The Terror of God

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

THE TERROR OF GOD

Gen 35:1-5

35:1 Then God said to Jacob, "Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau." 2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. 3 Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone." 4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem. 5 Then they set out, and the terror of God fell upon the towns all around them so that no one pursued them.

NIV

When God said, "Go," Jacob left where he was and went where God told him to go. That alone is a lesson we need to take to heart. God wanted Jacob to return to the place He had appeared to him when he was fleeing from Esau. We should always go where the Lord tells us to go, or stay where he has directed us to stay. If we are believers and followers of Jesus, that means he leads. We are not supposed to make those choices about where to go or where to worship Him. We know that Rachel took her father's household gods, but we wonder how many others in Jacob's household had other gods, or idols. Another truth that stands out is that they were told to purify themselves and change their clothes. They were to prepare themselves to meet the living God. However, the one truth we should focus on is that as they traveled to Bethel, the terror of God fell upon the towns around them, so no one pursued them. That time might have been far more lawless than our culture today, since townspeople likely attacked travelers passing through. However, the terror of God fell upon them. We spend a lot of time talking about God's love, quoting John 3:16, but how much time do we spend considering the terror of God? That does not mean we would experience his terror, for we are his children, but as we walk through life, perhaps the world we pass through might be feeling the terror of God, so they do not even attempt to pursue us in an effort to do us harm. We are under the mighty hand of the Most High God. We are under his divine protection from evil. Jacob traveled freely to Bethel without interference from any of the towns he passed along the way; however, he was moving under the direction of God. That is the key to our living and moving freely without interference from this world. We should always walk under God's direction, and in doing so, God's terror will fall on anyone who desires to harm us. There is a huge difference between  God walking with us and us walking with God. Let him lead; we will follow, and we will see God's terror fall on all around us, protecting us as we go where he leads.