HOME FOR RENEWAL

As the sun sets I think back to the Sabbath School lesson from Genesis 34-35. Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "Ye have troubled me to make me stink among the inhabitants of the land...they shall gather themselves together against me, and slay me; I and my house. " The sons of Jacob had treacherously slain the inhabitants of Shechem to avenge the defilement of their sister Dinah. They had spoiled their homes, stolen their goods, and taken their wives and children captive. They had returned evil with double evil. They had caused the name of their father and their father's God to stink.
And God said unto Jacob, "Arise go up to Bethel." Bethel, house of God, named such by Jacob in his flight from his brother Esau. God was saying to Jacob, "Come home, come home to Bethel. Come home, when there is no other place where you can go. In the words of Frost, Home is the place where when you have to go there they have to take you in; It's something you somehow haven't to deserve. Only God can provide that kind of a home to us, a home that gives cleansing and renewal , a home that we will never deserve, but always need.
"Then Jacob said to 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. And let us arise and go to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God." Where else could he go for safety, where else could he go to rid himself of the stink? Where else can we go? There is of course no other place.
Go home then, home to God for renewal, go home every day.