We are moving into chapter 35 of Genesis with our word for today is used for the first time in the Bible in our chapter. טָהֵר be clean, cleanse, purify, pure. It is used 93 times in the Old Testament. A good example of this word is the idea of being set apart from the rest of the group for a specific purpose like the Levites. Numbers 8:5-6 Take the Levites from among the people of Israel and וְטִהַרְתָּ֖ cleanse them. And notice that the purifying takes place before the service. We see this in Numbers 8:15 And after that the Levites shall go in to serve at the tent of meeting, when you have וְטִֽהַרְתָּ֣ cleansed them...For they are wholly given to me from among the people of Israel. This is the sense our word is used in our chapter today. Genesis 35:1-4 God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you and הִֽטַּהֲר֔וּ purify yourselves and change your garments. We see just how Jacob and his family cleansed themselves. They got rid of their foreign gods, idols and changed their garments. This cleansing is the way people are asked to respond to God showing up in their lives throughout the Bible. God was there when Jacob needed him as he was fleeing from his brother and the response is to get rid of the foreign gods and change garments or purify themselves. Set themselves apart for what God was calling them to do.
One of the amazing things God does when we are baptized his give us new clothes to wear. Not just any clothes but His clothes. Galatians 3:26-27 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. This is the robes of righteousness that God predicted through Isaiah the prophet that we would be able to wear because of what Christ accomplished on the cross for us. Isaiah 61:10 For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness. If we are in Christ God looks at us and sees Jesus clean and pure life instead of our sin. We respond to what Christ has done for us by our own action of purifying ourselves. Just like Jacob we take action of putting away false gods, idols something we worship or love more than God himself. As we saw a couple of days ago Josiah takes action to clean the nation. 2 Chronicles 34:3-5, 8 He began to לְטַהֵ֔ר purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles and idols...He burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and so he וַיְטַהֵ֥ר purged Judah and Jerusalem… In the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, to לְטַהֵ֥ר purify the land and the temple, he sent...the ruler of the city, with Joah son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the temple of the Lord his God. This action is carried into the New Testament of purifying in response to God making us pure or righteous in Christ. Colossians 1:28-29 He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me. Notice Paul doesn’t say since you are already a Christian and saved because you have Christ righteousness you can live any way you want. No he says the goal is full maturity in Christ that also requires God’s action and our action. Romans 6:1-2 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? We don’t just jump back into sin now that we have Christ’s righteousness but instead purify ourselves by getting rid of sin in our lives. Thank God, he gives us the power to do this. I will close the same way John finishes his first letter to the churches. 1 John 5:21 Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
