A Good Thing Gone Bad
DEVOTIONS FOR GROWING CHRISTIANS
A Good Thing Gone Bad
Would God ever specifically instruct anyone to make an idol?
Sounds like a dumb question, right? God would never do that. It’s spelled out right in the Ten Commandments: “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind…” (Exodus 20:4).
However, in Numbers 21 we find a strange story that sounds confusing and contradictory. God instructed Moses to fashion a bronze serpent, put it on a pole, and have the people look upon it for healing. Wait, what? Why would the Lord give this puzzling command to His people?
Well, let’s back up a few days on the timeline. The Israelites had been in a bad way since leaving Egypt almost 40 years earlier. They were bitter and disgruntled about wandering in the wilderness. They were angry at Moses and God, and complained about their situation. (Numbers 21:5)
Although the frustrations of desert life were understandable, the Israelites had taken it too far. As a wake-up call, the Lord allowed a plague of poisonous snakes to enter the camp. A rattlesnake in the kitchen would get your attention too, right?!
The people came to their senses quickly and repented for their poor attitudes. God drove the snakes away, but the story wasn’t over. People had been bitten and were dying from the lethal venom. They begged the Lord for healing, and that’s where God gave Moses the unusual order in Numbers 21:8-9:
“Create an image of a serpent made of bronze and set it on a pole in the middle of the camp. Anyone bitten by a snake must look at the serpent. Those who looked would be healed, those who refused would perish.”
Taken at face value, the whole story sounds pretty bizarre. If they repented, why didn’t God just heal them? What was the point of this idol-esque serpent?
First, it’s important to recognize that God didn’t order Moses to make an idol. And He never commanded His people to worship the bronze image. Rather, the serpent was a symbol to which the people could look in faith and accept God’s healing.
We see the bigger picture in the New Testament. This unusual method of healing is an illustration of God’s way of salvation through Jesus. John 3:14-16 says: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
So how does looking at the bronze serpent represent salvation?
1. It was the only way to be healed.
2. It didn’t involve human works.
3. It was available to everyone, but only effective for the individuals who actually believed and looked.
Why a bronze serpent?
If this whole scenario was to be a picture of Christ on the cross, you might wonder why Moses wasn’t instructed to make something more like a bronze lamb? Wouldn’t a lamb be a better image to represent Jesus rather than a snake?
While Jesus is definitely the Lamb of God, lifting up the bronze serpent is a picture of substitution. When Jesus hung on the cross, He took on our sin. “He became a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). “He was made sin on our behalf” (2 Corinthians 5:21). “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross” (1 Peter 2:24). The serpent represents the ugliness of sin that was taken away on the cross.
When symbols become idols
So the bronze serpent is a great picture of salvation through Jesus, but here’s where things got a little dicey. After the events in the wilderness, the Israelites preserved the serpent for centuries as a spiritual/historical relic. Gradually, it became somewhat of a religious icon, and ultimately the object of some sacrificial offerings. The serpent had become an idol — a stumbling block to the pure worship of God!
When Hezekiah was crowned king of Israel about 700 years after the original events in the wilderness, he took drastic action. 2 Kings 18:4 says Hezekiah “broke up the bronze serpent that Moses had made, because the people of Israel had been offering sacrifices to it.”
He smashed the serpent into pieces!
Think of all the backlash Hezekiah must have received for destroying a priceless item that had been used by God. The bronze serpent was a treasured relic. It was even a representation of the coming Savior. Yet the people took something good—something used by God—and made it into an idol.
Sometimes good things in our lives become idols and must be removed or destroyed. Certain material possessions and lifestyle patterns can be obstructions in our spiritual path. Are there areas of our lives that were once treasured and used by God, but now have become an area of spiritual distraction?
Let’s take social media, as a possible example. Think of Christians getting involved in social media with the greatest of intentions: friendly communication with other believers, support for local church events, even posting inspirational quotes or devotional thoughts. But then slowly social media begins taking up a larger amount of their time and energy. Their posts become more self-centered. Seeking validation through “likes” becomes more of a focus and an emotional need. Soon they’re reaching for their phone every free moment to check / maintain their social media status — sometimes even during their personal devotion times or church services! Social media has become a bronze serpent for them. Something that started out as a good thing, with a potential to be used by God, has degenerated into an obstruction in their spiritual life.
Removing Idols
When we read the Old Testament today, there’s a tendency to look down on the Israelites and wonder, “Why were these people always falling into idolatry? What was wrong with them?” However, if they could see all the “idols” we bow down to these days, they’d probably question our behavior! If an idol is anything that takes the place of God in our lives, many believers today aren’t much different than the Israelites.
Not everything we love or enjoy is an idol. But if we find ourselves dwelling on certain things more than God, then we may have found an area that needs to be addressed. It’s been said, “Sometimes good things can become bad things if they keep us from the Best Thing.”
Like Hezekiah, we need to take drastic action in our lives: identify the idols and break down our bronze serpents. When we do this, we give our best to a God who offers the peace, hope, joy and lasting contentment that nothing else in this world can ever provide.
- Ron Reid