Useful Bible Studies > 1 Kings Commentary > chapter 15

The high places that Asa did not destroy

1 Kings 15:14

1 Kings 15:14 and 2 Chronicles 15:17 say that Asa did not remove the high places. However, 2 Chronicles 14:3-4 says that he removed them.

Clearly, he removed some but not all of them. So, we may ask why this was.

To answer that, we first must explain what the ‘high places’ were. Since ancient times, people have offered sacrifices to God, or to their false gods. A sacrifice is the life of an animal. What they do with the animal depends on the type of sacrifice. Sometimes they divided the meat between the priest and their own family. However, they always offered some or all of the animal by fire to God, or to their false god.

People often did that on a hill, in other words, a high place (for example, Numbers 23:27-30). They built an altar, in other words, a place to burn the sacrifices. It was those altars that Asa had to decide whether to destroy.

Asa would want to destroy any altar that belonged to a false and evil religion. However, it was less clear what to do about the altars that people had built for the true God. For example, Solomon had offered sacrifices to the true God at the high place in Gibeon – and God accepted them (3:1-5).

However, God had said clearly that his people should not offer him sacrifices on the high places (Deuteronomy 12:1-14). They should offer them only at the temple, his sacred house in Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 22:1).

Next part: Asa's gifts to God (1 Kings 15:15)

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