OAK TREE AT SHECHEM
Gen. 35:4…NIV: So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem. This passage tells of Jacob’s return to the Promised Land and taking all that pollutes and getting rid of it by burying it under an oak tree at Shechem.
Anything we put before God is an idol. We are told several places in His Word that God has to be first; that He is a jealous God. See Ex.20:5; 34:14; Deu. 4:24;5:9;6:15; etc. And several places, “…thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might”.
We need to ask ourselves, “Is there something, anything in my life that I have put before my God”? Is there anything or anybody that has hindered my service to Him? Is there something in my life I need to get rid of? Bury?
The Hebrew writer states it like this: Heb. 12:1…Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the race that is set before us…
Worldly goods instead of heavenly treasures can destroy the Word. Jesus says that they “choke” the Word, in the parable of the seed, Mat. 13:22 and we become unfruitful. We need to examine ourselves and see if any thing has become more important than serving Him Who died for us. Is there anything in your life that is hindering your service to Him? Has something in this world [which according to John 15:19…the world hateth you] become an idol? We most certainly would state that we would never worship an idol. That worshiping little images or statues would be the last thing that would enter our minds. Yet, we need to examine our lives and see if anything has become an idol. I John 5:21…Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. Ps. 129:33…Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts…Of course if there is anything that we have put before our service to God, it is not only an idol but a sin that separates.
Is. 59:2…But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid [his] face from you, that he will not hear.
If anything in your life that has gotten between you and Him, it is our prayer that it be buried at this Oak Tree at Shechem, be it family or self…
Luke 14:26…If any [man] come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
Phil. 3:13…forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before…
