Question
If God instructed Israel to destroy the high places of the Canaanites (Number 33:52, Deut. 33:29) because they were idolatrous, why is it that Samuel went to a high place to offer a sacrifice (1 Samuel 9:12)?
Answer
High places such as hills and mountains have always been favourite places of idolatry for heathen religions. Abominable rites such as sexual perversions of every kind (1 Kings 14:23; 2 Kings 23:7; Jer. 3:2;
Hos. 4:11–14) and child sacrifice (Isa. 57:5) were practiced there as acts of worship by the Canaanites and later by the Israelites who fell into idolatry. The question is asked how God could accept sacrifices offered to Him from such places.God always intended one altar and place for Israel to worship and when Israel entered the land it was erected at Shiloh (Deut. 12:11; Josh. 18:1; 1 Sam. 1:3).
However when Israel sinned God forsook the tabernacle at Shiloh (1 Samuel 4:1-22; Psalm 78:60).
Until the Temple of Solomon was built the people worshipped the Lord in high places. "Only the people sacrificed in high places, because there was no house built unto the name of the LORD, until those days." (1 Kings 3:2)
So in times of great stringency it seems that the Lord accepted the sacrifices of His people from such places but it was not supposed to continue once the Temple was built.
But Israel did not listen and these places continued to be used and eventually the worship of Jehovah was replaced by the worship of idols. Most of the Kings of Judah did little to cleanse these places due to their popularity (1 Kings 15:14; 2 Kings 12:3; 2 Kings 14:4; 2 Kings 15:35). Only Hezekiah and later Josiah completed destroyed these places and we do not read of them again (2 Kings 18:4; 2 Kings 23:8).