Question: I have a Bible question which I don't understand—would you mind teaching me? In a Zoom Bible study originating from a Hong Kong Ministry, the teacher who is teaching suggested it is permissible to worship and sacrifice to the LORD at the high places since the Temple wasn't built yet and is forbidden after the Temple was built:

But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire (Deuteronomy 7:5); And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place. Ye shall not do so unto the LORD your God. But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come: And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks…. (Deuteronomy 12:3-6)

1 Kings 3:2-3 said that Solomon offered 1,000 sacrifices to the LORD at the high place at Gibeon and after that God was revealed to him and accepted him, but in 2 Chronicles 1:5 Solomon actually went to the Tabernacle and offered at the brazen altar. So, did he do the right thing?

Response: 2 Chronicles 1:3 tells us that Solomon, early in his reign and before the temple was built, worshiped at a high place. Verse 3 reads, “So Solomon, and all the congregation with him, went to the high place that was at Gibeon; for there was the tabernacle of the congregation of God, which Moses the servant of the LORD had made in the wilderness.” We know that the tabernacle was set up there. But, both Deuteronomy 7:5 and 12:3-6 clearly tell us that all the pagan materials are to be removed from the high place prior to any worship of the Lord. A “high place” itself is not a pagan location, except if the statues and the other things used in their rituals are there.

Consequently, the reason Solomon worshiped at this particular high place was, as already noted, that the tabernacle was set up there. It was the same tabernacle that the children of Israel, according to the instructions given Moses, had constructed in the wilderness. Therefore, before the construction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, the tabernacle was what God had chosen for the sacrifice and worship by Israel.

It has been pointed out that Solomon’s father King David had previously worshiped the Lord at this high place in Gibeon. First Chronicles 16:39 notes, “[David left] Zadok the priest, and his brethren the priests, before the tabernacle of the LORD in the high place that was at Gibeon….” The tabernacle was where the altar of burnt offering had been set up (see 1 Chronicles 21:29).

Again, it was not the high place itself that made it a suitable place for the sacrifices, but rather a place cleansed of all pagan paraphernalia and with the tabernacle already set up there.