When Jacob had set off to find a wife with only a staff in his hand, he made a promise to God. He had a vision of a stairway to heaven, and he had promised God that if he was kept safe and found a wife and managed to return to his father’s household, he would make the pillar he had set up in Bethel into a house of God (Genesis 28).

Decades have passed since Jacob made that promise. He spent years with Laban, and then years more at Shechem, and still he did not return to Bethel or to his father’s house. It takes a prompting from God to finally get him moving.

We need to be careful about the promises we make to God, because he does not forget them. Jacob will have to fulfil this promise, but before he can do that, he must leave behind everything that is coming between him and God – literally. For Jacob and his family, this means burying idols and gold rings under a tree.

It was worth it, though. There, God met with Jacob again, and reiterated the promises he had made, as well as reinforcing that Jacob’s name would now be Israel. Jacob was once more on track with God.

In Hebrews 12:1 we read that we should “throw off everything that hinders, and the sin that so easily entangles.” Jacob needed to do this. We need to do this too. For Jacob it was getting rid of false gods that were literal idols. For us, there may be literal objects that we need to be rid of, or it may be idols in our hearts that stop us from getting on track with God and staying on it.

What promises have you made to God that have gone unfulfilled? What hinders you from moving on in your relationship with him? What is more precious than God himself? Nothing, is the honest answer. May we, like Jacob, be willing to get rid of everything that gets in the way of us submitting wholly to the Lord.

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NEWBOLD COMMUNITY CHURCH