Pam Padgett ... teacher
When Hezekiah became king of Judah, he did what was right in the sight
of God. One of the things he did was to break into pieces the serpent
of brass Moses had made because the people were burning incense to it
...
2 Kings 18:1 Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son
of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah
began to reign. 2 Twenty and five years old was he when he began to
reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's
name also was Abi, the daughter of Zachariah. 3 And he did that which
was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his
father did. 4 He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut
down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had
made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it:
and he called it Nehushtan.
Moses made the brass serpent in obedience to what God had told him to
do. God had sent fiery serpents to bite and kill many of the people in
Israel because they spoke against God and Moses. When they repented,
God told Moses to make a fiery serpent and put it on a pole. Whenever
someone who had been bitten by one of these fiery serpents looked at the serpent on the pole, he would live.
Numbers 21:5 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. 6 And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people,
and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. 7 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. 8 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. 9 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.
The brass serpent was the way God provided for the children of Israel in
the wilderness to not die from the fiery serpents God had sent because
of the evil they had done. But the people in Hezekiah's day were
worshiping the brass
serpent, burning incense to it.
This reminds me of things we see done today that are presented as being
religious, but aren't what God has said to do. As scripture is
perverted or ignored, things, man, and traditions of man are worshiped
instead of worshiping God.
But those who seek to truly worship God obey what He has said, being led by
the Holy Spirit into truth, worshiping God in spirit and in truth.
John 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true
worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the
Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.