2 Kings 15:32-38: a reflection

32In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel, Jotham the son of Uzziah king of Judah began to reign. 33He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jerusha the daughter of Zadok. 34He did that which was right in the LORD’s eyes. He did according to all that his father Uzziah had done. 35However the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places. He built the upper gate of the LORD’s house. 36Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all that he did, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 37In those days, the LORD began to send Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah against Judah. 38Jotham slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in his father David’s city; and Ahaz his son reigned in his place.

Jotham gets a good report: he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father had done. He was, by the summary of his reign, a faithful king. But the account adds one quiet qualification: however, the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense there. A good king, and yet this one thing left standing.

Notice that the flaw here is not gross wickedness; it is something left undone. Jotham did much right, but he did not deal with the high places, the unauthorized worship sites the people clung to. Perhaps it was too entrenched, too popular, too much trouble to confront. So it stayed, a compromise left in place in an otherwise faithful reign.

That pattern is worth noticing in ourselves, because it is the temptation of genuinely good people. It is possible to walk faithfully with God in most things and still leave one high place standing, one area quietly exempted from his lordship, one compromise we do not get around to confronting because it is entrenched or costly or comfortable. Being right in most things can make us slow to see the one thing we have left untouched. What high place have you left standing? Ask God to show you the area you have quietly exempted, and take it down.

Lord, like Jotham I can do right in much and still leave one high place standing, one area quietly exempted from your lordship. Show me the compromise I have left in place because it is entrenched or comfortable, and give me courage to take it down.