Would someone please remove the high places?
I am thankful for the faithfulness of God In preserving His promise to David that one from his seed would always sit on the throne in Jerusalem. It’s a testimony to the faithfulness of God and not of men. That’s especially true because it finds its fulfillment ultimately in Jesus Christ.
I am also thankful that, through the history of Judah, there were some very good kings. Uzziah Jehoshaphat, Josiah, and, in the era I am currently reading, there was Amaziah and then Azariah. “did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done”
The Bible says that they did right in the sight of the Lord. Praise the Lord! But the Bible also says, “Save that the high places were not removed.”
What were all the reasons the high places remained we might only be able to speculate.
Perhaps it never occurred to them they were a problem
When a culture is used to a thing, even those who long to live for God and not the culture can have a hard time seeing the trouble.
Perhaps it was just not a priority in the reign of the king
With as many pressures as leadership presents, they might have felt like leading people to do right in the sight of the Lord was enough of a battle they should be thankful they could do that.
Perhaps it was a way to appease the people
They did what was right in the sight of the Lord, but they may have thought they would lose the following of the people if they took from them what they really loved.
Whatever the reason, this was a recurring problem. Seldom did the kings ever remove those high places.
And God noticed.
God blessed them and acknowledged what they did right, but He also remembered what they did wrong, or rather, what they didn’t do right. One might argue it was not wrong to leave the high places; it was just that they did not take the right thing to the fullest end.
This, I believe, is a vivid portrait of modern Christianity. We have a world filled with professing believers who are proud to say they do what is right in the sight of the Lord. The trouble is that very few of them carry their faith to the fullest end. We obey the Lord but do not follow Him to the extreme. I would even go so far as to say most Christians would consider extreme Christianity offensive and maybe dangerous.
That was Israel’s complaint with Jesus. His brand of faith was extreme. He preached that they needed to remove the “high places” of religion and tradition and return to a pure walk with God. The practice of religion had replaced faith in God. Jesus dangerously attacked the established practices of the Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, and lawyers.
- Those who trusted Christ were born again.
- Those who did not hung Him on the Cross
What we need today is not a popular Christianity but an absolute Christianity. We need a kind of faith that refuses to walk the safe line between religion and faith. We need someone to answer Jesus’ call to forsake all and follow Him.
To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.
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