false worship with it, and thus prepared the way for the full apostasy
of his descendants.

That the chosen people might be kept from the taint of idolatry, Jacob
left Laban; yet Rachel had stolen her father's images--and there is then
great significance in that act by which Jacob renewed his covenant with
God, when called upon to build the altar at Bethel.

"And Jacob said unto 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 up to Bethel; and I will make there an
altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with
me in the way which I went. And they gave unto Jacob all the strange
gods which were in their hand, and all their ear-rings which were in
their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem."

Probably the ear-rings were used as heathen charms or amulets. While
idolatry, as a leprosy, was thus beginning to infect the household, he
saw the need of their purification; and there seems no accidental
connection between this searching out and putting away of idolatry in
the household of Jacob and the following death of Rachel: "With
whomsoever thou findest thy gods, let him not live."

The cherished wife of Jacob, deeply tainted with the superstitions by
which her family were corrupting the religion of Jehovah, may have been
thus removed to prevent further contagion. While the apostle may refer
to this example in his promise: "Nevertheless she shall be saved in
child-bearing, if she continue in the faith." And this sin may have
excluded Rachel from the sepulchre of Abraham. The plague-spot
disappears from this time, and the purification of the household was