The High Places Were Not Removed
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Introduction
Introduction
{SHOW SLIDE #1}
When God’s people were preparing to enter the Promised Land, God said to Moses…
51 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you cross over the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
52 then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their figured stones, and destroy all their molten images and demolish all their high places;
53 and you shall take possession of the land and live in it, for I have given the land to you to possess it.
The Process…
Step 1: Enter (Deuteronomy 33:51)
Step 2: Drive out, Destroy, Demolish (Deuteronomy 33:52)
Step 3: Possess (Deuteronomy 33:53)
But if God’s people didn’t follow the process he outlined, they wouldn’t possess the land very long.
Which part of the process did they struggle with?
Although the previous generation, struggled with Step 1, it’s precisely at Step 2 in this process that God’s people failed once they entered the Promised Land.
In this most recent unit of study in our Sunday School curriculum we’ve seen the high places referred to in Deuteronomy 33:52 mentioned a few times.
What were these high places?
What when on there?
And why did God tell his people to demolish them?
We’ll try to answer these questions from God’s Word this morning, but before we do, let’s ask God to help us understand his word.
[PRAYER]
Major Ideas
Major Ideas
{SHOW SLIDE #2}
High places were elevated sites of worship usually on the tops of mountains or hills. Most high places in Israel were sites of pagan worship used by the people who lived in the Promised Land (i.e., Canaan) before God’s people entered it.
Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary High Place
The average high place would have an altar (2 Kings 21:3; 2 Chron. 14:3), a carved wooden pole that depicted the female goddess of fertility (Asherah), a stone pillar symbolizing the male deity (2 Kings 3:2), other idols (2 Kings 17:29; 2 Chron. 33:19), and some type of building (1 Kings 12:31; 13:32; 16:32–33).
Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary High Place
At these places of worship the people sacrificed animals (at some high places children were sacrificed according to Jer. 7:31),
31 “They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, and it did not come into My mind.
(Topheth was the name for a place in the Hinnom Valley outside Jerusalem meaning “fireplace”; it was altered by Hebrew scribes to mean “shameful thing” because of the abominable worship that occured there.)
Pagan worshippers also burned incense at high places, they prayed to their idols, ate sacrificial meals, and participated in immoral acts (2 Kings 17:8-12; 2 Kings 21:3-7; Hos. 4:11-14).
Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary High Place
Although most high places were part of the worship of Baal, the Ammonite god Molech and the Moabite god Chemosh were also worshiped at similar high places (1 Kings 11:5–8; 2 Kings 23:10).
God hated these high places, and as we’ve seen, he commanded his people to demolish them when they entered the Promised Land.
When God’s people entered the Promised Land, they were to worship in the Tent of Meeting at Shiloh rather than at any high place.
God did seem to allow a few exceptions in extreme circumstance.
When Shiloh was destroyed by the Philistines, Samuel worshipped at a high place dedicated to the worship of the God of Israel (1 Sam. 9:12-15).
And before the Temple was constructed, David and Solomon worshipped God at the high place at Gibeon were the Tent of Meeting and altar of burnt offering were located (1 Chron. 16; 21:29; 2 Chron. 1:3-4, 13).
However, once the Temple was constructed, God’s people were to worship him only at his Temple in Jerusalem.
But listen to what 1 Kings 11:4-8 says about the builder of that Temple in Jerusalem…
4 For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been.
5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites.
6 Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the Lord fully, as David his father had done.
7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon.
8 Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
Because Solomon built high places for pagan idols and even worshipped those pagan idols himself, God left Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, only one tribe to rule over—the tribe of Judah.
After this, each king of Israel and Judah was evaluated based on what he did with the high places where idols were worshipped.
When Jeroboam was appointed the first king of Israel, he made high places of worship at Dan and Bethel. First Kings 12:28-32 says…
28 So the king consulted, and made two golden calves, and he said to them, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt.”
29 He set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.
30 Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan.
31 And he made houses on high places, and made priests from among all the people who were not of the sons of Levi.
32 Jeroboam instituted a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast which is in Judah, and he went up to the altar; thus he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves which he had made. And he stationed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.
{SHOW SLIDE #3}
{SHOW SLIDE #4}
When Israel fell to Assyria, pagan worship practices on the high places were listed as a primary reason. Second Kings 17:7-12 says…
7 Now this came about because the sons of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and they had feared other gods
8 and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord had driven out before the sons of Israel, and in the customs of the kings of Israel which they had introduced.
9 The sons of Israel did things secretly which were not right against the Lord their God. Moreover, they built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city.
10 They set for themselves sacred pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree,
11 and there they burned incense on all the high places as the nations did which the Lord had carried away to exile before them; and they did evil things provoking the Lord.
12 They served idols, concerning which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.”
Judah in the south was no better than Israel in the north. First Kings 14:21-23 says…
21 Now Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen from all the tribes of Israel to put His name there. And his mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess.
22 Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked Him to jealousy more than all that their fathers had done, with the sins which they committed.
23 For they also built for themselves high places and sacred pillars and Asherim on every high hill and beneath every luxuriant tree.
Even the reign of good kings in Judah were left with a black mark for not taking the high places away. First Kings 15:11-14 says
11 Asa did what was right in the sight of the Lord, like David his father.
12 He also put away the male cult prostitutes from the land and removed all the idols which his fathers had made.
13 He also removed Maacah his mother from being queen mother, because she had made a horrid image as an Asherah; and Asa cut down her horrid image and burned it at the brook Kidron.
14 But the high places were not taken away; nevertheless the heart of Asa was wholly devoted to the Lord all his days.
We read the same thing about Jehoshaphat…
42 Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi.
43 He walked in all the way of Asa his father; he did not turn aside from it, doing right in the sight of the Lord. However, the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burnt incense on the high places.
We could go on to read of…
Jehoash (2 Kings 12:2-3)
Amaziah (2 Kings 14:1-4)
Azariah (2 Kings 15:1-4)
Jotham (2 Kings 15:32-35)
The black mark on all their reigns was this, “Only the high places were not taken away...” (1 Kings 22:43; 2 Kings 12:3; 14:4; 15:4; 15:35).
Now, we should stop here and consider an obvious question…
Question: Why was it important to God that the high places were destroyed?
Answer: God demanded the high places destroyed so his people would not be tempted by the sin of idolatry.
So long as the high places remained in the land God’s people would be tempted to worship as the pagans worshipped when God had called his people to worship him according to his word.
Now a not so obvious question…
Question: Where are the high places located?
Answer: The high places are really located in the heart.
Jesus said that the idols of evil thinking, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander are all worshipped on the high place of the human heart (Matt. 15:19).
What we need then is a king like King Hezekiah of Judah…
3 He did right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done.
4 He removed the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel burned incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan.
Or perhaps we need a king like King Josiah of Judah…
5 He did away with the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the surrounding area of Jerusalem, also those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and to the moon and to the constellations and to all the host of heaven.
8 Then 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; and he broke down the high places of the gates which were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one’s left at the city gate.
13 The high places which were before Jerusalem, which were on the right of the mount of destruction which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the sons of Ammon, the king defiled.
15 Furthermore, the altar that was at Bethel and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, had made, even that altar and the high place he broke down. Then he demolished its stones, ground them to dust, and burned the Asherah.
19 Josiah also removed all the houses of the high places which were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made provoking the Lord; and he did to them just as he had done in Bethel.
20 All the priests of the high places who were there he slaughtered on the altars and burned human bones on them; then he returned to Jerusalem.
On a side note: all that Josiah did was foretold by a prophet of God as soon as Jeroboam, Israel’s first king, set his altars on his high places…
1 Now behold, there came a man of God from Judah to Bethel by the word of the Lord, while Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense.
2 He cried against the altar by the word of the Lord, and said, “O altar, altar, thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.’ ”
So, maybe we need a king like Hezekiah or Josiah to remove the high places.
But we actually need a better king that Hezekiah because although he destroyed the high places, his son Manasseh had them rebuilt (2 Kings 21:1-3).
And we actually need a king better than Josiah because although he tore down many high places, his people only pretended to repent (Jer. 3:10); they had lips that said the right thing in front of King Josiah, but their hearts still loved the high places of idolatry.
No, the king we need is King Jesus because he is the only king who can deal with the high places that fill our hearts.
31 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.
33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
34 “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
This is the new heart that only King Jesus can give us, because only he initiates the new covenant through the shedding of his own blood (Lk. 22:20).
It is through faith in Jesus crucified and resurrected that the King comes to live in our hearts and begins to tear down all the idolatrous high places (Eph. 3:17).
Conclusion
Conclusion
Examine yourself: Is there an area in your life where you are doing as the pagans do rather than as God’s word commands?
All disobedience is idolatry.
All of life is worship.
In any area of life where we are not obeying God, we are committing idolatry; we are at the very least worshipping the idol of self.
But King Jesus wants to tear down those high places in our lives starting at the root of the problem—our hearts.
Will we welcome his reforming work or will we fight against it…
…by pretending that we don’t have any high places?
…by rebuilding those high places once they’ve been torn down?
…by only giving lips service to his reforming work while secretly still visiting the high places?
Brothers and sisters, let us welcome the sanctifying work of Jesus in our hearts and, therefore, into our entire lives.
6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
[PRAYER]
