Book 3 of Musings Nehushtan

Nehushtan was the name given to the bronze snake Moses had made. Until the days of King Hezekiah, the Israelites burned incense to it.

So it is true that when God gives a gift, our sinful nature may worship the gift rather than God.

There came a day when the Israelites grew impatient with the difficulties of the wilderness wandering.

They spoke against God and against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!" Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, "We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us." So Moses prayed for the people. The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived. (Numbers 21:5-9)

The Lord Jesus compared Himself to the snake that was put on the pole.

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, (John 3:14)

It is interesting that the Lord would put Himself in the position of the replica of a venomous snake. But He did, because He was bearing our sins while on the cross.

Whoever had been bitten with one of the venomous snakes, whose bite was deadly, was able to survive just by looking at the bronze snake. So it is that someone who has been poisoned with the venom of sin can look at Christ on the cross and live.

Guess what happened after that. The Israelites began to burn incense to the bronze snake, until in later years King Hezekiah broke it into pieces.

This precisely is what took place among the Jews and has taken place among the Christians throughout the centuries. God acts. He brings salvation by one means or another. Then people worship the thing God did instead of the God who did it.

This is what religion is and why it is dead. It builds cathedrals to commemorate what God did with ordinary people thousands of years ago. It is so easy for us to build three tabernacles-much easier than walking with God.

The purpose of all our Christian church activities is to bring us to the Lord Jesus that we might practice righteousness, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. Instead we worship that which our hands have made.

We invite visitors to our "church" to see the new parking lot. The church building rapidly becomes an object of veneration. What becomes important to us is the building and the activities that take place in it. The truth is, all that matters is the Person of Jesus. There is little value in the building and the parking lot. The value is in the Presence of the Lord.

There are Christians who wear a cross attached to a necklace. Sometimes Hollywood, which could never portray an act of God correctly, will have a person advancing against a monster, holding up a cross.

Let us recognize that there is nothing sacred about a cross, or a string of beads, or an altar in a church, or in any other Christian artifact. They have spiritual significance only as they remind us to look up to Jesus. The objects and activities are holy only as long as they bring us closer to Jesus.

Because continually looking to Jesus requires that we let go of our idols and pleasures in the world, we much prefer the trappings of religion. These we can work with without interfering with our regular life in the flesh.

Just as the Israelites burned incense to the bronze snake, so we love to venerate buildings, things, religious activities, and noted people. But these are holy only at the time God is using them. There is no holiness in them as such. After God moves on we are to move with God, not worship the people and things in our dead religion.

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 18:4)