HIGH PLACES
Like many other Biblical symbols, high places are confusing because they have double meanings. First they are religious high places that God commands his people to destroy because there is where people practice religion as we see in these scriptures:

Leviticus 26:14-33 ” ‘But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands,15 and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant,16 then I will do this to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and drain away your life. You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.17 I will set my face against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you.18 ” ‘If after all this you will not listen to me, I will punish you for your sins seven times over.19 I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze.20 Your strength will be spent in vain, because your soil will not yield its crops, nor will the trees of the land yield their fruit.21 ” ‘If you remain hostile toward me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve. 22 I will send wild animals against you, and they will rob you of your children, destroy your cattle and make you so few in number that your roads will be deserted.23 ” ‘If in spite of these things you do not accept my correction but continue to be hostile toward me, 24 I myself will be hostile toward you and will afflict you for your sins seven times over. 25 And I will bring the sword upon you to avenge the breaking of the covenant. When you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be given into enemy hands. 26 When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will be able to bake your bread in one oven, and they will dole out the bread by weight. You will eat, but you will not be satisfied. 27 ” ‘If in spite of this you still do not listen to me but continue to be hostile toward me, 28 then in my anger I will be hostile toward you, and I myself will punish you for your sins seven times over.29 You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.30 I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars and pile your dead bodies on the lifeless forms of your idols, and I will abhor you. 31 I will turn your cities into ruins and lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will take no delight in the pleasing aroma of your offerings.32 I will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who live there will be appalled.33 I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins.

COMMENTARY: ***

Numbers 33:50-56: And the LORD said to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, 51 “Say to the people of Israel, When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 52 then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their figured stones, and destroy all their molten images, and demolish all their high places; 53 and you shall take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given the land to you to possess it. 54 You shall inherit the land by lot according to your families; to a large tribe you shall give a large inheritance, and to a small tribe you shall give a small inheritance; wherever the lot falls to any man, that shall be his; according to the tribes of your fathers you shall inherit. 55 But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those of them whom you let remain shall be as pricks in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall trouble you in the land where you dwell. 56 And I will do to you as I thought to do to them.”

COMMENTARY:

1-Kings 14:16-26:And he will give Israel up because of the sins of Jerobo’am, which he sinned and which he made Israel to sin.” 17 Then Jerobo’am’s wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah. And as she came to the threshold of the house, the child died. 18 And all Israel buried him and mourned for him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by his servant Ahi’jah the prophet. 19 Now the rest of the acts of Jerobo’am, how he warred and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. 20 And the time that Jerobo’am reigned was twenty-two years; and he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his stead. 21 Now Rehobo’am the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehobo’am was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. His mother’s name was Na’amah the Ammonitess. 22 And Judah did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. 23 For they also built for themselves high places, and pillars, and Ashe’rim on every high hill and under every green tree; 24 and there were also male cult prostitutes in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD drove out before the people of Israel. 25 In the fifth year of King Rehobo’am, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem; 26 he took away the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king’s house; he took away everything. He also took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made;

COMMENTARY: We learn here that high places provoke God to anger and that he considers building them to be evil activity. At first this may seem to be a bit of an overreaction by God to a physical object. We might wonder why he should feel so strongly about a place of worship until we recognize that God sees high places, pillars and Ashera poles as objects and people that inspire jealousy in him.

Why they should inspire jealousy is a mystery to us until we recognize that God is spirit and that he desires that his people worship him in spirit and truth. Worship in spirit does not happen at a special place at a special time or according to a special form such as music or liturgy. It all happens in that mysterious, invisible place inside a New Covenant disciple called the spirit which cannot be observed with natural eyes or ears and cannot be limited to a specific, predictable time. True spiritual worship does not have any external manifestations or any physical limitations. Spiritual worship cannot be seen or choreographed by anyone. It is all a matter or what is happening in the heart — not what is happening with the body.

A high place is a special place that can be seen. Because it is a high place, it is in view for anyone to see. Because high places exist in groves of trees, the presence of trees are symbols that signify the presence of a high place from a distance. Thus high places are designed to attract others to come and join in the worship and hear the teachings of religious leaders (i.e. Ashera poles, pillars). They are places where religious people practice their religion and invite others to come and join them in worship. Thus they are the spiritual equivalent of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

It is also important to recognize that Ashera poles are trees and that trees represent people. In particular, Ashera poles and pillars are religious leaders (i.e. religious leaders) who set themselves up in high religious places where they serve evil religious food. Ashera poles are the green trees around which people gather and practice harlotry. Pillars are the trees (i.e. religious leaders) who hold up the religious organizations.

The second meaning of a high place is as a spiritual place where people meet with God. This meaning is best represented in the symbolism of the mountain of God.