2 Kings 18:1-4
In the 21st chapter of Numbers, Israel was plagued by venomous snakes biting and killing thousands. God ordered Moses to make a brazen serpent and put it on a pole and all who were bitten could look upon it and be healed. This was a type of Christ, crucified and lifted up, in the form of a curse, brazen by the fiery judgment of God; all who look to Him will be saved.
Seven hundred years have passed by the time that we arrive at 2 Kings 18, and we find that Israel is still burning incense to this brass serpent (verse 4). Newly crowned king Hezekiah breaks it into pieces, calling it Nehushtan, which means “thing of brass” in Hebrew.
What God had intended for healing and deliverance they had turned into an object of worship, forgetting that it was only a “thing of brass”. It took God’s chosen king to bring them back to the knowledge that there is no object that is to be worshipped and revered. There is no hope for the believer in hanging a picture of Jesus or wearing a cross around their neck. These are objects that are neutral within themselves, but if perspective is lost, they become a Nehushtan that should be avoided.
There are many wonderful things that we do in our church services that we all identify with as being special. They represent great and mighty things, but we must never be more in love with the formula of doing them than we are with the Jesus that they are about. Some have made a Nehushtan out of water baptism, the sacraments, their denomination, the Pentecostal experience, the church building, the preacher and even their favorite style of praise and worship. These are representatives or means to an end. Let’s worship Him, not His stuff!
There was never any power in the brass serpent, but it brought them back to the government of God, where man would look to a redeemer by faith. The fact that they had kept it around for 7 centuries teaches us some things that are similar to today’s church: They had lost consciousness of why they looked to the serpent. No Christian church has abandoned the image of the cross, but many have forgotten all that Jesus accomplished on that cross.
The presence of the serpent also shows that they were still hungry for God. People may not be going to church for all of the right reasons, but they are going, and that shows that many still hunger for God to be relevant in their everyday life.
Examine your life today, and be sure that there are no Nehushtans. These things do not take away your salvation, for nothing can do that, but they do impede your walk with your Savior, taking your focus off of Him and His finished work and placing it on an object that will someday pass away. You need no external stimulus to show you the finished work of your Savior and the love of God. Look no further than into your heart, and see your loving Jesus right there!
In the 21st chapter of Numbers, Israel was plagued by venomous snakes biting and killing thousands. God ordered Moses to make a brazen serpent and put it on a pole and all who were bitten could look upon it and be healed. This was a type of Christ, crucified and lifted up, in the form of a curse, brazen by the fiery judgment of God; all who look to Him will be saved.
Seven hundred years have passed by the time that we arrive at 2 Kings 18, and we find that Israel is still burning incense to this brass serpent (verse 4). Newly crowned king Hezekiah breaks it into pieces, calling it Nehushtan, which means “thing of brass” in Hebrew.
What God had intended for healing and deliverance they had turned into an object of worship, forgetting that it was only a “thing of brass”. It took God’s chosen king to bring them back to the knowledge that there is no object that is to be worshipped and revered. There is no hope for the believer in hanging a picture of Jesus or wearing a cross around their neck. These are objects that are neutral within themselves, but if perspective is lost, they become a Nehushtan that should be avoided.
There are many wonderful things that we do in our church services that we all identify with as being special. They represent great and mighty things, but we must never be more in love with the formula of doing them than we are with the Jesus that they are about. Some have made a Nehushtan out of water baptism, the sacraments, their denomination, the Pentecostal experience, the church building, the preacher and even their favorite style of praise and worship. These are representatives or means to an end. Let’s worship Him, not His stuff!
There was never any power in the brass serpent, but it brought them back to the government of God, where man would look to a redeemer by faith. The fact that they had kept it around for 7 centuries teaches us some things that are similar to today’s church: They had lost consciousness of why they looked to the serpent. No Christian church has abandoned the image of the cross, but many have forgotten all that Jesus accomplished on that cross.
The presence of the serpent also shows that they were still hungry for God. People may not be going to church for all of the right reasons, but they are going, and that shows that many still hunger for God to be relevant in their everyday life.
Examine your life today, and be sure that there are no Nehushtans. These things do not take away your salvation, for nothing can do that, but they do impede your walk with your Savior, taking your focus off of Him and His finished work and placing it on an object that will someday pass away. You need no external stimulus to show you the finished work of your Savior and the love of God. Look no further than into your heart, and see your loving Jesus right there!
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