Nehushtan: When True Worship Becomes Idolatry
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What happens when the true worship of God becomes idolatry? Is it possible that the God given signs which point to the worship of God can become an idol?
In the the beginning of the reign of Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, the twenty-five year old king of Judah, the Israelite people were worshipping idols. The same bronze serpent God had instructed Moses to build to save the rebellious Israelites, had become a point of idolatry as their history unfolded in the days of the kings.
The book of Second Kings tells us, King Hezekiah “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan)” (2 Kings 18:1-4, ESV).
The archeological record shows the significance of the bronze serpent to the Israelites and point to the possibility that these serpents were being created on a large scale and worshipped as idols. Bronze snakes have been discovered in the archeological record at Tel Mevorakh, Ekron, and Hazor, from the 14th–13th centuries BC, and can be found in the Israel Museum. According to BiblePlaces.com, “these bronze snake artifacts come from several sites around the land of Israel, and they date to about the same time as Moses.”
According to the Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, “The use of a copper or bronze serpent in a worship context was found in the excavated remains of a temple to Hathor.” (Keener, Craig S., Walton, John H.. NKJV, Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (p. 1549). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.)
The bronze serpent on the pole was always intended to point to God and his provision of salvation for his people as God himself absorbs the sin, the curse, and the judgement we deserve.
However, instead of worshipping God, to whom the sign was pointing, the people were worshipping the created symbol of God’s provision. In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul defined this kind of idolatry this way, “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.” (Romans 1:25, ESV).
May we worship the one true God, and place our faith and trust in him, not the signposts that point to God and his present and coming salvation.
A Collect for the Second Sunday in Lent: “Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities that may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts that may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Book of Common Prayer, 2019).
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