Useful Bible Studies > 2 Kings Commentary > chapter 18
Since ancient times, people had built places for prayer across Judah and Israel. These places were often in the hills above their towns, and were therefore called ‘high places’. Sometimes people served the true God at these places, as Solomon did in 1 Kings 3:3-5. However, often people used these same places to serve false gods and to offer gifts to them.
God’s law directed his people not to gather for prayer at such places. Instead, the people should go to the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 12:1-14). They had to go there on their sacred holidays, and when they offered sacrifices (the gift of animals) to God.
However, in fact, almost all of Judah’s kings permitted people to pray, instead, at the high places. Those places seemed more convenient for the people; the high places were, for most of Judah’s people, nearer to their homes.
Ahaz, Hezekiah’s father, had built many more high places. He also made places for prayer on every street corner in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 28:24-25). In these places, he and the people placed idols, images of their false gods. The sacred stones were images of the false god Baal. The wooden poles were images of the female false god Asherah, the wife of Baal. The religion of Baal and Asherah was an evil religion that emphasised power and wrong sex acts.
Hezekiah destroyed these places in order to obey God’s law, and to turn the people back to God. He encouraged the people to destroy such places across Judah. Even some of the people from central Israel, which was still a separate nation at this time, did this (2 Chronicles 31:1).
Hezekiah even destroyed the image of a snake that Moses made, at God’s direction, in Numbers 21:4-9. Hezekiah destroyed it because the people were using it for wrong religion.
Next part: Hezekiah's trust in God (2 Kings 18:5-8)
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