Psalm 78:58

Psalm 78:58

The high places

It was common practice, amongst the Canaanite tribes and nations, to build altars and pagan shrines on high places. Mountain tops, hill tops, high cliffs, wherever there was a panorama and the earth seemed to meet the sky, they would use that place to get nearer to their gods. The Israelites fell into a similar habit and at times, when there was no central place of worship, no temple and no priesthood, the only alternative was to build an altar to the Lord on a suitable site. Worship at these high places gradually followed the customs of the pagans and was condemned because previous rituals and worship at such sites had been directed to Baal and the other pagan gods. “When you cross the Jordan into Canaan, drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images and their cast idols and demolish all their high places.” Numbers 33:52. Such practices almost always led to religious apostasy and falling away from the true faith. 

It is equally true today that where the church has compromised and tainted itself with the paganism of the world, apostasy follows soon after. Many of the traditional holy days, and practices in the established church are based on paganism and are godless. This is not the time and place for a long list! 

It’s challenging to note that any such compromises are the source of divine jealousy! The Lord demands our full and absolute allegiance, His Word shows us again and again, that all the alternatives are but copies of the One, true God. They are inferior and yet they are the objects of choice for so many people. To rub salt in the wound, many choose Him but then drift into the worship of false idols and ideologies. God help us to pursue only truth and in so doing to make Him and Him alone, the focus of our worship. Hallelujah!

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