. It means doing whatever is necessary to absolutely remove the influence they have had from your lives. Many of these things are not inherently bad, they just have a bad influence over you. Don't bury them. Get rid of them. Eliminate the ways you have allowed them to influence you.
So...what do you do with false gods?
By the way...when you do a Google search of "idol," you get all sorts of pictures of singers and performers (as well as "American Idol" logos). What does that say about who and what we worship in America today?
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