PDF | Print |

Written by Sparky Pritchard Friday, 25 September 2009 15:32

While explaining the nature of salvation in John 3, Jesus referred to a story from the days of Israel’s exodus from Egypt.  “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (John 3:14).

The incident is recorded in Numbers 21:4-9.  There we learn that God judged the ungrateful and disgruntled Israelites by sending snakes into their camp, and those who were bitten began to die.  When the people repented of their sin, Moses intervened through prayer, and God told Moses to make a bronze serpent and place it upon a pole.  He was then to announce that all who looked upon the bronze serpent would live.  It was a foreshadowing of Jesus taking our sin upon himself and being raised on a cross so that all who look to Him would live.  Or as Jesus applied the story, “So must the Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (3:14-15).

But there was another element of the original story we must not miss.  That serpent in the wilderness rears its head again in 2 Kings 18:1-4.  That passage tells of Hezekiah ascending to the throne of David and initiating a series of reforms to purge the land from false worship.  Verse 4 says, “He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah.  And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).” Can you believe that?

After God’s people had been healed of the snake bites, no one wanted to throw away the symbol.  (Was the emotional attachment too great?  “God used this to save my life!”)  So … for all those years in the wilderness, they dragged that bronze serpent through the desert sands.  (“Who’s got the snake?”)  Then they crossed the Jordan and fought with the Canaanites (with the snake in tow) through the Galilean countryside and over the Judean hills.  Having taken possession of the land, the people settled down.  “What do we do with the snake?”  Someone must have suggested, “Let’s create a memorial!”  And over the years (make that centuries … seven centuries!) God’s people began to worship the symbol … even making offerings to it.  And don’t miss this.  They gave it a name (because who wants to say they worship a snake).  The name was Nehushtan.  Perfect name for that “thing.”  Nehushtan means “a piece of brass.”

You may be thinking, “So what?”  Simply this, the things we revere can easily become the things we worship.  Are we guilty of worshipping our “forms” … our “rituals” … our “past” … our “traditions”?  What matters most is our relationship with God.  Don’t let your rituals replace that relationship!