Walk in Purity (Genesis 35:2)

Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments.
– Genesis 35:2

Now in order to understand the significance of this verse, you have to understand the story that’s led up to it. This is Jacob coming back home. And in Genesis 33, he stops short of where God had told him to go. He stops short of Bethel in a place called Shechem. So it’s a picture of spiritual compromise in Jacob’s life. Stopping short of doing what God had told him to do.

Genesis 35:2 shows us God’s unfailing love in our failures.

And there in Shechem, it’s a disaster. We see the effects of sin and compromise. And once you get to Genesis 35, God comes to Jacob after Jacob and his family have experienced massive consequences of sin. And he says, “I’m calling you to go to Bethel.” And so Jacob turns to his family and he says, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you.” Along the way, he picked up foreign gods that they were worshiping. He says, “Purify yourselves, change your garments.”

And basically, the picture is God gives Jacob a second chance. I say second chance. This is like, I don’t know how many chances God has given Jacob to this point. But many more than two. But that’s the beauty of God’s grace, is that he gives second, third, fourth, fifth, and hundredth chances to us. We continually are prone to sin, to stop short of what God is calling us to do.

We’re continually prone to compromise in our relationships with God and our obedience to God. And God comes to us and says, “No, go all the way. Do all that I’m calling you to do.” And each of us in those moments needs to have a Genesis 35:2 kind of reaction that says… By God’s grace… Yes, let me leave behind these areas where I’m compromising. And by the grace of God, experience his purity and move forward in obedience to him.

Genesis 35:2 challenges us to rise above compromise through repentance.

So I would just ask you this question. Is there any area of your life where you’re compromising right now? Where you are stopping short of doing all that God has called you to do? Maybe it’s you’re compromising in something you are doing that God has said not to do. Or maybe you’re compromising in failing to do something God has called you to do. So just think, examine your own heart. Is there any evidence of compromise in you right now? Ask God to show it to you. And by his grace, rise in repentance and turn from that compromise. And go with God on the leadership of his Spirit to where he has called you to go. Do all that he has called you to do.

Oh God, I pray that at this moment, even as we are praying right now, You would open each of our eyes to areas of compromise in our lives. Any areas, oh God, show us where we are stopping short of what you are calling us to do or not do. God, we praise you for your Spirit’s conviction of sin and compromise in our lives and your Spirit’s promise to help us obey, to cause us to do all you’re calling us to do.

This verse challenges us to resist the temptation to compromise.

So God, please help us to repent even right now, oh God, to turn from sin and compromise, to walk with you, and God, in the course of today and tomorrow, to resist the temptation to compromise by the power of your Holy Spirit in us.

Oh God, we pray for this in every facet of our lives, our thoughts, our desires, our words, our actions, and our relationships. And God, as we pray every day for unreached people, we pray for your forgiveness, for not as your church collectively today getting the gospel to all the nations of the world when we have the resources to do it.

Prayer for the Budega Jangam People

So God, we intercede today for the Budega Jangam people of India, 348,000 Hindu men, women, and children who have little to no knowledge of the gospel. God, we pray you’d send laborers who will be obedient to go to the Budega Jangam people until they’re reached with the gospel. Lord, we pray for any and every person who is working for the spread of the gospel to the Budega Jangam people of India. God, we pray that you’d give them resolve to go all the way.

And God, we pray that you would help us to do all you’re calling us to do for the spread of the gospel among all the nations. We pray all this according to your Word in Genesis 35:2 with gratitude, oh God, for your grace, Lord Jesus, for your grace in the second, third, fourth, fifth, thousandth chances that by your grace you have given to us to turn from sin and experience the life that you have created us to live. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.