Hezekiah was one of the good kings in a long line of bad to worse kings that descended from Solomon’s sin of idolatry because of his foreign wives (1 Kings 11:1-3). Hezekiah restored the temple after his father, Ahaz, had defiled it and shut down the Levitical priesthood. You can read about this amazing work in 2 Chronicles 29-31. In addition, Hezekiah did one very surprising thing that should cause us to think very carefully about our relationship with God.
Hezekiah obeyed the LORD, just as his ancestor David had done. He destroyed the local shrines, then tore down the images of foreign gods and cut down the sacred pole for worshiping the goddess Asherah. He also smashed the bronze snake Moses had made. The people had named it Nehushtan and had been offering sacrifices to it. (2 Kings 18:3-4 CEV)
Remember, this bronze snake was an amazing miracle provided by God to atone for the sins of the Hebrew people. About 38 years after the exodus from Egypt and the refusal to enter the land and the wandering in the desert, the people began to rebel against God again…
And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. (Numbers 21:4-5 KJV)
Rebellion against God never ends well because God has determined the rules for disobeying him in life and nature. The wages of sin is always death (Proverbs 10:16; Romans 6:23). But God provided a way of escape that was remembered thousands of years later by the Apostle John (John 3:14).
And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. (Numbers 21:6-9 KJV)
This is a thought-provoking account of a true godly religious relic being worshipped in an ungodly idolatrous way. What godly religious relics are you worshipping in an idolatrous way? What is more important to you than God? Does your philosophy supersede God’s word? Does your opinion control your understanding? Do you need to clean out the temple and smash something to pieces?
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Featured image: Moses fixes the brazen Serpent on a pole, as in Numbers 21:6-9, illustration from the 1728 Figures de la Bible, illustrated by Gerard Hoet (1648-1733), and others, published by P. de Hondt in The Hague in 1728; image courtesy Bizzell Bible Collection, University of Oklahoma Libraries. This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 100 years or fewer.
