New Clothes

Jacob: Changing Clothes

As Jacob’s story comes to a close, God once again appears to the younger brother. He calls Jacob to return to Bethel, the land where he had fled from so many years ago. It was at Bethel that Jacob recieved his first vision from God. So many years ago, young Jacob the trickster, the liar, the stealer of blessings, had fled from home. Despite all of his many flaws, God chose to appear to this person and reiterate the promise of Abraham. And, uniquely, God added to that promise. Not only would this God bless Jacob by giving him many sons and daughters, but he would also address his needs as an exile by returning him to the land from which he was cast out.

While this is something new for Jacob, such a promise is not alien to the story as we’ve heard it so far. This is a God who is all about restoring the exile. As Adam and Eve were cast out from the Eden, exiles from the garden, God also promised them that they would one day be able to return home. In a way, then, God’s work in returning Jacob from exile is but a foretaste of his plan to return all of creation back from exile from the garden.

Yet, before Jacob goes back, he knows things have to be different. He can’t go back as he once was. There were good reasons that he was cast out and exiled from home, and to return without addressing those would surely only lead to more exile. In the same way, those humans who still wish to return from exile today must follow in the path of Jacob. Humanity can’t return to the garden from exile without first addressing the forces that drove us from Eden to begin with.

That is why step one for Jacob is a renunciation of old ways.

Put away the foreign gods that are among you, and purify yourselves

As Jacob plotted with his mother Rebekah to steal Esau’s inheritance, it is clear that he had no thought of honoring the god of his fathers, Yahweh. It was Yahweh who had declared that “The elder shall serve the younger”, this was already declared by God. And yet Jacob still saw fit to deceive his brother and steal what had already been promised to him anyway. Jacob’s inheritance became an idol for him, and it caused him to be exiled from home.

This would not be the first time that Jacob acted for himself either.

Time and time again we see Jacob struggle with the sin of idolatry. Having recieved his allotted portion from Laban, Jacob’s wife Rachel still saw fit to steal literal idols from her father as the family left back to the promised land.

Then, later, when Jacob’s own daughter Dinah was assaulted by the Hivites, Jacob’s own safety became an idol. He was content to let such an act go unpunished for the sake of his own safety.

You might ask, “How exactly is that idolatry?” The thing about idolatry is that it’s a sneaky, subtle sin. It doesn’t necessarily always look like literally bowing down to a giant golden statue (though it can certainly take that form as well). If you were to Google a definition for idolatry, one of the first results says this:

extreme admiration, love, or reverence for something or someone.

I’d say that’s a pretty theologically sound definition. Idolatry, biblically speaking, is to love something more than you love God. For Jacob, he seems to have made himself into an idol. He constantly sought what was best for him, regardless of how that affected those around him. The problem with idolatry is that it always leads us in the wrong direction. God created humanity to face upwards, towards heaven, but idols draw our gaze downwards, towards earthly things. And so, before he could return to Bethel, Jacob knew his people had to bury such idols, whether literally or figuratively.

The second thing they had to do was to change clothes.

The New Revised Standard Version Jacob Returns to Bethel

Put away the foreign gods that are among you, and purify yourselves, and change your clothes; 3 then come, let us go up to Bethel

This was really a matter of holiness and purity. Growing up, I remember one of the first things my Dad would do when he came home was change his clothes. This wasn’t just to get comfortable, it was because he was a carpenter, and carpenter’s clothes get filthy. He didn’t want to bring the mud and muck from work into our home. Allison does the same. Not because she get’s muddy or dirty, but because she’s around children all day. She doesn’t want the griminess and germiness of school to defile our home.

The ancient Israelites felt the same way about their clothes:

The New Revised Standard Version Instructions concerning Sacrifices

The priest shall put on his linen vestments after putting on his linen undergarments next to his body; and he shall take up the ashes to which the fire has reduced the burnt offering on the altar, and place them beside the altar. 11 Then he shall take off his vestments and put on other garments, and carry the ashes out to a clean place outside the camp.

The New Revised Standard Version The Holy Chambers and the Outer Wall

When the priests enter the holy place, they shall not go out of it into the outer court without laying there the vestments in which they minister, for these are holy; they shall put on other garments before they go near to the area open to the people.”

When you’re in a holy place, you need holy clothing. It’s simply not right to bring in all the filth and impurities of the outside world into the presence of God. It’d be like if my Dad came in after work and plopped down on the couch without even bothering to take off his muddy boots, and after my mom spent the whole day cleaning the house. It’s rude, it’s disrespectful, and it’s dangerous. Muddy boots can’t exist in the presence of mom, lest ye be destroyed. Likewise, impurity cannot exist in the presence of God, it will be destroyed. So Jacob changes his clothes, as a symbol of purity before God, and as a reminder that that to live in the presence of God is to put away old things and to take on the new.

Lastly, before Jacob is settled back in his homeland, he must be renamed. Jacob has already recieved the name “Israel” from his wrestling match with God. But in order to receive the promise, Jacob will have to learn what it means to be Israel and not Jacob any longer. As we said before, to enter into the promised land requires that we deal with what cast us out of it to begin with. And what that really means is that we’ll have to become all new people. Jacob was cast out. Only Israel can return.

With these three things: the renunciation of idols, reclothing, and reanming, Israel sets aside all of the things that lead him away from home, and is able to receive the promise of God: to return home at long last.

Jacob: Changing Clothes

Restating the Promise

Restating the Promise

Rachel & Benjamin; Death and New Life

And yet, even as Israel builds an altar and declares that this place be called “Bethel”, “The House of God”, he can’t escape the reality of the world. Even as Israel lives in the promised land, he must recognize that it is a land filled with Canaanites, and a land that isn’t fully his yet. And though Israel no doubt rejoices as his twelfth son, Benjamin, is born, a sign that God’s promise of fruitfulness is being kept, he must still deal with the reality of death as he loses his wife Rachel.

The promised land is here, but not fully here. There is new life, yet it exists in the midst of death. Isn’t it strange how that happens? I haven’t been a pastor very long, but I have noticed that there is often a trend where the Church celebrates new life as it also mourns the passing of a brother or sister. Perhaps the birth of Benjamin is so closely tied with the death of Rachel as a reminder to us that dying always happens in the midst of new life, and living always happens in the midst of death.

And so Israel does the only thing any of us can do:

The New Revised Standard Version The Birth of Benjamin and the Death of Rachel

Israel journeyed on

Israel had to learn to live in the mystery and paradox of God. He had to learn to live with a promise in the midst of being fulfilled, but not fully fulfilled yet. He had to live in the tension of new life and death. As must we all.

New Creation in the Midst of Old Creation

Jesus came preaching “the kingdom of God is near”. The early church, as we see in Acts and the letters of the Apostles, understood that Jesus meant what he said. When Christ died, he ascended into heaven to sit at the throne, taking authority over all creation. They understood very well that the death and resurrection marked the defeat of Satan and his forces of evil. They saw clearly that the kingdom of God was at hand, and yet they experienced daily all the horrors of life under Roman rule.

How do we live in the tension of new life and death, of a promise that is being fulfilled, yet isn’t complete yet? How do we journey on as Israel and the early Church?

B- Restating the Promise

C- Rachel and Benjamin, Death and New Life

In Colossians, Paul writes:

D- New Creation in the midst of an Old one

The New Revised Standard Version The New Life in Christ

Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. 7 These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life. 8 But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices 10 and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. 11 In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!

Here, again, we see this idea of being reclothed and renamed. Those baptised in Christ are a new creation, though they still live in a world of sin and death. God is making all things new, and he’s doing it in the midst of the old. God brings forth new life in the midst of death and darkness.

Paul would also later write, in Romans, “we have been