ezra
Member
as i was reading this morning in 1 kings .it kept talking about high places. while i had a good idea about high places i decided to do some internet searching . soon seen the down fall of Solomon soon the H,S started showing me things about OUR high places of compromise. i then ran across this written by Billy Graham (amazing how even though he is with the Lord... his works live on } .i take no credit for this other than just posting . i would ask each person viewing this take the time to read it. i will post the link and the full written lesson . i do not expect this to be a pleasant reading ! but a reading after we are done would say ouch the 2 edged sword cut us . it will probably break it down in two post as it is very lengthy . but well worth the read Billy Graham brought out more than just my original thoughts ,
i have to stand corrected B.G is not the author but his web page posted it
https://billygraham.org/decision-ma...-high-places/comment-page-10/#comment-1678856
Seduced by the High Places part 1
In your Old Testament reading, have you come across the term high places? Mentioned 117 times, high places were centers for Canaanite idol worship that the Jews were commanded to tear down. But instead, these places became idols that subtly seduced God’s people year after year—they couldn’t stay away!
What about today? Are followers of Christ still tempted by high places? Let’s ask it a different way: Do believers sometimes succumb to today’s “ism-idols”—rampant materialism, impure sexism or me-ism?
What can we learn about overcoming recurring, seductive sin from the stories about high places? Something mentioned 117 times is more than an archeological curiosity!
The Hebrew word for high place is bamah—mountaintop, open-air altars on elevated knolls near towns. According to 1 Kings 14:23, the Canaanites “built for themselves high places and sacred pillars and Asherim on every high hill and beneath every luxuriant tree.”
Even before Israel crossed the Jordan into Canaan, Moses exhorted the Jews to “demolish all their high places … [or they] will become as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides” (Numbers 33:52, 55).
Why was God so concerned about these mythical Canaanite deities? Just look at some of the gods that people worshiped in these places:
El—supreme head of the Canaanite pantheon of gods, supposedly the father of creation.
Baal—lord of earth and rain (prerequisites for successful harvest in a dry land).
Ashtoreth—goddess of fertility. Canaanite farmers visited her shrines to mate with cult prostitutes to guarantee crop fertility.
Dagon—principal god of the Philistines. Dgn means grain in Hebrew and Ugaritic and is associated with wheat harvest. In 1 Chronicles 10: 8-10, when the Philistines found King Saul’s dead body on Mount Gilboa, they “fastened his head in the house of Dagon.”
Molech (Moloch, Milcom)—Ammonite god to whom children were sacrificed. At Gezer, archaeologists have found clay jars containing the charred bones of babies.
Chemosh—a Moabite deity, “honored with horribly cruel rites like those of Molech, to whom children were sacrificed in the fire” (Unger’s Bible Dictionary).
That’s just six of 26 major Canaanite gods and goddesses! High places were not harmless shrines—God’s people were seduced to flagrant sin at these altars. Isaiah rebuked them: “Are you not children of rebellion … who inflame yourselves among the oaks, under every luxuriant tree, who slaughter the children in the ravines?” (Isaiah 57:4-5).
King Solomon succumbed to wheedling from his Canaanite wives and built a high place for Chemosh and Molech on the mountain east of Jerusalem.
Today we don’t construct idolatrous clay figurines of Baal or attend worship services for Asherah, but our temptations are just as seductive and perhaps even more subtle.
Believers today might avoid obvious “high places” such as theft, child abuse or explosive anger. But we tend to be casual about what writer and Bible teacher Jerry Bridges calls “respectable sins.” We rarely speak of envy, worry, spiritual pride, sexual window-shopping, gossip or strife as sin. But these habits are nothing but sinful deeds of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21).
How do we deal with today’s version of high places where idols abound? I have discovered four “dashboard indicators” from a 25-year-old king who decided to put an end to 800 years of idol-accommodation: Hezekiah, who reigned from 715 to 686 B.C., 215 years after Solomon’s collapse.
i have to stand corrected B.G is not the author but his web page posted it
https://billygraham.org/decision-ma...-high-places/comment-page-10/#comment-1678856
Seduced by the High Places part 1
In your Old Testament reading, have you come across the term high places? Mentioned 117 times, high places were centers for Canaanite idol worship that the Jews were commanded to tear down. But instead, these places became idols that subtly seduced God’s people year after year—they couldn’t stay away!
What about today? Are followers of Christ still tempted by high places? Let’s ask it a different way: Do believers sometimes succumb to today’s “ism-idols”—rampant materialism, impure sexism or me-ism?
What can we learn about overcoming recurring, seductive sin from the stories about high places? Something mentioned 117 times is more than an archeological curiosity!
The Hebrew word for high place is bamah—mountaintop, open-air altars on elevated knolls near towns. According to 1 Kings 14:23, the Canaanites “built for themselves high places and sacred pillars and Asherim on every high hill and beneath every luxuriant tree.”
Even before Israel crossed the Jordan into Canaan, Moses exhorted the Jews to “demolish all their high places … [or they] will become as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides” (Numbers 33:52, 55).
Why was God so concerned about these mythical Canaanite deities? Just look at some of the gods that people worshiped in these places:
El—supreme head of the Canaanite pantheon of gods, supposedly the father of creation.
Baal—lord of earth and rain (prerequisites for successful harvest in a dry land).
Ashtoreth—goddess of fertility. Canaanite farmers visited her shrines to mate with cult prostitutes to guarantee crop fertility.
Dagon—principal god of the Philistines. Dgn means grain in Hebrew and Ugaritic and is associated with wheat harvest. In 1 Chronicles 10: 8-10, when the Philistines found King Saul’s dead body on Mount Gilboa, they “fastened his head in the house of Dagon.”
Molech (Moloch, Milcom)—Ammonite god to whom children were sacrificed. At Gezer, archaeologists have found clay jars containing the charred bones of babies.
Chemosh—a Moabite deity, “honored with horribly cruel rites like those of Molech, to whom children were sacrificed in the fire” (Unger’s Bible Dictionary).
That’s just six of 26 major Canaanite gods and goddesses! High places were not harmless shrines—God’s people were seduced to flagrant sin at these altars. Isaiah rebuked them: “Are you not children of rebellion … who inflame yourselves among the oaks, under every luxuriant tree, who slaughter the children in the ravines?” (Isaiah 57:4-5).
King Solomon succumbed to wheedling from his Canaanite wives and built a high place for Chemosh and Molech on the mountain east of Jerusalem.
Today we don’t construct idolatrous clay figurines of Baal or attend worship services for Asherah, but our temptations are just as seductive and perhaps even more subtle.
Believers today might avoid obvious “high places” such as theft, child abuse or explosive anger. But we tend to be casual about what writer and Bible teacher Jerry Bridges calls “respectable sins.” We rarely speak of envy, worry, spiritual pride, sexual window-shopping, gossip or strife as sin. But these habits are nothing but sinful deeds of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21).
How do we deal with today’s version of high places where idols abound? I have discovered four “dashboard indicators” from a 25-year-old king who decided to put an end to 800 years of idol-accommodation: Hezekiah, who reigned from 715 to 686 B.C., 215 years after Solomon’s collapse.