The High Places
Anyone who’s read through the books of 1 and 2 Kings will remember the phrase “but the high places were not removed”. Israel and Judah were split and the Kingdom of Israel went after all sorts of false gods. Judah would likewise wander after false gods at times but would often have kings who would return the people to God.
The kings who did right in the eyes of God would usually remove Asherah poles and alters to Baal but they would generally leave the “high places”. These were alters set up for worship (sometimes even worship directed toward God) but not according to God’s commands. The rites there would be officiated by people not of the priesthood and were holdovers from times when people from other nations were brought in and mixed various pagan worship rituals into their practices.
They also feared the Lord and appointed from among themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. So they feared the Lord but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.
2 Kings 17:32-33
However, Hezekiah changed that.
And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan). He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. For he held fast to the Lord. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses.
2 Kings 18:3-6
Rejecting Assyria
However, Hezekiah’s reform for Judah was not simply to remove the influence of false gods. He also refused to serve the other nations that had forced Judah into service.
And the Lord was with him; wherever he went out, he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him. He struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city.
2 Kings 18:7-8
After some exchanges between Sennacherib (the King of Assyria) and Hezekiah, he sends his top advisor with an army to threaten Jerusalem. This advisor comes with a message of war, painting a vivid picture of Jerusalem besieged and people forced to consume their own waste. He also attempts to destroy the hopes of the people by pointing out that an alliance with Egypt will not save them and suggesting that they cannot trust in the Lord because Hezekiah is guilty of offending him.
But if you say to me, “We trust in the Lord our God,” is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem”?
2 Kings 18:22
Read in the context of the scriptures, this accusation seems laughable! The high places where syncretistic places that undermined the right worship of God. Sure, people may have attempted to worship the Lord there but only in part and with plenty of idolatry mixed in.
However, I’m almost certain at the time that at least some people in the hearing of the Rabshakeh’s speech were shaken by this accusation. People had worshipped the Lord in those places (albeit in their own way rather than the way of the Lord). Was removing them an act against God?
Reading the rest of the story shows that God was pleased with Hezekiah and the Assyrians were responsible for offending him. In his distress, Hezekiah reached out to the prophet Isaiah and God delivers a reassuring message through him. The Lord saves Jerusalem, despite their lack of military capability to defend themselves.
This should have been no surprise to the people of Judah. After all, they had the words of Samuel.
And Samuel said,
1 Samuel 15:21-23
“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to listen than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
he has also rejected you from being king.”
Despair Tactics
Like Hezekiah, believers today have only one hope and that is in the Lord. While many may try to discourage us from our faith, some take a more deceptive route.
When we truly fear the Lord, there’s not a lot in this world that can shake us. We recognize everything here is under the sovereign control of its creator. We can be content with much or little, knowing that moth and rust destroy worldly wealth eventually. We know Christ is hated and we will be too. We even know that death has no lasting power.
With so few fears, what can a detractor do to demoralize the faithful? Some are cunning enough to realize that it is easiest to twist a believer’s fear of the Lord against us. Instead of trying to convince us to approve of sin, they say that we are violating God’s command to love our neighbors unless we are more accepting. After all, the idolaters would be more willing to accept God if they could do so on their own terms! Who are we to insist upon God’s way?!
Just like the accusations leveled against Hezekiah, it should be obvious these are merely manipulation schemes. Suddenly, people with no respect for God are really concerned that someone trying to faithfully follow him isn’t doing so correctly?! Come on!
Yet, the tactics often work. Not necessarily because the faithful are completely convinced. It’s enough just to make us waver. We can get stuck endlessly second-guessing everything or giving in to despair, uncertain if we can really know what God wants at all.
The burden of Christ is light. It doesn’t need to be so complicated to serve him. His revelation is much more clear when we stop listening to all the ways those with no fear of God try to convince us we could be more faithful. Tear out those high places and realize the accusations are simply attempts to shake your faith. Don’t let them!
