When the Children of Israel came to the river Jordan, before they were to pass over, Moses gave them commandments regarding the things they were to do after crossing over the river into the promised land. Of the things, the first thing they were to do was begin destroying the seven nations inhabiting the land. All of the inhabitants were to be destroyed, along with every place where they worshiped. They were to overthrow their altars, break their pillars, burn their groves with fire, hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of the land forever.

Furthermore, the Lord said that he himself would choose one tribe of the twelve, and in the inheritance of that tribe, he would establish a place for his name where all the tribes were to come and sacrifice.

And the Lord commanded Israel to take heed not to have many places to worship, like the heathen had before them, but only in the one place where he put his name would sacrifices be accepted. It is now evident that the tribe of Judah was chosen, and the city of Jerusalem was selected as the place where the Lord put his name.

When King Solomon—who was an archetype of Christ—built and dedicated the temple, the temple in Jerusalem became the exclusive place for atonement of sin—a picture of salvation and of Christ ruling in a bodily temple made without hands.

Kings of Judah Kings of Israel

All things considered, the shadows of the true fall short of the true. For even Moses—a figure of the Prophet who was to come and who delivered Israel out of Egypt—failed to cross over Jordan himself. Likewise, Joshua did not successfully drive out all the inhabitants of the land as commanded, nor did Solomon—also a figure of Christ in building a house for the Lord—complete a perfect picture of Christ, but fell away in his old age and built alters for other gods. These men, among others who were faithful as a foreshadow of the Messiah that was to come, nevertheless, were not in and of themselves perfect in the completion of all things.

Thus, it was necessary that God send his own Son to bring his people out of Egypt into the promised land, conquer all the inhabitants, and build himself a house unto the Lord—which house we are if we walk as he walked and live in him to the end.

“In my Father’s house are many mansions.” This is the true house God desires to dwell in and the place of his own name to sanctify us holy unto himself as his dwelling place.

Nevertheless, until the fullness of time came, when Jesus appeared and began to fulfill all things, a foreshadow of salvation was created. First, by Moses, who was instructed by God to build the tabernacle in the wilderness, and later by Solomon, who built the house of the Lord in Jerusalem after the pattern given to Moses in the mount. And it was commanded that only in Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, would offerings be made by the high priest for the sins of the people. Neither were the children of Israel to build any other high places in all the land to offer sacrifices. Only in the place the Lord established was service acceptable, and so it is now.

After Solomon departed from the Lord, when his son inherited his throne, the Lord tore ten of the twelve tribes away from the house of Judah and gave them to the tribe of Ephraim to rule over. Then and there, the House of Israel was established independently of Judah. And God set Jeroboam over Israel and gave him promises like those he had made to David. But there was a condition: the biggest little word in the world, the word if: God said, If you hearken unto all that I command you, walk in my ways, and do that which is right in my sight, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did, then all the promises made would come to pass.

Jerusalem Against the High Places

Nonetheless, even though Israel and Judah were divided into two kingdoms, the name of the Lord remained in Jerusalem, and there all the people of Judah and Israel were commanded to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem three times a year: in spring for Passover, in summer for Shavuout, and in the fall for Sukkot.

Thus, Jeroboam, fearing the pilgrimages to Jerusalem would eventually diminish his power, said in his heart, “Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David.” (1 Kings 12:26) And he refused to trust in the promises God made to him.

Therefore, he set up his own high places in Israel to divert worship from Jerusalem to Israel. And he made two golden calves and placed one in Bethel and the other in the city of Dan. And he said to Israel, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.”

But why multiple gods, and why are they placed in two places? There is a broader answer, but in one word, diversity—the locations and nature of the places the golden calves were placed—offered a wide-ranging appeal to the desires of different people.

Bethel was chosen for its proximity to Jerusalem, being only about ten miles north of the city near the border of the House of Israel and Judah. Being so close, the people of Bethel shared much in common with the people of Judah and Jerusalem, both culturally and morally. In fact, Bethel means “house of God.” Metaphorically speaking, today Bethel would be “conservative.”

To the contrary, the city of Dan was located about 104 miles from Jerusalem, almost as far away as it could possibly be while still remaining in Israel. In the book of Judges, we read that the city of Dan was previously named Laish. Furthermore, we read that Laish was a place where the people were lax, morally depraved, self-willed, and carefree. They dealt safely in cities without walls. Therefore, it was easy for the tribe of Dan to take when they decided to expand their inheritance, and they called Laish Dan.

However, the Danites commingled with the people, embraced their lascivious ways, and worshiped their gods. Metaphorically speaking, today Dan would be very “liberal.”

The True Place of Worship

The most important thing for Christians to learn from these things that were written for our benefit is that the high places of worship that were condemned by God in the Old Testament were not only places erected for other gods. Many of the high places in Israel were erected for the Lord. The people making offerings were doing so in the name of the Lord, believing they were serving the God of Israel. Nevertheless, the places they made to worship God were not in the one place God commanded. Jerusalem was the only place the Lord put his name and the only place the commanded sacrifices of redemption were accepted.

Even now, it is very easy for Christians to be deceived by creating a false construct of God in their imagination. Unless we constantly seek God in prayer, such constructs can be believed, when in reality they are false images of God residing in high places outside of Jerusalem.

We can build alters of cut stones that seem to fit together nicely, whereas, as God commanded through Moses, we are to lay no tool upon the stones. Only out of whole stones are we to build an altar to the Lord. All of God’s words, exactly as they are given, untouched by a tool; they alone are the acceptable building blocks for a relationship with God.

If ideology or politics become the foundation of righteousness, the choice of high places becomes Bethel or Dan, or somewhere along the way between the two. Jerusalem has no such foundation. The same is true of any religion not founded upon the word of God, even when it is called Christianity.

The only acceptable place for worshiping and offering sacrifices is upon the Rock, Jesus Christ. Jesus told the woman at the well, “Woman, believe me, the hour comes when you shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father… for the hour comes, and now is when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such to worship him. God is a spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Most surely, for the child of God, Spirit and Truth, are the place of Jerusalem where the Lord has placed his name to be worshiped.