Going All The Way

In reading through the accounts of the kings of Judah I noticed something. Though many of the kings did "what was right in the eyes of the Lord," the Bible also points out this fact "but the high places were not removed." Normally we just read right over that and it doesn't make much sense.

The high places were left over shrines from the people's that had occupied the land. Before the temple was built the children of Israel would sacrifice to the LORD at these high places. The problem was that they didn't stop worshiping there when the temple was available and they increasingly became places to worship gods other than the LORD.

So that's why Hezekiah sticks out from among the list of the kings. It is almost a side note when 2 Kings 18:4 "He removed the high places and shattered the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah poles."

It says he also destroyed the bronze serpent that Moses had set up to heal the people. Instead of worshiping the God of the healing, they worshiped the serpent as an idol.

For us the application involves how far we are willing to go in serving God. We come to faith in Jesus and He enters our lives to "transform" us into His good character. But sometimes, like the other kings before Hezekiah, we "do what is right" but we don't go all the way. We need to recognize those things in our lives that are leftovers from the days when we belonged to the world and not let them start to have prominence in our lives again.

Tear them down by the power of the Spirit - those attitudes, and behaviors that mirror the world's values rather the Lords. Don't be satisfied with just looking right, be right!

Pastor Tom