Theologische Nuggets IV (Genesis 34 - 44:26)

Genesis 35:2

Da sprach Jakob zu seinem Hause und zu allen, die mit ihm waren: Tut von euch die fremden Götter, die unter euch sind, und reinigt euch und wechselt eure Kleider,

Gott ruft Jakob auf nach Bethel zu ziehen um die Anbetungsstätte aufzurufen. Jakob ruft seine Familie auf sich auf dieses Treffen mit Gott vorzubereiten. Die Vorbereitung beinhaltet das abtun von fremden Göttern - also von Götzen - und eine äußere Reinigung. 

Die äußere Reinigung war ein Symbol für die innere Reinigung, nach dem sie sich beschmutzt haben am Blut der Sichemiter oder an der Verwendung dieser Götzen. 

Wir wissen, dass Rahel einen fremden Gott von ihren Vater hat mitnehmen lassen. Wir wissen auch, dass seit Abraham es immer wieder fremde Götter gab die in diese Sippe mit einbezogen wurden. Wir wissen auch nicht was die Söhne Jakobs mitgenommen haben aus der Stadt Hamors. Wenn sie alles geplündert haben, dann sicherlich auch ihre Götzen. 

Die Familie hat sich auf ihrem geistlichen Weg verirrt. Andere Götter wurden zugelassen und unmoralisches wurde getan. Es wird Zeit sich wieder auf das gute und echte zurückzubesinnen. Ob Jakob das von seinen Vorfahren gelernt hat oder ob Gott ihm diesen Befehl gegeben hat ist unklar. 

Gott ruft auch dich heute ihn zu begegnen. Bist du bereit alles abzulegen? 

The patriarch's audience included his family ("his household") and others who were joined to his clan ("all who were with him," v. 2), such as slaves from Shechem (34:29) and Deborah (cp. circumcision, 17:12, 23). Two commands make up the patriarch's instructions: first, to remove foreign cultic items and second, to purify themselves. These two commands especially suit God's requirements of Israel for worship. ... The source of the "foreign gods" most likely was among the items confiscated from the murdered Shechemites. Although Jacob may not have had in mind specifically Laban's "household gods" taken by Rachel (31:19, 32), the incident shows us other ways religious items could have come from outside the clan. The second exhortation, "purify yourselves" (hiṭṭahărū), derives from the cultic term ṭ-h-r, "to be clean, pure."

K. A. Mathews, Genesis 11:27–50:26, Bd. 1B of The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2005), 617.

 Hebrew, "gods of the stranger," of foreign nations. Jacob had brought, in his service, a number of Mesopotamian retainers, who were addicted to superstitious practices; and there is some reason to fear that the same high testimony as to the religious superintendence of his household could not have been borne of him as was done of Abraham (Ge 18:19). He might have been too negligent hitherto in winking at these evils in his servants; or, perhaps, it was not till his arrival in Canaan, that he had learnt, for the first time, that one nearer and dearer to him was secretly infected with the same corruption (Ge 31:34). 

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, und David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 37.

At his encounter with God at Bethel in 28:10–22, Jacob vowed that if God were to rescue him from exile, then Yahweh shall be his God. However, it seems that those of Jacob's household, and perhaps even him, had been worshiping other gods since then. Although a different Hebrew word is used here than the one used for the figurines (or household gods) that Rachel stole from her father Laban (see 31:19 and note), Jacob could be referring to those figurines. It seems, though, that more than the figurines stolen by Rachel were involved.

John D. Barry u. a., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), Gen 35,2.