Getting Ready For Church

Getting ready for church. Have you ever wondered why people for years have “dressed up” for church?  I am not suggesting that this post can definitively answer this question.  However, I have noticed before, and was reminded again in our reading today, about getting ready to meet with God.  God tells Jacob to go to Bethel, settle there, and build an altar there to God “who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau” (Genesis 35:1).  So. Jacob tells his family the following, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you.  Purify yourselves and change your clothes” (v.2).  There was something special about the place they were going.  While they were there, they were going to do something special in building an altar them, and presumably making some type of offering.  And, certainly, they were going to me with someone special there, for it was God who told Jacob to go and it would be God who would meet with him.  One might ask, “if Jacob knew they had foreign gods, why didn’t he tell them to get rid of those before?”.  I can’t answer that question, but there was something about going to meet with God that prompted that decision now.  In addition, they purified themselves and changed their clothes.  All of this because they were going to meet with God.  We should not get in the habit of just putting on nice clothes to come to church.  When we come together, we are coming to meet with God.  He instructed us to be there (forsake not the assembling of yourselves together).  We should be intentional about “getting ready” for church.  Lord willing, I’ll see you Sunday!