High Places

 

Text: I Kings 3:1-3

Intro: High Places and God’s House

 

I. The Ordained Place of Worship – His House

 

A. God chooses the place of worship

 

Deut. 12:5 ¶ But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come:

6  And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks:

7  And there ye shall eat before the LORD your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the LORD thy God hath blessed thee.

 

B. God has always chosen a Place for His Name

 

Gen. 4:16 And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord….

Genesis 28:17  And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven (Gen. 31:13; 35:1)

Joshua 18:1  And the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there. And the land was subdued before them.

1 Samuel 1:3  And this man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the LORD of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the  priests of the LORD, were there.

1 Chronicles 16:39  And Zadok the priest, and his brethren the priests, before the tabernacle of the LORD in the high place that was at Gibeon,

1 Kings 8:I have surely built theee a house to dwell in, a settled place for thee to abide in for ever.

1 Timothy 3:15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the HOUSE OF GOD, which is the church of the Living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

 

B. God Forbids His People to Choose their own place

 

Deut. 12:8  Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes.

13  Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest:

14  But in the place which the LORD shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee.

 

C. God’s Place is always Accredited Once by His Shinekah

     Glory

 

   1. His Tabernacle – Ex. 40:33-36

   2. His Temple – 2 Chron. 7:1-3

   3. His Church – Acts 2:1-2

 

D. God’s Place is where they Learn to fear God:

Deuteronomy 14:23  And thou shalt eat before the LORD thy God, in the place which he shall choose to place his name there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herds and of thy flocks; that thou mayest learn to fear the LORD thy God always.

Deuteronomy 17:8 ¶ If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the LORD thy God shall choose;

Deuteronomy 17:9  And thou shalt come unto the priests the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and enquire; and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment:

Deuteronomy 17:10  And thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that place which the LORD shall choose shall shew thee; and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee:

Deuteronomy 17:11  According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do: thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee, to the right hand, nor to the left.

Deuteronomy 17:12  And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the LORD thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel.

Malachi 2:7  For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.

 

 

D. God’s Place is the Place where the Ordinances are to be

    observed

 

Deuteronomy 16:2  Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the passover unto the LORD thy God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the LORD shall choose to place his name there.

Deuteronomy 16:6  But at the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt.

Deuteronomy 16:11  And thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is  within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you, in the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to place his name there.

 

E. God Qualifies and Chooses the Ministry for His Place of

    Worship

 

Deuteronomy 21:5  And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them the LORD thy God hath chosen to minister unto him, and to bless in the name of the LORD; and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be tried:

1 Chronicles 28:13  Also for the courses of the priests and the Levites, and for all the work of the service of the house of the LORD, and for all the vessels of service in the house of the LORD.

1 Chronicles 28:21  And, behold, the courses of the priests and the Levites, even they shall be with thee for all the service of the house of God: and there shall be with thee for all manner of workmanship every willing skilful man, for any manner of service: also the princes and all the people will be wholly at thy commandment.

 

F. God’s Command concerning other places

 

Deuter. 12:2  Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree:

3  And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place.

 

 

II. The Practice of God’s People in the Kingdom Period

 

 

3 (AV)  And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places.

 

A. Ordained THEIR OWN Ministry according to their own qualifications

 

1 Kings 12:31  And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi.

1 Kings 13:33  After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evil way, but made again of the lowest of the people priests of the high places : whosoever would, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places.

2 Kings 17:32  So they feared the LORD, and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.

 

 

B. Selected THEIR OWN Locations

 

1 Kings 12:32  And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.

1 Kings 13:2  And he cried against the altar in the word of the LORD, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the LORD; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men’s bones shall be burnt upon thee.

1 Kings 13:32  For the saying which he cried by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places  which are in the cities of Samaria, shall surely come to pass.

2 Kings 17:9  And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the LORD their God, and they built them high  places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.

2 Kings 17:29  Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt.

 

C. Worshipped THEIR OWN way

 

2 Kings 23:9  Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.

 

2 Chron. 33:17  Nevertheless the people did sacrifice still in the high places, yet unto the LORD their God only.

 

 

 

D. This was the common Practice among God’s professing

      Kingdom

 

1 Kings 14:23  For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree.

1 Kings 15:14  But the high places were not removed: nevertheless Asa’s heart was perfect with the LORD all his days.

1 Kings 22:43  And he walked in all the ways of Asa his father; he turned not aside from it, doing that which was right in the eyes of the LORD: nevertheless the  high places were not taken away; for the people offered and burnt incense yet in the high places.

2 Kings 12:3  But the high places were not taken away: the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places.

2 Kings 14:4  Howbeit the high places were not taken away: as yet the people did sacrifice and burnt incense on the high places.

2 Kings 15:4  Save that the high places were not removed: the people sacrificed and burnt incense still on the high places.

2 Kings 15:35  Howbeit the high places were not removed: the people sacrificed and burned incense still in the high  places. He built the higher gate of the house of the LORD.

2 Kings 16:4  And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.

2 Kings 17:11  And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger:

2 Kings 18:4  He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.

2 Kings 18:22  But if ye say unto me, We trust in the LORD our God: is not that he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and hath said to Judah and Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?

2 Kings 21:3  For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.

2 Kings 23:5  And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.

2 Kings 23:8  And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba, and brake down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man’s left hand at the gate of the city.

 

 

III. God’s Authorized House and High Places today

 

A. He has built His own house – Mt. 16:18

B. This house is His intutionalized Church – I Tim. 3:15

C. He has qualified the ministry to serve it – I Tim. 3:1-9

D. The Ordinances are observed in it – 1 Cor. 11:20-22

E. He has authorized it – Mt. 28:18-20

F. His house  reproduces like faith and order

G. Today’s High Places and its ministries – Acts 20:29-30