It’s nauseating. Over and over and over again.
“The high places, however were not removed” (2 Kings 14:4). How many times was this the refrain?
-
In everything he followed the ways of his father Asa and did not stray from them; he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. The high places, however, were not removed, and the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.
-
2 Kings 12:3 The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.
-
The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.
-
The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.
-
The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there. Jotham rebuilt the Upper Gate of the temple of the Lord.
-
The high places, however, were not removed, and the people still had not set their hearts on the God of their ancestors.
A king was said to be good and follow the ways of the Lord, BUT the high places weren’t removed. It was like the one thing that they kept to appease the people or themselves. For whatever reason, the high places were the thorn in the flesh for Israel as they just couldn’t bring themselves to get rid of them even though God had commanded them to do so (Num 33:52).
What were the high places?
The high places were places of worship, stone altars and idols on the tops of hills. It was there that the people would bring sacrifices and offerings to the pagan gods. The gods could be Molech, the Baals, the Ashteroths, etc… But the high places were the “sacred places” of worship to these gods.
They were probably considered historically rich or had some other reason they remained. Or perhaps some thought that getting rid of the idols where the people lived was enough, and that they didn’t need to go destroy large stone altars on tops of hills.
We don’t know for sure why these were always a stumbling block, but they were. It left the door of the hearts of the people open to compromise. And that’s what they did.
Our High Places
It makes me think that we too are tempted to follow the Lord but keep sometimes our “high places.” Our high places can be anything that is left over from our former way of life, but that still might be a temptation to us. They are anything that does not fully support devotion to the Lord.
For some it could be a behavior that is practiced on occasion. Justified. Compromised. And just a “little” sin here or there.
For others it could be inappropriate clothes, old letters, old affections, or old flings. Those flings could be greater than just people but can even be things like old bad habits, old addictions, etc…
What have we not burned? What have we not left? What has not been purified before the LORD?
In Acts 19 when the gospel came, the people did the right thing. They burned all their magic scrolls and trinkets. It was a huge fire but they burned their bridges to the past to move forward in the gospel.
This Week
This week I felt the LORD led me to tell someone of a situation that had happened many years ago. It was resolved in my heart and I obeyed. For me it was just an act of obedience and didn’t have much emotional ramifications.
Then as I obeyed in that the LORD said “what about this?” I thought to myself, “no problem” and I texted my friend to speak with her. As I did tears sprung to my eyes. There was a pocket of unresolved issue lurking in my heart from decades previous. I hadn’t fully obeyed something I committed to and the LORD was bringing it back to my mind.
And as I’ve been reading this constant refrain, “they did what was right in the eyes of the LORD but the high places were not taken away,” I’ve been asking myself, are there places in my own heart that I have not been fully obedience? Where maybe I have been disobedient or only partially obedient? Are there hidden places in my heart that need surrendered to the LORD? Are there high places in my life that are not fully being destroyed?