And the Lord
said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is
bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” (Bemidbar/Numbers 21:8; ESV)
The people of Israel have had
a long and difficult history with regard to idolatry. I am speaking of literal,
not metaphorical, idols here. I know we can turn anything, whether material or
not, into a sort-of idol by giving it a more important place in our lives than
God should have. But strictly speaking, as far as the Bible is concerned, an
idol is a physical artifact that represents a deity, whether it be the true God
or a false god—something God explicitly forbids in the Ten Commandments (see
Shemot/Exodus 20:3-5).
In spite of this prohibition,
for most of Israel’s history up until the Babylonian exile, idolatry was a regular
trap for the people. A great deal of the Hebrew prophetic literature includes
either warnings against idolatry or threats of judgment because of it. It would
not be until the return from Babylon that this particular sin was finally
eradicated. In fact, as Judaism developed from that time, the rejection of
idolatry became extreme.
Eventually disdain for images
of any kind became part of the fabric of Jewish culture. This was the case even
though the original prohibition in the Torah was balanced by the integration of
other kinds of imagery, not associated with idolatry in any way. The Mishkan
and later the temple included artifacts representing things of nature, as well
as earthly and heavenly creatures. There is no hint in Scripture that these
God-ordained items were themselves to be worshipped in any way. That God
directed the inclusion of such things should put the actual sin of idolatry in
proper balance as expressed in the Ten Commandments.
That God himself doesn’t have
an issue with utilizing physical representations for legitimate means is clear
by the incident referred to in the passage I quoted at the start. God sent
deadly snakes as judgment against the people of Israel for their harsh attitude
against him. As a result, they were brought to their senses and acknowledged
their wrong. The means of healing God provided was quite unusual. He directed
Moses to make a bronze serpent on a pole. Any afflicted person who looked at the
serpent would be cured.
We don’t hear about the
bronze serpent again in Scripture until many centuries later during the time of
King Hezekiah’s reforms. Not only did he remove the unauthorized places of
worship and rid the land of common idolatrous practices, we read: “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
Melachim/2 Kings 18:4; ESV). We don’t know if the bronze serpent was used as an
idol from Moses’ time until then or not. Regardless, what was once a legitimate
item for a God-expressed purpose had been turned into an idol. Note that the
object itself hadn’t changed; only how the people used it. But what made the difference
was that the first use was God ordained; the other was not.
When learning a lesson, it’s
important to learn the lesson. We don’t learn lessons by becoming more extreme
than what is called for. Israel’s overreaction to the consequences of centuries
of idolatry is understandable. But doing more than what God says is just
another form of not doing what God says. There was nothing wrong with the
original bronze serpent and what it was used for. Idolatry was and is wrong.
But God’s prescription for healing was totally fine.
The Jewish overreaction to
the sin of idolatry has clouded the reality of the Messiah for many. One of the
reasons for Jewish resistance toward considering Yeshua is over his claim to
divinity. For many Jewish people the concept of God becoming a man is itself
idolatrous even though it is anticipated by the Hebrew Scriptures. They refuse
to even consider that the God of Israel would take on human form, since their
self-made definition of idolatry doesn’t allow for any representation of
heavenly things whatsoever.
It is possible that Yeshua
understood the challenge it would be for his people to accept that God would
come in human form. That may be one of the reasons why he likened himself to
the bronze serpent, when he said to a Jewish ruler and teacher of his day: “As
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted
up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15; ESV).
But no matter how difficult it might be for Jewish people to look to Yeshua, it
doesn’t change the fact that he is our only hope.
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