How should we respond when God has blessed us? The first time Jacob came to Bethel, God promised to be with him, to protect him on his journeys, and to bring him back to the land promised to him and to his descendants (28:15). And by the beginning of chapter 35, God had done all of those things: Jacob not only had a big family and lots of livestock, but his brother had also welcomed him home (33:4). And even after Jacob’s sons had carried out a massive attack on the people of Shechem (34:25-29) God even protected him and his family as they traveled within the Promised Land (33:5).

So, what did Jacob do? Just as God had been faithful to him, he was determined to be faithful to God. That’s why he told everyone in his household to abandon their worship of any other gods (35:2). And he returned to Bethel, the same place God had made so many promises to him, and worshipped God, building an altar and a pillar on which he could make sacrifices (35:7, 14). Jacob thus kept the promises that he had made to God the first time he came to Bethel (28:20-22).

So, what about us? Hasn’t God provided so many of our material needs? Hasn’t He answered so many of our prayers for help and healing for ourselves and our loved ones? Most importantly, hasn’t He kept His promise to forgive and accept all those who confess our sins and trust in Christ? Surely, we all have as many reasons as Jacob did to worship and serve God alone.

So today, let’s turn away from all those things that steal our time and attention away from the Lord. Let’s do our best to follow Jesus, giving ourselves completely to one another in service and love, and devoting ourselves to the glory of God alone. For does the God Who has given so much to us and for us deserve anything less?

Genesis 35:1-15 (NASB)

Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and live there; and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”
2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods which are among you, and purify yourselves, and change your garments;
3 and let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and has been with me wherever I have gone.”
4 So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods which they had, and the rings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was near Shechem.
5 As they journeyed, there was a great terror upon the cities which were around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.
6 So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him.
7 And he built an altar there, and called the place El-bethel, because there God had revealed Himself to him, when he fled from his brother.
8 Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the oak; it was named Allon-bacuth.
9 Then God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-aram, and He blessed him.
10 And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; You shall no longer be called Jacob, But Israel shall be your name.” Thus He called him Israel.
11 God also said to him, “I am God Almighty; Be fruitful and multiply; A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, And kings shall come forth from you.
12 “And the land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give it to you, And I will give the land to your descendants after you.”
13 Then God went up from him in the place where He had spoken with him.
14 And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where He had spoken with him, a pillar of stone, and he poured out a libation on it; he also poured oil on it.
15 So Jacob named the place where God had spoken with him, Bethel.