1 … in the third year of Hoshea the son of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem… 3 And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done.
4 He removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan.
2 Kings 18:1-4
Interesting story this one. Moses set up a pole with a snake design on top for the Israelites to get healed of a certain snake infestation attack. That whoever looked at the pole will get healed. Did Moses do the wrong thing? No. Because God asked Moses to make the snake pillar. And it was NOT meant for worship. It was for God to show His supernatural healing. Did it work? Since it came from God, yes, definitely.
But after that, the Israelites were found worshiping this bronze snake pole thing. God made a good thing. But Israelites turned a Godly good thing into a sin.
I find that this is human nature. We will worship the thing that bring us joy. And who brings us the most joy? The “obvious” answer is God! Yet, we worship church, we worship our leadership position, we worship the money God blessed us with, we worship our relationships, we worship the entertainment and hobbies God allowed us to have, we worship ourselves for being smart, pretty, funny, have good skills, have good opportunities, or for doing good things for people. We’re not that good. God is. It wasn’t us. It was all God.
Think about it for a while. What are you worshiping that was actually from God? What have you put more hope and more faith on than God? Was it/he/she from God? Probably, yeah. It was a great blessing from God Himself! An answered prayer! A miracle! Yet over time, we ended up worshiping it and remembering it more than God.
What can we do about it? Learning from King Hezekiah of Judah, he broke down that Godly Good thing, the bronze serpent pole that Moses had made. No matter how good something is, if it tempts you to sin, get rid of it. Do we have any entertainment, hobbies, material things that we need to break? Do we have any relationships we need to redefine? Do we need to have a vain-ness / self-love reality check?
I’m not sure about you, but I do.
There is hope. We can be fixed. 