Ezekiel 6

“Wherever you dwell, the cities shall be waste and the high places ruined, so that your altars will be waste and ruined, your idols broken and destroyed, your incense altars cut down, and your works wiped out.” (Ezekiel 6:6, ESV)

The high places were established by the Canaanites before the Israelites conquered the land. These were locations of pagan worship, usually located near the top of a hill. Here they practiced fertility rites, ancestor-worship, and idolatry of various kinds. Each high place had an altar for sacrifice, an incense altar for offering incense, an image—usually of the Canaanite goddess, Asherah or Ashtoreth, and often a sacred pillar. Because it was easier to find a high place than to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, many Israelites worshiped in these places and easily fell into idolatry. Moreover, pagan worship often included sexual immorality. For this reason, the LORD had commanded Israel to destroy the high places when they entered the Promised Land.

“You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works; but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely break down their sacred pillars.” (Exodus 23:24, NKJV)

Their failure to destroy the high places led to spiritual compromise, idolatry, and ultimately to being driven from the land.

Since there is nothing new under the sun, what do you suppose the high places are today? Aren’t they places where people worship something other than the LORD? There are high places of entertainment where people conform to worldly values. People idolize celebrities and worship them more than God. There are dens of sexual immorality, including bars, adult bookstores, pornographic websites, and even some social media sites and apps. Are not drug houses places of sorcery and the worship of demons? Hasn’t our culture made Money a god? If we do not tear down these high places of deception and destruction, then they will cause us and others to stumble.

Now we don’t have authority to physically destroy the high places of our culture. God doesn’t command us to burn down the Hollywood studios, local bars and adult bookstores. But certainly we should not share in these fruitless “works of darkness” (Ephesians 5:11). We must “tear down” the high places of sin and idolatry within us.

“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.” (Colossians 3:5–6, NIV84)

If we fail to destroy these things, then God will intervene, but the consequences will be severe, as they were for both Israel and Judah. Better for us to tear down these spiritual strongholds ourselves.

“For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.” (1 Corinthians 11:31–32, NKJV)