The symbol of a snake coiled around a stick is recognized worldwide as an icon of healing and hope. This symbol gets its origin from the biblical account of Yahweh instructing Moses to make a bronze snake and attach it to the top of a tall pole. Just by turning to look at the snake, people who were bitten by poisonous snakes would be miraculously healed. But now let’s take some time to learn why Yahweh commanded such a bizarre thing in the first place.
We find our bronze snake being crafted in Numbers 21, but not before a bunch of other snakes arrive on the scene. This is during Israel’s long journey through the wilderness. The high priest, Aaron, has recently died, and his younger brother Moses is still grinding on through the burdensome task of leading millions of idolatrous grumps through what seems like an endless desert. The nation of Israel is in her punishment period at this time. She had her chance to enter the Promised Land a while back, but instead she grossly insulted Yahweh by having no faith in His promise to help her conquer the land’s inhabitants. As a result, Yahweh has doomed her to walk in circles until a whole generation of spiritual rebels dies off. This is a tough time to be a leader of Israel. Yahweh has essentially locked Israel in a desert prison and while she’s serving her sentence, there’s a limit to how much attitude He’s going to take from her. Frightening forms of discipline keep popping up as the Israelites continue to test Yahweh’s patience with their constant griping. In Numbers 21, another whine fest begins as the people get fed up with endless walking.
The people spoke against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food.” (Num. 21:5)
The people are speaking to Moses the man, but notice how they are described as speaking against God as well. Moses was Yahweh’s prophet, and he symbolized God to the people. It is Yahweh who is actually leading the whole camp by having a large pillar of clouds drift in front of them day and night. Yahweh is also the One raining down manna from the sky for them to eat. The manna falls wherever the Israelites are—it’s food brought right to their doorstep, yet they have the gall to complain.
The language used here is very strong. The last phrase in the passage literally says “our soul loathes this miserable food.” Wow. The Israelites want Yahweh to fully understand how much they detest His stupid manna.
Guess what, Israel? The hate is mutual. Suddenly poisonous snakes start slithering into view all throughout the camp. People are getting bitten right and left. The dead bodies are starting to pile up. Uh-oh.
So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against Yahweh and you. Pray that Yahweh will take away the snakes!” (Num. 21:7)
Don’t think that this apology is sincere, because it’s not. The people just want the snakes to go away. It is only the fear of Yahweh’s wrath that is making them change their tune. As soon as this crisis is over, they’ll return to griping.
In moments of crisis, Moses has an annoying habit of siding with spiritual rebels against God, so when the snakes start slithering, he pleads with Yahweh on behalf of the people instead of telling them to take a hike. Once again, Yahweh decides to be merciful only this time, there won’t be a quick fix. He doesn’t just calm the snakes or make them all slither away. This time Moses will have to work for the cure.
Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!” (Num. 21:8)
How long would it take you to hammer out a realistic looking metal snake? Moses has to move fast. A fire has to be started and made hot enough to soften metal. Tongs and some kind of hammering tool will be needed to shape the thing and of course the design will require some creative thinking. After all, Yahweh said make a snake, not a blob. The thing needs to look like a snake, and that calls for a metal worker with some artistic talent. Is it going to have two little eyes and a cute little head with a forked tongue flicking out? Will it have some kind of design on its body to designate scales? Should it have a rattler on its tail? Yahweh commanded the bronze snake to look like one of the local biters, so the fellow who actually did the hammering probably used a dead snake body for inspiration. Meanwhile, as the metal snake was being formed, more people were being bitten. No pressure, Moses, but can your guy work any faster?
At last, the finished product is fastened to a pole and raised high into the air for all to see. From then on, we’re told that:
“If a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.” (Num. 21:9).
Whew! What a lot of work.
We don’t hear much about the bronze snake after this. It’s easy to assume that it got lost or thrown out at some point. But hundreds of years later, it suddenly turns up again in the middle of King Hezekiah’s reign. Hezekiah is one of the few kings in Israel’s history who puts sincere effort into pleasing Yahweh. He rules the southern kingdom of Judah during the time that Yahweh is smashing the northern kingdom of Israel into pieces and driving the northern Jews into exile. Yahweh is fed up with the rampant idolatry of both of Israel’s kingdoms, and when Hezekiah ascends to the throne at the age of 25, the land of Judah is filled with idols and their shrines. Determined to honor Yahweh, Hezekiah rolls up his sleeves and goes to work smashing apart all of the idol worshiping equipment: the statues, the poles, the altars, and one particular bronze snake that has picked up the name Nehushtan. Nehushtan sounds like the Hebrew words for bronze, snake, and unclean thing. It turns out that this is the very same snake that Moses hammered out under intense pressure centuries before. In 2 Kings 18:4, we’re told that the idolatrous Israelites had actually started burning incense to the thing, treating it like some kind of deity. Nice.
Our Gods hate it when we worship created things. That includes things They have made (like trees, stars, and animals), as well as things They have commanded us to make (like Yahweh’s Ark of the Covenant and the bronze snake). Today we Christians continue to fall down in this area. Can you imagine the chaos that would happen if God allowed someone to find the original Ark of the Covenant? Before you could even blink, scores of Christians would be rushing to go worship the thing. Just look at what happens when someone claims to have seen an appearance of Mary, or says some statue of Christ appears to be bleeding from its hands. Sure, we claim to only worship God, but in reality, we’re pinning little guardian angels onto our clothes, and wearing St. Christopher medals around our necks for protection. We think that wearing crosses and waving Bibles will hold demons at bay. We say there is supernatural power in liquids that have been prayed over. Who needs the Holy Spirit when we’ve got all the trinkets?
Think about your own life. Are you hanging onto any physical mementos that remind you of a time when God did something very special for you? Monuments that help us remember the ways that God has blessed us are good. Monuments that get turned into lucky charms and sacred objects are not good. If you are firmly anchored on God and God alone, you should be able to have all of your Christian paraphernalia and your Bible taken away from you without panicking. With Yahweh, Jesus and the Holy Spirit with us at all times, we certainly don’t need to be fawning over created things.
Ask the Holy Spirit to identify any idols that are currently lurking in your life. If you are serious about honoring God, He will help you get rid of them. Idolatry is a very easy habit to start and sometimes it’s a tough one to break. Yet idolatry is an issue that we find both Yahweh and Jesus raging about throughout the Bible. Our Gods want us to worship Them alone. This isn’t something we will do naturally, but it is something we can learn to do if we are willing to submit to Their leading in our lives.
Know Your Bible 
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