The High Places

In the Old Testament, the kings of Israel and Judah let there be high places. The high places were where the people would perform pagan sacrifices. One of those pagan gods was Molech. They would sacrifice their children to it. That’s an example of how evil the sacrifices were in the high places. All the evil kings let these high places flourish. Even the kings who were said to follow God and cleaned out the idols in the temple, still left the high places. Only a few of the kings got rid of the high places and thoroughly rid the nation of all pagan idols and sacred places.

Besides those few kings who got rid of the high places, why did the other ones who followed God leave them? Maybe the people stopped using them and they didn’t think it was any big deal. Maybe they had to make political compromises. Maybe they just didn’t think about it. Maybe they thought cleaning up everything else was good enough.

I don’t know why they left them but it was apparently a big deal to God because the Bible mentions it whenever they left the high places intact. It also made a big deal out of when a king actually destroyed them. What does that mean for us?

I think it means that God is very much interested in every aspect of redemption. He didn’t have Jesus come down here and die for us just to do a three-quarter redemption. A seven-eighths redemption. A fifteen-sixteenths redemption. He means to redeem it all. Including the places we think don’t matter.

He wants all of it removed because even one little, tiny, insignificant detail can mean the difference between hitting the mark and falling short. Romans 6:23 says we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. He wants all our sin, all our high places obliterated so we won’t fall short. So we can hit the mark.

Those seemingly minor things are very important to Him. When we hold on to those places, we’re saying we’re holding back and not letting Him have all of us. Not letting Him have everything. He gave us everything. He gave us His all. He held nothing back.

What are the high places in your life? Is it a habit you don’t want to get rid of, or you think it isn’t a big deal? A t.v. show you really shouldn’t watch? A person you won’t forgive? Whatever it is, it’s holding you back. It’s like fetters and sometimes they trip you up.

Jesus wants to be the high place in your life. When you leave high places intact, it keeps Him from taking preeminence in your life. He hates the high places because they cause people to exalt things above Him.

We should examine our lives and ask God to show us where we have high places. Show us where we’ve put certain things above Him. Let Him have His way with us completely.