“He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father Uzziah had done. The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there”
Everything was great as long as I got to watch my morning cartoons as a kid. If that did not happen, I felt like someone robbed me of my rights as a kid. After all, they only showed them on Saturday morning. I was a good child all week because I really just wanted to watch the cartoons on Saturday morning. Let’s not talk about all the chores I was putting on hold that day. Saturday morning cartoons may not happen quite like they used to, but I am willing to bet that video games hold a similar place and take up the same time.
In the ancient world, the “high places” were places of worship. You could burn incense or sacrifice or make an offering at these places. These high places were remnants of old Canaanite worship places where people would worship Baal and many other false gods. It goes without saying that the Lord did not like this. It was an example of a divided heart. On one hand, the people did what they were supposed to do by obeying some of the Israelite laws, but on the other hand they also turned to other gods / idols to worship.
You can imagine this playing out and how it would look. A person would do the Jewish thing because it was the law yet they still worshiped other gods on the side. It would be like cleaning the bathroom by putting everything up and taking everything off the counter, even putting all the used towels in the dirty clothes. At first glance, it looks clean, but no cleaning solution was applied to the surface of the counter, shower, or tub. Because of the lack of cleansing, bad things would get worse over time until a simple cleaning was not good enough. You have to do some major work to even get things back to the original clean state. Real elbow grease would be needed at this point. Therefore, it never gets done and the bathroom slides into a worse state.
This worse state was where the Israelites were. They would only follow the Lord on the surface but their hearts were still corrupted by worshiping other gods. This lack of full commitment to the Lord was outwardly seen as these “high places” were not taken down. It showed everyone a divided kingdom.
Taking this analogy, we can see how our lives can look clean but are not really clean at all. We do all the right things but we still keep our high places in our lives, or refuse to clean out our hearts and minds of idols. Some clearing of the high places in your life might need to happen. As in verse 34 above it shows that one can do what is right in the eyes of the Lord but there can always be a “however” in our lives.
Today, pray and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the “howevers” in your life. In Revelation, God told John that He would rather you be hot or cold but if lukewarm he would spit you out of his mouth. Why might you ask? The “howevers” seem to have their way of driving us away from the Lord and splitting our focus to what leads to compromise. One foot in the world and one foot following the Lord is not following the Lord with a whole heart. Be bold enough to tear down all the high places in your life. The sin that you hide from everyone, tear it down, the anger, the gossip, the slander, the poor jokes… all of it. When you keep those high places you are leaving a door open for Satan to start to wreck your life. You have to master it by standing on the Word of God and using your voice to repeat what God’s Word says about you.
Prayer: Father, we all have high places we need to tear down. Those high places may have been there for a long time but it is time to tear them down in Jesus name! I pray that my mind and heart are totally devoted to you. I remove and cast out all of the high places in my life that have been in the way of your glory Lord. As I shake off those chains of my past, I run from the sin and the sinful behavior. I instead will fill my mind with your Word and stand on all of its promises. In Jesus name, amen.
Let It Go 
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