High places, and the idolatrous worship they came to represent, were a critical issue in the histories of Israel and Judah. Jeroboam set the stage for the northern kingdom by building high places, creating a profane priesthood, and moving the Feast of Tabernacles back one month, and every king of Israel followed him; the high places remained until Assyria carried Israel away. Judah had more of a love-hate relationship with them, and God spends more time detailing which of Judah's kings built, destroyed, or left them alone, because much had been given to that royal line and much was required of it. Jehoash of Judah did right in God's sight only while the priest Jehoiada instructed him, yet the high places were not taken away, and the people still sacrificed and burned incense on them. These had been built under his father and grandfather, who were influenced by Israel's kings. Jehoash did not destroy them because they were not personally abhorrent to him. He was content to leave these obvious stumblingblocks, perhaps to avoid alienating Judah's leaders, and he lacked the character to do right regardless of what the herd was doing. When Jehoiada died, he went on to re-institute idolatry.

High places, from the Hebrew bamah and ramah, are simply elevations, natural or artificial, where sacrifices or offerings were made to the true God or to a false one. Early worship of God took place on them, as with the altars of Noah and Abraham, Mount Sinai, Samuel's sacrifices, and even the Temple on its hilltop. Pagans also chose elevated sites for their gods, so high places took on a negative meaning, and God commanded Israel to destroy them along with every other instrument of pagan worship (Deuteronomy 12:2-4). Solomon turned to high-place paganism, and for that the ten northern tribes were torn from David's line. The establishment of high places was the primal sin of northern Israel and a chief cause of the evils that followed. God uses them as a metric in judging the kings. Jeroboam, Jehoram, Ahaz, and Manasseh built idolatrous places, while Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah removed them, some more thoroughly than others. God singles out four successive kings of Judah, Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah, and Jotham, for failing to remove them, a negligence that exposes carnality and divided loyalty. Today a high place symbolizes anything that leads away from God, weakens spiritually, or distracts from the high calling. Such things need not be blatantly pagan or even morally objectionable, but if they lead one to embrace the world, a jealous God is squeezed out, and the end is as disastrous as that of Israel and Judah.

During the reigns of Jehoash, Amaziah, and Uzziah, all of whom did what was right in the sight of the LORD, the high places were not removed from Judah. Despite their righteous beginnings, these kings neglected to eliminate these sites of pagan worship, which may have contributed to their spiritual regression over time. Similarly, Jotham, the fourth successive king of Judah who did right in the sight of the LORD, also failed to remove the high places during his 16-year reign. Though he remained true to God and did not personally worship at these sites, his tolerance of them had unintended consequences, particularly in the life of his son Ahaz, who embraced idolatry and even child sacrifice. The high places, a persistent feature in Judah for about 150 years by the time of Ahaz, likely influenced his path due to their continued presence. The reluctance of these four kings to rid Judah of the high places allowed an enduring evil to persist, ultimately contributing to the kingdom's later destruction and captivity.

As God promised in Leviticus 26:30, the pagan high places of Israel and Judah were destroyed long ago. Though these high places might seem irrelevant today, they still contain instruction and warnings for us in these end times. The critical point of the high places is that they facilitated idolatry, serving as instruments by which Israel was led away from God. They introduced a belief system and a perspective of life contrary to the abundant life that God intended for His people. God commanded the Israelites to destroy these high places upon entering the land to safeguard their future, but they only half-heartedly obeyed. Beginning with Solomon's official sanctioning of the high places, alternatives to true belief became increasingly accepted, gradually squeezing the God who redeemed them from Egypt out of their minds. We find ourselves in a parallel circumstance, surrounded by behaviors and beliefs opposed to God. We can liken the pagan high places to outposts of the world in our lives, and upon our conversion, we became responsible to root out these outposts so that the true religion would be unimpeded. Yet, the apostles' warnings teach us that we may not have torn down all our spiritual high places initially or that some were rebuilt over time. Resisting the world's influence is a full-time obligation for those whom God has redeemed. Leaving these high places intact welcomes spiritual weakness and estrangement from God. If we tolerate these outposts of the world in our individual realms, we risk not only our own lives but also those who look to us as examples. For Israel and Judah, the high places led the people away from God and toward false gods. For us, the outposts of the world are more deceptive, and the stakes—eternal life—are far higher. If we have spiritual high places in our lives, we may not see God as clearly as we could, and His voice may be drowned out by the noise of this world. We may not fully trust Him to provide for us or to direct our steps, indicating that a high place needs to be torn down. Kings like Jehoash, Amaziah, Uzziah, and Jotham did what was right in the sight of God for part of their lives, but each failed to remove the high places as He commanded, contributing to Judah's eventual captivity. However, we need not follow their negligence, for God has given us the means to overcome the world through our faith. True faith in the Father and the Son will motivate us to remove anything that hinders our relationship with Them. God is willing to help us remove any high places in our lives if we are willing to make the effort.

Uzziah, also known as Azariah, was the third successive king of Judah who failed to remove the high places from the land. These high places, initially torn down by Jehoshaphat and rebuilt during the reign of his son Jehoram, had persisted in the kingdom of Judah for over 76 years by the time Uzziah took the throne, and he permitted their existence for another half-century. Despite doing what was right in the sight of the LORD, like his father Amaziah and grandfather Jehoash, Uzziah's reign reflected the ongoing presence of these high places, which were tied to idolatry and pagan worship practices. The prophets during Uzziah's time, such as Isaiah and Hosea, highlighted the widespread idolatry associated with these high places. Hosea notes the nation burning incense to the Baals, offering sacrifices, and burning incense on high places, describing them as the high places of Aven, symbolizing vain exertion in idolatry. Uzziah's tolerance of these high places, where the people engaged in such practices, shaped the environment of his reign. Though he did not directly serve idols or bow to foreign gods, the pagan influences from the high places and his upbringing in a multicultural setting likely contributed to his eventual transgression of entering the temple of the LORD to burn incense, an act reserved for priests. Uzziah's ambivalence toward the high places, combined with his pride from worldly success, led him to overlook God's clear instructions on worship. The paganism he tolerated, reflected in the continued use of high places for incense and sacrifices, influenced his approach to worshipping God, mixing the holy with the profane, which God would not accept.

When God brought the children of Israel to the Jordan River, the land they were about to invade contained high places for pagan worship. Through Moses, God commanded the people to destroy all the pagans' sacred sites, most of which had been built on hilltops. Any high place that prevents us from becoming closer to God and our brethren must be torn down. It is essential to pull down every high place for our own good and for the good of the whole church, the Body of those the Almighty has called to Christ. We must do our part to destroy the high places that separate us from Him and hinder us from completing our training to enter His Kingdom.