“Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourselves and wash your clothes.” (v.2)

It doesn’t take long.

Jacob—the man who has known every grace from God, the man who met God face-to-face—has a problem. His family is called to return to the home for right worship, Bethel. But, either by will or because of ignorance, they’ve accumulated a bunch of “other gods”: pagan idols, cultural superstitions, popular beliefs. It’s been, like, ten minutes since God spared Jacob and restored him to his estranged brother—yet his family is not worshipping with purity and sincerity.

It doesn’t take long for right worship to become crowded.

What have you permitted in your family’s baggage? What are you giving your time and attention and heart to, even though it all ought to be His? How have you wandered from the God who has been faithful?

Check your schedules and your accounts and your search histories. Get rid of the stuff that crowds right worship. And come home.

—Tyler