High Places or Heaps

“Now when all this was finished, all Israel … broke in pieces the pillars and cut down the Asherim and broke down the high places …” (2 Chronicles 31:1)

First, Hezekiah led the people to tear down the high places—the distracting altars of worship that were taking away their devotion.

Then, once the high places were removed, the people had “heaps” to dedicate to the Lord their God. 

Single-hearted worship made space for an abundance. As soon as Israel stopped splitting up their sheep between a hundred altars, they had heaps to bring to the living God.

If you feel like you have little to give to the Lord, ask whether you have already given your abundance to another altar.

A fragmented heart cannot overflow in worship. It can only bring what is left after Asherim and Mammon have been served. If, in the course of our pilgrimage, we open our pockets to every robber and thief along the way, we will have little to offer when we arrive at the temple gates. 

Jesus is pleased when we give a small offering out of our poverty. But he is grieved when we give little because we have impoverished ourselves by paying out the gods.

If you want to carry the full treasure of your heart to God, you must first destroy what robs your devotion. You have to cut off the distracting gods that splinter the raging river of the heart into meager meanders.

Examine your heart. Where are the distracting high places? Search them out, as Judah did, and remove every altar that robs your abundance. 

“And every work that [Hezekiah] undertook in the service of the house of God and in accordance with the law and the commandments, seeking his God, he did with all his heart, and prospered.” (2 Chronicles 31:20-21)

An abundant offering is always an attentive offering.

Though you only have pennies to spare, if you place them all into one account, they accrue over time into a wealth of communion. 

Focus is the great multiplier. Whole heart worship is what God is after. Reserve the storehouse of your affections for a single God, and you will have an abundance to bring. 

First, remove the high places. 

And then you will find heaps of praise.