Bronze Serpent

Did you know the children of Israel carried the bronze serpent around for about 750 years? Why?

First of all, I believe they kept it because God told them to make it. You remember the story. Moses was leading the children of Israel through the wilderness and they began complaining about Moses’ leadership and God’s provision. So God sent fiery serpents among them and many of the people died. When they repented, God told Moses to make a fiery serpent out of bronze and lift it up on a pole and anyone who looked at it would be healed. (Every ambulance tells this gospel story with their symbol—look next time!). The fiery serpent was a picture of Satan and sin. The bronze serpent on a pole was a foretelling of Jesus being lifted up on the cross—and everyone who looks to him in faith will be healed spiritually.  

So God told them to make it and they didn’t know it was a one-time thing.  Maybe they thought they better keep it in case more serpents came. It could be that as years passed, it became like a “good luck charm.” But more than that, people eventually began offering incense to it. Isn’t it interesting how quickly people replace worshiping God with worshiping something they can see or touch? Or at the very least, people are determined to worship God their way instead of the way He desires and has laid out for us. 

Hezekiah was the king who destroyed it. He knew the people’s hearts were wrong. No more offering incense to the serpent. God commended him for it. 

Have we offered incense to a bronze serpent? Are we fixated on a miracle in the past and worship there? Are we worshiping God OUR way instead of His way? Are we worshiping the past and constantly wishing things were the same—or that worship songs were the same? Are we looking for a physical representation of God to worship? Has something like a cell phone taken the place of God?

It’s time to crush some bronze serpents.