High places

Have you ever asked someone to do something only to find out they only partially obeyed. I have three kids and from time to time I will tell them to clean their rooms. After a few minutes one will walk out to let me know they were done. I walk in for an inspection only to find shoes laying all over the floor of the closet or dirty clothes piled on the bed. When I say something to them they will sometimes come back and say "you said to clean my room, not my closet!" or "you said clean my room, not my bed!" All they did was pick up what was on the floor in their room and nothing else. They did not obey, they made a half-hearted effort to appease me. As I was reading the other day I came across a few verses where the kings did not obey the Lord, they partially obeyed. Take a look:

I Kings 15:11-14 - 11  And Asa did what was right in the sight of [Yahweh], 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  And 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 [Yahweh] all his days.

I Kings 22:42-43 - 42  Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. 43 And he walked in all the way of Asa his father; he did not turn aside from it, doing right in the sight of [Yahweh]. However, the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burnt incense on the high places.

II Kings 12:2-3 - 2 And Jehoash did right in the sight of [Yahweh] all his days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him. 3 Only the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

II Kings 14:1-4 - 1 In the second year of Joash son of Joahaz king of Israel, Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah became king. 3 And he did right in the sight of [Yahweh], yet not like David his father; he did according to all that Joash his father had done. 4 Only the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

II Kings 15:1-4 - 1  In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah became king. 3  And he did right in the sight of [Yahweh], according to all that his father Amaziah had done. 4 Only the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

II Kings 15:32-35 - 32 Jotham the son of Uzziah king of Judah became king. 34 And he did what was right in the sight of [Yahweh]; he did according to all that his father Uzziah had done. 35 Only the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

The high places were built for King Solomon's many wives many years before this. They were set up for Solomon's wives to worship their gods. Solomon's weakness was women and he would do just about anything for them.

I Kings 11:7-8 - 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.

When the kings who came after Solomon stepped into their position of authority they had the power and the responsibility to remove the high places but they chose not to. They partially obeyed God. They did what was right but only up to a point...until Hezekiah comes along.

II Kings 18:1-8 In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. 3 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done. 4 He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)

5 Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. 6 He held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. 7 And the Lord was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. 8 From watchtower to fortified city, he defeated the Philistines, as far as Gaza and its territory.

Hezekiah came along and fully obeyed the Lord. He removed the high places and even broke the snake, Moses made, into pieces.His decision to fully obey lead to his success as a king.

So what does this have to do with us today? We don't have high places that we can remove...or do we. Maybe our high places are sins, maybe our high places are temptations, maybe our high places are the women at work we find ourselves flirting with even though we are married. Maybe our high places are the "tax breaks" we take that may not be legit. Maybe our high places are the sites we look at online when no one else is around.

We need to pull a Hezekiah and remove them. Maybe we need to get rid of the computer all together. Maybe we need to see about getting transferred to another division where the man or woman we find ourselves flirting with does not work. Maybe we need to turn our receipts and tax info over to an accountant and ask him to not bend the rules.

My guess is that we all are surrounded by high places. The question is are we willing to remove them?