Genesis 35:2 Daily Devotional & Meaning – Put Away the Strange Gods
Daily Verses Everyday! Day 226
“Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments:”
Jacob’s words deserve clear approval. He is doing exactly what a spiritual leader should do: he is identifying what dishonors God, commanding that it be removed, calling the people to cleanse themselves, and preparing his entire household to worship the Lord. After the spiritual confusion, moral failure, and violence surrounding the events at Shechem, Jacob does not allow his family to continue as though nothing must change. God has called him to Bethel, and Jacob understands that they cannot approach the place of worship while deliberately carrying their idols with them.
Jacob therefore speaks plainly: the strange gods must go.
He does not ask his household merely to hide them. He does not suggest that they use them less often. He does not attempt to combine devotion to the true God with continued attachment to the gods of the surrounding nations. He commands, “Put away the strange gods that are among you.”
This is the language of repentance. Repentance does not negotiate with sin. It does not preserve a private corner where rebellion may remain untouched. It recognizes that anything competing with God’s rightful authority must be removed. Jacob’s household could not faithfully ascend to Bethel while holding idols in their hands and claiming allegiance to the Lord with their lips.
The same principle remains true for believers today. We cannot worship God faithfully while knowingly protecting the very things that draw our hearts away from Him. Jesus said in Matthew 6:24, “No man can serve two masters.” The heart cannot be divided indefinitely between devotion to God and devotion to idols. Eventually, one allegiance will govern the other.
Jacob’s household had experienced the influence of idolatry for years. Rachel had taken her father’s household gods when Jacob departed from Laban. Genesis 31:19 says, “And Rachel had stolen the images that were her father’s.” Others who had joined Jacob’s household may also have possessed objects associated with the gods of the surrounding peoples. Whether these idols were worshiped, valued as charms, treated as symbols of protection, or kept for some other purpose, they had no rightful place among the people whom God had called to Himself.
Jacob had tolerated their presence before this moment. That failure should not be overlooked. He should have addressed the spiritual condition of his household earlier. His family had lived among pagan influences, and Jacob had apparently allowed objects connected with false worship to remain among them. Yet when God commanded him to return to Bethel, Jacob finally acted decisively.
Although Jacob should have responded sooner, his present command is right.
There is a lesson here for anyone who has failed to confront sin promptly. Past delay does not excuse continued disobedience. A person may realize that something has remained in his life, family, or household for far too long. He may regret that he did not address it earlier. But regret must not become another excuse for delay. The correct response is to obey God now.
Jacob could not change the fact that the strange gods had been allowed among them. He could, however, command that they be removed before the household continued toward Bethel.
This is what spiritual leadership looks like. It does not merely complain about the direction of the world while ignoring compromise within the home. It does not demand holiness from strangers while refusing to address idols among those under its own care. Jacob begins with his household and with all who are with him.
That phrase is important. Jacob does not treat faithfulness as a private preference that has no effect upon the direction of his family. He understands that God has placed him in a position of responsibility. He cannot force genuine faith into another person’s heart, but he can establish the spiritual direction of the household he leads.
Joshua later expresses this same determination in Joshua 24:15 when he declares, “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
This must always be the determination of God’s people: “As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
Joshua does not wait to discover which religion is most popular. He does not base his decision upon what the surrounding culture approves. He does not say that his household will serve the Lord only while circumstances are comfortable. He makes a firm declaration of allegiance. Other people may choose the gods of their ancestors. They may choose the gods of the Amorites. They may follow the practices of the nations around them. But Joshua has already settled the direction of his life and household.
“We will serve the LORD.”
That is the spirit Jacob demonstrates here, and it is the spirit believers must demonstrate continually. We should not wait until disaster comes before deciding whom we serve. We should not wait until compromise has wounded our families, weakened our testimony, and disordered our priorities. Every day, we must choose faithfulness to God.
Our allegiance must be settled before temptation comes.
Our devotion must be established before the surrounding culture pressures us to conform.
Our household must know that the Lord is not merely one interest among many. He is our God, our King, our Savior, and the One around whom our lives are ordered.
This does not mean that Christian parents or leaders can control every decision made by every person in their families. Faith cannot be inherited merely through household rules, and no one enters the kingdom of God because another person believed on his behalf. Each individual must respond personally to God. However, those responsible for a household must make its spiritual direction unmistakable.
The Word of God should be honored there.
Prayer should be practiced there.
Sin should not be celebrated there.
False gods should not be welcomed there.
Christ should not be treated as an occasional visitor there.
Joshua’s declaration was not, “As for me and my house, we will sometimes acknowledge the LORD.” It was, “We will serve the LORD.” Service involves allegiance, obedience, sacrifice, consistency, and submission. It means that God possesses the final authority over what is accepted, pursued, rejected, and honored.
Jacob’s command begins with putting away strange gods because true worship requires the rejection of false worship. God had declared in Exodus 20:3, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” He did not ask Israel merely to place Him above the other gods in a ranked list of spiritual loyalties. He commanded exclusive worship.
The Lord alone is God.
Isaiah 45:5 says, “I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me.” If there is no God beside Him, then every idol is a lie. Every false god promises what it cannot provide. It may promise protection, prosperity, control, satisfaction, acceptance, identity, or power, but it cannot save. Psalm 115:4–7 says, “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat.”
The tragedy of idolatry is that people surrender themselves to something beneath them while turning away from the God who created them. They trust what cannot see, hear, speak, love, judge righteously, or save.
Modern idols may not always resemble the household gods carried by Jacob’s family. Many people do not bow before carved statues, yet idolatry remains everywhere because the human heart continually attempts to place created things where only the Creator belongs.
Money can become an idol when security is sought in wealth rather than God.
Career can become an idol when achievement becomes the source of identity.
Approval can become an idol when pleasing people matters more than obeying God.
Comfort can become an idol when obedience is rejected because it is difficult.
Politics can become an idol when a party, leader, or nation receives the hope and loyalty that belong to God.
Family can even become an idol when devotion to loved ones is placed above devotion to the Lord who gave them.
Ministry can become an idol when a person becomes more concerned with recognition, influence, or success than with faithfulness to Christ.
An idol is anything that receives the trust, love, obedience, fear, or devotion that belongs supremely to God.
This is why believers must continually examine their hearts. Jacob’s command was necessary at a particular moment, but the principle must shape every day of the Christian life. We cannot remove idols once and assume our hearts will never produce another. John ends his first epistle with the warning in 1 John 5:21, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”
That warning was written to believers.
The heart must be guarded continually because idolatry can return in subtle forms. Something innocent can gradually become ultimate. A blessing can quietly replace the Giver of the blessing. A desire can become a demand. A preference can become a master. Something we possess can begin to possess us.
Therefore, we must always be ready to say, “Put it away.”
When something competes with prayer, put it away.
When something repeatedly draws us into sin, put it away.
When something becomes more precious than obedience, put it away.
When something governs our emotions more powerfully than confidence in God, bring it before the Lord and surrender it.
Jesus spoke with this same seriousness in Matthew 5:29–30 when He said, “And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee.”
Jesus was not encouraging bodily mutilation. He was teaching the necessity of dealing radically with sin. We must not treat lightly what threatens our fellowship with God. Sin should not be domesticated, managed, excused, or kept nearby for occasional use. It must be rejected.
Jacob then tells his household, “Be clean.”
This cleansing was connected with preparation for worship. The people were not merely changing locations; they were presenting themselves before the holy God. Outward cleansing symbolized the inward purification and consecration that should characterize those who approach Him.
The command also stands in sharp contrast with the defilement and bloodshed of the previous chapter. Jacob’s sons had used circumcision deceitfully, killed the men of Shechem, plundered the city, and taken women and children captive. The household bore the stains of violence, compromise, idolatry, and disorder. They needed more than a change of scenery. They needed cleansing.
The believer’s cleansing ultimately comes through Jesus Christ. We cannot wash away our own guilt through outward rituals, moral effort, or religious performance. First John 1:7 says, “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Revelation 1:5 describes Jesus as the One “that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.”
Only Christ can cleanse the conscience and remove the guilt of sin. His sacrifice does not merely cover appearances; it reconciles sinners to God.
Yet those who have been cleansed by Christ are also called to live clean lives. Grace is not permission to return contentedly to the filth from which we were rescued. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 7:1, “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”
We do not cleanse ourselves in order to earn salvation. We pursue purity because Christ has saved us. Holiness is not the price of grace; it is the fruit of grace.
Jacob also commands them to change their garments. In Scripture, clothing can symbolize a person’s condition, identity, or preparation. Changing garments here visibly marked a departure from the old condition and preparation for a renewed encounter with God. The household was leaving behind what had characterized its life near Shechem and preparing to ascend to Bethel.
Changing garments alone could not change the heart. A person can wear religious clothing, adopt Christian language, attend worship services, and still remain inwardly devoted to idols. God said in Joel 2:13, “And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God.” External actions are empty when they are separated from genuine repentance.
Nevertheless, genuine inward repentance should produce outward change. When God transforms the heart, the direction of life should also change. Paul says in Ephesians 4:22–24, “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”
The Christian life involves putting off and putting on.
We put off falsehood and put on truth.
We put off bitterness and put on forgiveness.
We put off sexual immorality and put on purity.
We put off greed and put on generosity.
We put off pride and put on humility.
We put off the practices of the old life and put on conduct consistent with our new identity in Christ.
Colossians 3:12 says, “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering.”
Jacob’s household could not simply remove the idols and remain unchanged in every other respect. They had to prepare themselves positively for worship. Repentance is not merely turning away from something; it is turning toward God.
This is why Jacob’s instructions form a complete movement.
Put away the strange gods.
Be clean.
Change your garments.
Remove what dishonors God.
Be purified from defilement.
Prepare to walk differently.
There must be subtraction, cleansing, and transformation.
Too often, people attempt only one of these. Some remove a particular sinful behavior but never turn their hearts toward God. Others speak of inward faith while refusing to make any outward change. Still others change appearances while preserving secret idols. Biblical repentance reaches the whole life.
Jacob’s command also shows that worship requires preparation. The household was going to Bethel to build an altar, but Jacob did not treat this as a casual journey. They were approaching the place where God had appeared to him. The holiness of God required that they consider how they came before Him.
We must never become careless about worship. Because believers have access to God through Christ, we may approach with boldness, but boldness is not irreverence. Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace,” while Hebrews 12:28–29 also says, “Let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.”
We come confidently because of Christ, but we also come reverently because God is holy.
This applies not merely to gathering in a church building but to the entire life of worship. Before prayer, we should examine whether we are knowingly protecting sin. Before opening Scripture, we should be willing to obey what God reveals. Before singing praises, we should ask whether our lives contradict the words coming from our mouths.
David prayed in Psalm 139:23–24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
That should be our continual prayer. We should not assume that because we removed yesterday’s idol, there is nothing to confront today. We need God to search us, expose us, cleanse us, and lead us.
This is where Jacob’s example must join Joshua’s declaration. Jacob says, “Put away the strange gods.” Joshua says, “As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” These are two sides of the same commitment. We reject false gods because we have chosen the true God. We remove what competes with Him because we belong to Him.
The Christian life cannot be reduced to repeatedly saying no. It is sustained by the greater yes of devotion to Jesus Christ.
We say no to idols because Christ is worthy.
We say no to impurity because Christ has cleansed us.
We say no to the old life because Christ has given us a new one.
We say no to the world’s mastery because Jesus is Lord.
Joshua’s declaration must not become merely a decorative sentence displayed on a wall. It must become the governing confession of the household. It is easy to place the words, “As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD,” on a sign while allowing entertainment, ambition, resentment, greed, or cultural pressure to direct the actual life of the home.
The verse is not decoration. It is a declaration of war against divided allegiance.
It means that when culture contradicts Scripture, the household will follow Scripture.
When obedience is costly, the household will obey.
When false gods promise comfort, success, or acceptance, the household will reject them.
When sin enters, it will be confronted rather than protected.
When failure occurs, the household will repent and return to God.
When blessings come, the household will worship the Giver rather than idolize the gifts.
This is not a one-time decision made only during a crisis. It must be renewed continually. Joshua said, “Choose you this day whom ye will serve.” Every day presents opportunities to demonstrate whom we serve. Our decisions, priorities, words, habits, spending, relationships, entertainment, and use of time reveal the practical object of our devotion.
A person may profess that Jesus is Lord while arranging nearly every part of life as though personal comfort were lord. A family may claim to serve God while giving Him only the small portion of life left after every other priority has been satisfied. Jacob’s command confronts such divided loyalty.
Put away the strange gods.
Not tomorrow.
Not when they become inconvenient.
Not when the surrounding culture approves.
Put them away because you are going to meet with God.
Jacob’s household stood at a turning point. They could continue carrying the influences of Padanaram and Shechem, or they could consecrate themselves for Bethel. They could remain spiritually mixed, or they could respond to the God who had called them.
Jacob chose to lead them toward God.
We should approve of him for doing so, and we should imitate the principle of his command. Yet we should also learn from his delay. We must not wait for a Shechem-like disaster before cleansing our homes and hearts. We should live continually prepared for fellowship with God.
We must always be people who put away idols.
We must always be people who pursue cleansing.
We must always be people willing to change whatever no longer reflects our calling.
We must always be able to stand with Joshua and declare, “As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
That declaration should not depend upon who joins us. Joshua first tells the people to choose whom they will serve, but his own decision is not controlled by theirs. Even if others choose wrongly, Joshua will serve the Lord. Even if the majority bows to idols, Joshua will serve the Lord. Even if obedience makes him unpopular, Joshua will serve the Lord.
This is the resolve believers need today.
If the world serves wealth, we will serve the Lord.
If the world serves pleasure, we will serve the Lord.
If the world serves power, we will serve the Lord.
If the world celebrates what God condemns, we will serve the Lord.
If friends compromise, we will serve the Lord.
If obedience costs comfort, opportunity, popularity, or approval, we will serve the Lord.
Our allegiance has already been decided.
Jacob’s words call every generation to examine what has been allowed among us. What strange gods have entered our homes? What compromises have we tolerated? What attitudes have remained unchallenged? What has gradually taken the place that belongs to God alone?
Whatever it is, we must not carry it toward Bethel.
We must lay it down.
We must be cleansed through the blood of Christ.
We must put off the old life and put on the new.
We must lead our households with conviction, humility, love, and courage.
And we must do this not only after moments of failure, but continually. Holiness is not emergency preparation. It is the normal calling of those who belong to God. First Peter 1:15–16 says, “But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.”
Jacob was right to demand a decisive break with idolatry before leading his family to worship. Joshua was right to establish the unwavering direction of his household. Their examples call us to a faith that is exclusive, visible, continual, and courageous.
Put away the idols.
Be clean.
Walk as those who belong to God.
Then say it with conviction, live it with consistency, and teach it within the household entrusted to you:
“As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
If you would like to explore Genesis in a sustained, verse-by-verse way with space to reflect, journal, and trace how these foundational truths unfold through Scripture the Verse by Verse book expands these reflections into a unified reading experience. The book gathers these meditations into a structured journey through Genesis, designed to help readers linger in the text and engage God’s Word more deeply over time.
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