GET UP AND GO TO BETHEL

What do you do when your life or your family is in a terrible tangle? When everything is out of sorts? When the problem is insurmountable and the solutions seem impossible? There is only one step: You must get up and go to God.

A TERRIBLE DILEMMA

Jacob’s daughter had been raped by a foreign, Hivite man. He wanted to take her to himself, but Jacob would not allow it. To trick them, he demanded that all of the Hivite men become circumcised, a painful procedure, just as every Israelite male was at birth. The third day, when they were in great pain, two of Israel’s sons, unbeknownst to Jacob, fell upon them, killing all of the men of the city and ransacking it completely. Jacob was grieved, not only for his daughter, but now for the actions of his sons and what it would bring upon them.

It was a horrible, convoluted mess.

So, what do you do when you’re in a confusing, seemingly unfixable situation? Notice the intervention of God for his covenant man.

God said to Jacob, “Get up! Go to Bethel and settle there. Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” So, Jacob said to his family and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourselves and change your clothes. We must get up and go to Bethel. I will build an altar there to the God who answered me in my day of distress. He has been with me everywhere I have gone.” (Genesis 35:1–3)

Bethel was the place where God had met Jacob before (Genesis 28). A place of God’s presence and Jacob’s surrender. A place of promise and worship. A sacred place.

“Get up and come to me and follow Me afresh,” God was saying. “I will straighten out your life and family.” And so, they did, and God did exactly as He promised, once again.

BETHEL IS ALWAYS WAITING

As humans, it takes little effort to make a mess. We’re masters at it, and it can happen over years or quickly, in record time. But regardless of its genesis, size, or potential future, your first and best step is always to “Get up and go to Bethel and build an altar there.” He will start you on the road to resolution, cleansing, and revival. He is the only way to find relief, forgiveness, and direction. If you try to handle it by yourself, you will just create more chaos. It will merely go from bad to worse without Him. But it is astounding what God can fix if you will let Him into the equation.

Get up and go to Bethel. He’s waiting there. Jacob said, “He has been with me everywhere I have gone” (Genesis 35:3). If you will turn in humility, confession, and repentance to Him, He will help you. And you may just discover that the call back to His presence has come from Him.