In the Sight of the Lord

Asa did what was right in the sight of the LORD, like David his father. He also put away the male cult prostitutes from the land and removed all the idols which his fathers had made. He also removed Maacah his mother from being queen mother, because she had made a horrid image as an Asherah; and Asa cut down her horrid image and burned it at the brook Kidron. But the high places were not taken away; nevertheless the heart of Asa was wholly devoted to the LORD all his days. (1 Kin 15: 10-14)

He Jotham) was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Jerusha the daughter of Zadok. He did what was right in the sight of the LORD; he did according to all that his father Uzziah had done. Only the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. He built the upper gate of the house of the LORD. (2 Kin 15: 34-35)

Scripture names several kings of Judah who “did what was right in the sight of the Lord.” Christians should always strive to do this as well. But for many of these kings there is a qualifier: The high places were not taken away.”

These high places were the hill shrines to local gods. The people of Judah had grown accustomed to sacrificing and making offerings to these gods. The king, rather than do what was totally right, allowed his people to maintain comfortable custom. The hill shrines of Judah were nothing more than the thinking of the world overpowering the worship of the one true God.

What was true of the kings is true of us as Christians: We want to do what is right in the sight of the Lord but there is some qualifier that keeps us from being totally right, totally effective. We must be on guard against the qualifier day and night.

There are churches today that follow the same pattern of allowing the custom to dilute their godly mission. It does not happen because anyone intends to be ungodly but because everyone has become so comfortable with custom, no one challenges its validity. The practices remain because no one wants to deal with the unrest that would come from challenging a fond belief, even if it runs counter to Scripture itself.

One example of this is the commonly held view of a church as an institution or organization rather than an assembly of believers. When we speak of what a church believes, too often it is not a sound Biblical doctrine accepted among all believers, but rather articles of faith determined by a council far removed from the local church. The articles begin as statements of Biblical faith but over time, as new councils embrace new ideas, doctrines evolve to accommodate modern thinking. Even if they were controversial at their inception, over time church doctrines take on the patina of Biblical truth. Few people question the Biblical soundness of the doctrine of their church. These doctrines are the hill shrines of the present age.

We keep the hill shrines and their remnants when we need to tear them down entirely. To do what is right in the sight of the Lord, we need to constantly test what our church professes against what Scripture teaches as sound doctrine. If we don’t do this, the thinking of the world and its gods of equality and fairness or of legalism and ideology will throw up barriers between us and our God. We see this in churches that preach grace and practice legalism or that preach Christ yet accommodate political correctness or New Age spirituality.

Individual Christians, too, have their hill shrines. Think of the things we cling to that run counter to the will of God. Some Christians are fascinated with angels and focus on them instead of the God who created them. There are others who have been seduced into believing that all religions are equally valid and who honestly believe they will encounter Buddha and Mohammad in Heaven. Others elevate patriotism to the level of worship and place loyalty to nation on an equal plain with service to God. These are all hill shrine beliefs rooted in the thinking of the world.

As individual Christians, we have to be sure that every doctrine is consistent with the teachings of Scripture and abandon without regret any that is not. Our God is an awesome God, and He is a jealous God who tolerates no rival and whose Word is unalterable. The only way to Him, is through His Son, Jesus, and no created thing or doctrine conceived by man can lead us there. If we would do what is right in the sight of the Lord, we need to keep these things constantly in mind.