High Places

I've been wading my way through the old testament these days, and I've noticed a pattern in the generations of kings after King David. We have King David on a pedestal of people to gain wisdom from, and the Bible just shows snapshots of most of the kings after him. Some serve the Lord and some spread evil.  2 Kings 14:3-4 shows the pattern I'm processing:

   " He did what was right in the Lord's sight, but not like his ancestor David. He did everything his father Joash had done. Yet the high places were not taken away, and the people continued sacrificing and burning incense on the high places."

   "...Yet the high places were not taken away..."

I am certainly not a historian, but I do know that those high places (that both good and bad kings left in place for generations) were places where the Lord was NOT worshiped. They were places where something else was elevated, something else was given to, something else was sought for strength and sustenance.

I've been struck over and over by how both good and bad kings left "the high places" in place. Maybe the good kings thought that since the inner ring of their dominion was cleaned up that they could leave the external high places alone. Maybe the thought of removing generations of patterns people depend on seemed like it would turn everything inside out. Maybe they were so used to those high places that they just seemed normal.

Goodness, what are my high places?

What do I think is ok to leave in place because the inner ring of my life looks to be in order? What am I afraid to dismantle, because it has been in place for generations before me? What do I NOT see, because it seems so normal?

While we are all forced to lay down our normal lives, what better time to let the Lord pull down our high places?

We sing: You are worthy of it all, I surrender all, Lord of all, King of my heart, so many words that mean that He is all we aim to worship.

We also sing: You are good, Good good Father, Great is Thy Faithfulness; we know that He is good beyond our imagination.

Let us prayerfully pull down those high places, and let the unfathomably good God be enthroned upon our praises!

" Lord of Armies, God of Israel, enthroned between the cheribum, you are God- you alone- of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth."
Isaiah 37:16