Num. 33:51 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you have crossed the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their engraved stones, destroy all their molded images, and demolish all their high places.’”
As the children of Israel conquered Canaan, God commanded that they destroy all the high places where the Canaanites once served and sacrificed their Gods. Notice the explanation God gives for destroying the high places established by the inhabitants of the land, “But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them invites you and you eat of his sacrifice, and you take of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters play the harlot with their gods and make your sons play the harlot with their gods. “You shall make no molded gods for yourselves,” Exo. 34:13-17. As long as the jeweled encrusted idols stood on those high places, there was always a chance that Israel would drift back into worshiping the pagan gods. Destroying these tributes to the Canaanite god’s would assure that Israel would not follow their example. King after king ruled over Judah. They were good kings, “But the high places were not taken away” 2 Kings 12:3. Even though under these kings Judah remained faithful, there would come a time that they would follow the footsteps of their sister into idolatry. It is said of Israel, “Also the children of Israel secretly did against the LORD their God things that were not right, and they built for themselves high places in all their cities, from watchtower to fortified city. They set up for themselves sacred pillars and wooden images on every high hill and under every green tree. There they burned incense on all the high places, like the nations whom the LORD had carried away before them; and they did wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger, for they served idols, of which the LORD had said to them, ‘You shall not do this thing,’” 2 Kings 17:9-12.
In Hebrews 2 the writer warned, “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away,” v. 1. As long as the high places remained, the temptation to digress into idolatry existed. We also must be aware of the high places in our lives that can always tempt us to fall away. These places include anything that can threaten our faith and our worship. John wrote, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.” 1 Jn. 5:21. An idol or the high places are those things we put in front of God. These distractions will keep us from seeking first the kingdom (Matt. 6:33). We must tear down any high place in our life that has the potential of costing us our eternal life.
“Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Mark 8:34-37.