Genesis 36: Foreign Gods

So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.” 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. Then they set out, and the terror of God fell upon the towns all around them so that no one pursued them. - Gen. 36:2-5 NIV

Jacob was always cunning, and if not conniving, he was taking advantage of the situation offered to him.  He willing accepted the birthright from Esau, he went along with his mother in getting Isaac's blessing, and figured out how to insure that his flocks prospered as opposed to the flocks of Laban.  Did he know then, that Rachel had stolen her father's gods?  He may not have been aware of it at the time, but the die was cast.  Although he received a warm reception from his brother, Esau, whom he feared, their journey home was not an easy one.  Just as Jacob was wont to do, his sons took matters into their own hands when Hamor violated their sister, Dinah.  Hamor and his son, Shechem, were slain by Jacob's sons whobecame a stench to the inhabitants of all the towns they passed through.  Even after the foreign gods and earrings were buried, the consequences were still there.  First Rebecca's nurse died, then Rebecca, herself, died giving birth to Benjamin.  It was only after all of these events that God appeared to Jacob once more.  This time, God changed his name. The old Jacob was gone and now, Israel, the father of the nation of God's people was born.  The one who would use any means to get what he wanted, even the gods of foreign people, returned to his father a changed man.