N21-6: Worshipping A Serpent Mounted On A Pole Or A Man Crucified On A Cross Are BOTH Idolatry!

We’re in the midst of examining the mysterious story of Moses being ordered by God to mount a “serpent” onto a pole so that those who had been bitten by the poisonous snakes could simply look up at it and be healed.

Let’s get our bearings before we proceed further.

First, we learned that God really ordered Moses to make a SARAPH and mount it up on the pole.

Now here’s the thing.

SARAPH does NOT mean a “serpent” in Scripture, it usually refers to angelic beings.

The Hebrew word for “serpent” or “snake” is actually NACHASH.

At that point, it would have been nice to simply conclude that God ordered Moses to make and mount an “angelic representation” onto the pole.

Unfortunately, the following series of verses from the Book of 2 Kings prevent us from jumping to that conclusion.

“In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah^[a] daughter of Zechariah.  He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done.  He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)”-2 Kings 18:1-4

The challenge we face is that in the Hebrew, the bronze snake is actually referred to as a “snake” or NACHASH in Hebrew.

The word SARAPH is not used in the above verses from 2 Kings.

This problem raises a lot of questions.

What did God really order Moses to make and mount on the pole?

Do SARAPH and NACHASH really mean the same thing?

If the “serpent” that Moses mounted on the pole was a good thing that healed people, why did God order Hezekiah to it take down and destroy it? 

It is this last question that I’d like to deal with in this post.

Again, here’s the perplexing conundrum we face.

The bronze serpent was a long-cherished object that stood as a testimony to God’s miraculous healing power for those who TRUSTED Him.

And even Yeshua likened his coming crucifixion to the bronze serpent that Moses hoisted up.

So why all of a sudden in the Book of 2 Kings did God order that it be taken down?

I can answer that question with one word: IDOLATRY!

The pole and the serpent had turned into an object of worship.

Things had gotten to the point where the Israelites were burning incense and bringing offerings to it.

In fact, the brazen serpent became so revered as an object of worship that it was given the special name of NEHUSHTAN.

Because of this tragic descent into idolatry God had no choice but to order the brazen serpent destroyed.

And you know what, the idolatry towards the Brazen Serpent that the Israelites practiced in Hezekiah’s time is no different than the idolatry of those who worship the cross or even the so-called “God-man” who died on the cross.

There is NO DIFFERENCE!

Next time, we’ll deal with the question of whether or not SARAPH and NACHASH mean the same thing.