“So Jacob said to his household and all who were with him, ‘Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes’” (v. 2, NIV).
What paradigm shifts in your belief system have been the hardest to change? It must have been a stark and drastic contrast to Jacob’s family and their previous worship habits when he commanded them to rid themselves of man-made “gods.” The idols were tangible, in that Jacob’s family could touch, feel and see them. Yet Jacob was ordering them to substitute these for a God whom they could neither see nor touch and, at this particular point, with whom they had no relationship.
It is part of our fallen human nature not to trust anything we cannot rationally see or touch, so it is a big step for a person to put faith in God, whom they cannot experience through their five senses. Today’s society is not only unwilling to trust in such a God, but they are vehemently critical of others who do express this faith. God’s inspired, infallible Word is sometimes inconceivable to our finite minds, but in those incidents we need to, by an act of our wills, trust the direction of God’s Word to be true, putting our faith in him regardless the opposition or seemingly contradictory thought process or paradigm.
Lord God, I believe your Word to be true, and in spite of my feelings, I desire to put my trust in you, regardless of my hesitancy brought forth from a lack of understanding. I want to walk in faith and in your Spirit today.
Robin Buchanan
Extended Scripture: Genesis 34-36
