“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; 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.”” (Ge 35:2-3 NAS95)

There are things we need to attend to if we are to approach God, even for the purpose of worship.  We need be willing to give up those things that are not good and holy.  Then we need to put them away, to bury them and move on.

Having purified himself and his household Jacob moved on to a place of God’s choosing to build and alter and sacrifice to God in worship.  Today we live beyond the cross where Christ became the sacrifice for our sins.  That sacrifice made it possible that we might be pardoned and freed from our sins and cleansed from all unrighteousness.  The sacrifices of Jacob’s day provided a covering for sin.  Christ’s death provides a removal of sin that we might be sanctified, separated from sin and dedicated to God.  How much more it is imperative today that we clean up our exterior from those things that are unholy, seeing He has provided cleansing for the inner man.

“17 “Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,” says the lord. “AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; and I will welcome you. 18 “and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me,” says the lord Almighty.” (2Co 6:17-18 NAS95)