High Places

Throughout 1 and 2 Kings we encounter this refrain: “The High Places were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.” This phrase is often provided as a counterpoint when evidence is given that a king of Israel or Judah has been a good king. “He was a good king, but…” One of many such examples is Joash, king of Judah. What are we told about Joash?
In the seventh year of Jehu, Joash became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty years. His mother's name was Zibiah; she was from Beersheba. Joash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all the years Jehoiada the priest instructed him. The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there. (2 Kings 12:1-3)

What are these high places, anyway? In the life of Israel and Judah, a “high place” is any local place of worship. The pagan nations Israel had supplanted when they entered the Promised Land established shrines to their gods on every hill and high point of land (under the assumption that the higher the ground, the closer to the divine). When the Israelites moved in, they tore down the shrines and altars at God’s command. What they failed to do is tear down the notion that by setting up worship stations in these high places they could get themselves closer to God. Over time, especially following the centralizing reigns of David and Solomon, the countryside once again became dotted with shrines and altars – the “high places.” Some of these high places are condemnable because they are shrines to pagan idols such as Baal and Asherah – gods of the Israelites enemies. But some are shrines to Yahweh – the God of the Israelites. God condemns them all - including the ones that have been set up, ostensibly, to honor him. Why?

The answer can be found way back in Deuteronomy 12. When the Israelites enter the Promised Land God commands his people to worship in one place, at one temple. The reason is that God wants to curb in his people the human tendency to pursue worship on their own terms. Idolatry is characterized by human efforts to set the terms for a relationship with the divine. Idol worship consists of words and actions intended to manipulate the divine for human purposes. Setting up a shrine on every high place is a way of saying, “We’ll worship when and where and how we want, and the divine will come to us.” By the time of king Joash, Israel and Judah have gotten so used to worshiping this way that they don’t even realize that they’re violating God’s law. The high places have become part of the landscape.

What are your high places? What are the gods you’ve enshrined in your living room or your street corner or in your heart? What gods have we enshrined as a community or a nation – gods we’re so used to we don’t even notice them anymore? What are the ways we have said, “We’ll worship God when and where and how we want, and God will come to us?” If we want to be drawn into close fellowship with the one true God, we have to identify – and tear down – the high places that stand between us.

New Rules of Engagement

Passage: 2 Kings 6:8-23

The Book of 2 Kings opens with a series of stories about Elisha, the successor of the great prophet Elijah. Whereas Elijah seems to be the better-known of the two, the miracles related to Elisha’s ministry are in a category of their own. When Elisha receives the mantle of his master (both literally and figuratively), he asks for a “double portion” of Elijah’s spirit. The stories that follow establish that God has in fact granted what Elisha requested – an unprecedented degree of authority and power.

Elisha intervenes periodically in the political life of Israel. At times he does so to correct its wayward king. But on one occasion he does so to correct his enemies. Israel is at war with its nemesis, Aram. Somehow (we presume by the power of God) Elisha knows in advance the maneuvers of the Aramean army, and feeds the information to the king of Israel. After getting routed repeatedly, the Arameans figure out that something’s up. When he tries to figure out which of his men is a traitor, the king of Aram is informed that none other than the prophet of the LORD is the one blowing his cover. He decides to eliminate the problem.

When the Aramean army shows up at Elisha’s doorstep, Elisha calmly asks God to strike them all with blindness. Remarkably, God obliges. Elisha then leads the Arameans into the center of the walled city of Samaria, where they are immediately surrounded by Israelite troops. God alleviates the temporary blindness to reveal that the Arameans have somehow fallen into the hands of their enemies.

The king of Israel is delighted to have the upper hand. You can imagine him rubbing his hands together as he asks Elisha, “Can I kill them now? Can I kill them now?” Here’s the best part: Elisha says, “No.” He says, “It wouldn’t be sporting to slaughter your guests. Send them home. But it wouldn’t be hospitable to send them home on an empty stomach, would it…?” The king of Israel gets the hint and, we’re told, seats his enemies before a great banquet. The story concludes, “So the bands of Aram stopped raiding Israel’s territory.”

The response God’s people are required to make toward their enemies doesn’t make sense. It seems like it would be most efficient for God to eliminate his people's enemies. But God is not primarily interested in eliminating people. God's most interested in changing people. Instead of wiping out Israel's enemies, he turns them into friends.

Much later in Scripture Jesus tells his disciples, “Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.” God’s strategy is not for us to hold old grudges and perpetuate old hostilities. In fact, it’s God’s intent that his people no longer have enemies; that by our love our enemies might become our friends. Before you get your back up about that idea, think about what God has done for you. We are by nature sinners – enemies of God. Yet by his love he has made us friends. It turns out this is God’s M.O. - has been for a long time. If you are God’s friend, then it should be your M.O., too.

He Never Tells Me Anything I Want to Hear

Passage: 1 Kings 22:1-28

This story would be comedic if it didn’t have such a grim outcome. If you’ve followed the accounts of King Ahab of Israel, you know that he and God aren’t exactly close. Ahab addresses Elijah, the man of God, as the “troubler of Israel.” Ahab and his wife, Jezebel, have systematically replaced every element of God-worship with monuments and prophets of Baal, the idol-god of Israel’s enemies. Ahab has gone out of his way, it seems, to alienate himself from the one true God.

It is therefore almost laughable when Jehoshaphat King of Judah, asks Ahab to consult a prophet before the two of them go to war against a common enemy. Here’s the gist of the conversation:

Jehoshaphat: Let’s go to war.

Ahab: Sounds good. I got my men and my chariots. I’m good to go.

Jehoshaphat: Wait a minute! Shouldn’t we seek the counsel of the LORD?

Ahab: Alright. Let me call my prophets. Prophets?

Prophets: “Go for it, man!”

Jehoshaphat: Don’t you have any real prophets?

Ahab: Well, there is this one guy. But I hate him because he never tells me anything I want to hear.

Jehoshaphat: Don’t say that.

Ahab: You asked for it. Bring me Micaiah!

Servant to Micaiah: Okay, this is your big break. The rest of the prophets are telling the king he’s gonna win. Just go along with it.

Ahab to Micaiah: Well, whadya have to say for yourself?

Micaiah: Attack and be victorious, oh king (yawn).

Ahab: How many times do I have to make you swear to tell me only God’s honest truth?

Micaiah: God says, “Your troops will be scattered and you will die a horrible death at their hands.”

Ahab to Jehoshaphat: See? I told you he never tells me what I want to hear!

The sad part is that Ahab decides to hear what he wants to hear. He goes to war. His army is routed. He takes an arrow to the chest and bleeds to death in his chariot, watching as the enemy decimates his army. Like it or not, God’s got Ahab’s final word.

We don’t always like what God has to say to us. We find ways of reading God’s Word selectively. We’re even more selective in the way we respond to those entrusted with teaching God’s Word. It’s easy to disregard God’s message on the basis of the messenger. But we circumnavigate God’s Word at our peril. A doctor’s caution to stop smoking or lose weight might fall on unreceptive ears, but it’s a message intended to save your life. So it is with the Word of God. God may very well tell you stuff you don’t want to hear, but he does so with the intent of saving your life. Listen.

It Never Ends

Passage: 1 Kings 19:1-18

The book of 1 Kings chronicles the swift and steady decline of life in Israel under monarchic rule. As God predicted (way back in Deuteronomy), the kings of Israel and Judah have become corrupt and self-serving. As a result, God’s people have suffered. The same cycle gets repeated throughout 1 and 2 Kings: an evil king takes power; messes things up; dies or is murdered; and is succeeded by another evil king. The cycle never seems to end. Reading through it we have difficulty imagining how it’s going to change. We also have difficulty seeing God working in Israel in any positive way.

1 and 2 Kings also introduce some new characters. In these books we encounter prophets such as Elijah and Elisha – prophets through whom God works in unprecedented and miraculous ways. Although Israel’s political leadership takes the form of Godless kings, God maintains a clear and powerful presence among his people.

The prophet Elijah is called, among other things, to confront the evil that Ahab and his wife Jezebel have brought to Judah. 1 Kings 18 recounts the monumental showdown between Elijah, the lone man of God, and the entire priesthood of the idol, Baal. The showdown is resolved when God rains down fire from heaven and the crowd of onlookers shout, as with one voice, “The LORD is God! The LORD is God!” It seems as though God’s people are ready to turn over a new leaf under the leadership of the man of God.

Not so. No sooner have Baal’s priests been rounded up and killed than Queen Jezebel puts a price on Elijah’s head and he has to flee for his life. He retreats to Mt. Horeb, where he says to God, “When will this ever end? I’ve done everything you told me. And the world is still against us. I give up.”

God reveals himself to Elijah in a subtle and unexpected way that convinces the prophet that he is not alone. God is with him. God is with his people. And God concludes the conversation by reminding Elijah that in his country there are still thousands of people who haven’t succumbed to the idolatry of the nation. Thousands who claim the LORD as God. God’s presence with his people never ends. And the presence of God’s people in the world never ends.

The life of faith often feels lonely. It seems as though the evidence of our God in the world is scant. It feels like you’re the only one who really believes this stuff. It seems that the ever-shrinking church will only keep fading until its light is finally extinguished.

Don’t believe it. God will always be with his people. And God will always preserve for himself a people whose job it is to carry the fire. Hold it aloft and look around for the other flashes of light that pierce the darkness.

Authority

Passage: 1 Kings 13

This is one of those passages that I’ve often scratched my head at. The narrative regarding Jeroboam’s idolatry and resulting showdown with the man of God makes relative sense. But then the story takes a very bizarre detour. The narrator traces the footsteps of the man of God as he leaves Bethel and makes his way back to Judah. On the way he is intercepted by a second prophet. The second prophet, for whatever reason, seems intent on leading the first astray. He succeeds, and the first prophet is condemned for failing to follow through on God’s command.

Although not immediately apparent, this passage has one consistent message or theme. Start to finish, 1 Kings 13 deals with competing authorities. In the first vignette, we see tension between the authority of the king and the authority of God. In the second, the tension is between God’s authority and the authority of God’s representative.

In the showdown between Jeroboam and the prophet, it’s obvious who has the upper hand. God’s authority prevails, and Jeroboam backs down.

Then the passage takes its unsettling twist. The “man of God from Judah” is unwavering in his obedience to God until he meets another prophet. We’re not told the other prophet’s motivation. We’re not told God’s motivation in sending the second prophet. But what happens is this: the second prophet intentionally deceives the first, causing him to diverge from the path God has mapped out for him. As a result, God kills the first prophet.

None of this seems fair to us. And the lesson of the passage is not immediately clear. But here’s the application. The imperative for God’s people is to respond directly to God’s authority. Whereas God gives his people human intermediaries (in the days of the kings of Israel, God’s kings and prophets were intermediaries; today clergy and fellow Christians fill that role), God demands that his people ultimately respond to God’s Word. In the case of the two prophets, the first prophet had gotten a direct command from God. God’s direct word was an imperative of primary authority. The only thing that could have over-ridden this imperative would have been another direct command from God. The first prophet went astray when he allowed the word of a secondary authority – a human intermediary – to take precedence over God’s direct word. This error cost him his life.

God’s people today run the same risk in allowing themselves to be informed by religious leaders, authorities, and even fellow believers whose teaching contradicts God’s written word – the Bible. Christians who rely exclusively on the teaching of other people – such as preachers and authors – without testing this teaching against Scripture itself run the risk of making the same deadly error as the first prophet in 1 Kings 13. The caution is not to disregard the teaching and wisdom of other believers; rather it is to be familiar enough with God’s Word to recognize when someone else’s teaching contradicts it. There are, for instance, prominent teachers and authors in the church who teach that you can be a Christian and not be committed and accountable to a larger group of believers; there are those who teach that there is no Hell and no ultimate accounting for sin; there are those who teach that God doesn’t care about one’s sexual or financial exploits; there are those who teach that Jesus Christ is only one of many ways to a saving relationship with God. We are attracted to those who teach a version of the faith that is softer and nicer than what we encounter in the Bible. We want someone to tell us that we can have God and all the other good stuff the world has to offer. We want God on our own terms. If someone is teaching you a message like this, don’t take their word for it. Look for God’s word on the subject.