High Places
1 Kings 15: 11 – 14
11 Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as did his father David. 12 And he banished the [d]perverted persons from the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made. 13 Also he removed Maachah his grandmother from being queen mother, because she had made an obscene image of [e]Asherah. And Asa cut down her obscene image and burned it by the Brook Kidron. 14 But the [f]high places were not removed. Nevertheless Asa’s heart was loyal to the Lord all his days.
1 Kings 22: 41 – 43
41 Jehoshaphat the son of Asa had become king over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel. 42 Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi. 43 And he walked in all the ways of his father Asa. He did not turn aside from them, doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord. Nevertheless the high places were not taken away, for the people offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places. 44 Also Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.
2 Kings 12: 1 – 3
In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash[a] became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah of Beersheba. 2 Jehoash did what was right in the sight of the Lord all the days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him. 3 But the [b]high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
2 Kings 14: 1 – 4
In the second year of Joash the son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel, Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, became king. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. 3 And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, yet not like his father David; he did everything as his father Joash had done. 4 However the [a]high places were not taken away, and the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
All the kings of Judah listed above followed the Lord, obeyed His commandments, and did right in the sight of the Lord. However, one aspect remains common among all of them. Despite their loyalty to the Lord, they failed to remove the high places from the land. What are these high places? The high places were places on hill tops, or mountain tops or some elevated location, where the people offered incense, sacrificed and worshipped the idols. These were places of evil.
These kings despite their devotion to the Lord, failed to obliterate these high places. They probably had family members or people who were liberal in their views of God. These kings were probably trying to be politically and/or culturally correct in order to appease that section of the populace. These kings operated under fear that someone from within their kingdom is going to seize the throne from them if they imposed their strong religious beliefs on the rest of the people. In order to preserve their kingship and have peace, they compromised by allowing the high places to remain.
2 Kings 18: 1 – 7
Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea the son of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi[a] the daughter of Zechariah. 3 And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done.
4 He removed the [b]high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the [c]wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it [d]Nehushtan. 5 He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. 6 For he held fast to the Lord; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses. 7 The Lord was with him; he prospered wherever he went.
2 Kings 23: 3 – 8
Then the king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to follow the Lord and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people took a stand for the covenant. 4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the articles that were made for Baal, for [a]Asherah, and for all [b]the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. 5 Then he removed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem, and those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the [c]constellations, and to all the host of heaven. 6 And he brought out the wooden[d] image from the house of the Lord, to the Brook Kidron outside Jerusalem, burned it at the Brook Kidron and ground it to ashes, and threw its ashes on the graves of the common people. 7 Then he tore down the ritual [e]booths of the [f]perverted persons that were in the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the wooden image. 8 And he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba; also he broke down the high places at the gates which were at the entrance of the Gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were to the left of the city gate.
Kings Hezekiah and Josiah followed the Lord with utmost devotion. They not only got rid of all the idols, priests, but defiled the high places. Their zeal for the Lord is comparable to that of David’s. They were not trying to be politically or culturally appropriate but they were trying to be righteous in the sight of the Lord. They did not live in fear of a mutiny. But they trusted in the Lord completely. They recognized that God appointed them the kings of His people. They purged every trace of idolatry or evil from the land. They even appointed enforcers who closely monitored of any kind of idolatry in the land.
The Lord blessed these two kings for their utmost devotion. Not only did they obey the Lord and His commandments, they ensured that every person in the land of Judah also obeyed the Lord and followed His commandments. The Lord and His commandments became the Law of the land. These kings experienced prosperity, victory over enemies, and peace in the land. The Lord protected them from invading armies. The Lord even extended King Hezekiah’s life by 15 years. These kings are exemplary in their devotion and obedience to the Lord.
We, as believers of the Lord Jesus Christ, are also devoted to the Lord. We may be victorious in the most obvious sins but we fail to remove those high places from our lives, our hearts and minds. We are still compromised in that way. There may be attitudes, behaviors, addictions, weaknesses, and sins that we fail to overcome. We still have not surrendered those aspects of our lives that we hold so close, despite knowing that we should give up those sins. Sometimes we sail in two boats: trying to appease others and please God at the same time. Sometimes even our devotion to our careers, families, sports, hobbies, etc., can come in the way of our utmost devotion to the Lord.
Dear Saint of God, let us destroy those high places in our lives, our hearts and our minds completely like King Hezekiah and King Josiah and place our Lord on the throne of our hearts and minds. May He be our utmost priority. Let us not become compromised and turn into the church of Laodecia. “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither [k]cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”(Revelation 3: 15 – 16). Let us ensure that the high places are occupied by the Lord. Let us ensure that our utmost devotion is to our Lord alone.
