Context No. 2345 of 4322 · 2 Kings

2 Kings 15:1-7: in context

1In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah began to reign. 2He was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem. 3He did that which was right in the LORD’s eyes, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. 4However, the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places. 5The LORD struck the king, so that he was a leper to the day of his death, and lived in a separate house. Jotham, the king’s son, was over the household, judging the people of the land. 6Now the rest of the acts of Azariah, and all that he did, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 7Azariah slept with his fathers; and they buried him with his fathers in David’s city; and Jotham his son reigned in his place.

Second Kings keeps its running ledger of kings, and here it reaches Azariah of Judah, who reigned fifty-two years and did what was right in the LORD's eyes. Then comes the recurring qualifier: the high places were not taken away, and the people kept sacrificing there. The king himself ended his long reign as a leper, living in a separate house while his son ran the palace.

The verdict is mixed on purpose. A man can be genuinely faithful and still leave one compromise standing his whole life. The high places were not shrines to a foreign god; they were unauthorized worship of the true God, convenient and familiar, and no one wanted the fight of tearing them down. So they stayed, reign after reign, a low-grade infidelity that outlived every good intention.

What familiar compromise have I decided to live alongside rather than pull down?

Sources

2 Kings 15:3: He did that which was right in the LORD's eyes, according to all that his father Amaziah had done.
2 Kings 15:4: However, the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places.
2 Corinthians 7:1: let's cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.