Everything But The High Places

Here it is, April 11, and I’m doing really good with my “Read Through the Bible in a Year” plan! I am now in the book of 2 Kings, and it’s really fascinating to read about all the past kings of Israel and Judah and how their reigns were defined. It seems as if after the glory days of the reigns of King David and his wise son King Solomon, there was a distinct similarity in all the kings that followed: they forgot about the high places.

What were the high places? For the most part, they were elevated sites of pagan worship. The people knew that God had commanded them to worship the One True God alone, yet they still constructed these altars and let them stay when they should have been torn down in righteous anger. Over and over again we read a similar sentiment as is expressed here in 2 Kings 15:3-4:

“He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father…had done. The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.”

 

I have read this same line repeatedly throughout the pages of the books of the kings. Over and over, king after king seemed to come close to doing it right, only to miss the mark by forgetting to pull down the high places. I find myself shaking my head at what I would consider such an obvious faux pas. How could they forget to tear down the high places of pagan worship? Just their elevated height alone would guarantee their visibility and remind the king that all was not well in their kingdom, right?

Before you judge them too closely, though, I’d like to challenge you to consider your own high places. In our lives, we all have areas of sin that are long-term. These are the things that you always seem to stumble across and never fully vanquish no matter how many times you find God and supposedly start over in your attempts to “do things right.” As is seen in the lives of these kings, you have to know today that fixing everything but the high places is just not enough. You will continue to fall over and over until you decide to go to those high places and tear them down once and for all.

Learn something from the pages of 2 Kings today. Take care of all areas of sin in your life, especially the high places.