Today was the day for my bike ride, but a hasty wet rain had made me postpone my trip. Now the sun was out again, the gray clouds pushed aside, and so I started down the street that glistened like gold from the sun rays that beamed in front of me. The air was fresh and brisk, all the plants, flowers, and trees had perked up with their morning shower of rain. Even the birds seemed to be singing cheerier now, as if they had just cleared their throats. Once again before me lay my lonely stretch of road that I discovered actually dead ended into a horse ranch. It was surrounded by beautiful thick brushy foothills or high places. I wondered as I pedaled up, what is it about high places that we seek them out so much?
Two kings emerged. One was the rightful king, the heir of the former king, but he seems to exhibit way too much testosterone in establishing his throne. Not to be outdone by his father, he unwisely rejects the advice of the elders, and listens to his own ruthless cronies, and threatens to make the people work even harder for less. So another leader from the people arises and has all the hopeful possibilities placed before him. He will have the majority of the nation under his rule, and if he follows after God, he too can have a lasting throne and family. But he finds himself caught up in fear, and wonders what if the people return to the other king when they have to make their pilgrimage to the holy city of Jerusalem for their religious holidays? He takes matters into his own hands and begins to set up and build high places . . .
High places are those places or things or even charms that we look for God, we look for help and security. There is something about being human with even our self-pride, we still seek something greater than ourselves, something outside of ourselves. I think that's because we know that we are fragile, vulnerable people, and we need that high place to somehow make us bigger and greater, and to fool us into something we are not. So we build the tallest buildings, we scale the highest mountains, we build our houses upon hills that even hold potential for collapsing with torrential rain. But still we long for those high places when all we had to do was trust.
King Jeroboam had his opportunity, but instead of following the "if's" God put before him of trusting God and doing righteous living, he chose instead his way of putting up high places. High places will never reach to God, so maybe that is why He reached down to us in love and only asked us to believe. I pray today, Lord, that I am kept from setting my own high places and instead, place only You high within my heart. . .
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