take it to the curb; set it right there next to Nehushtan

The Word for today:
2 Kings 18:1 -- 19:7


mark this: 2 Kings 18:4 --
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.

The bronze snake which Moses made is one of the most startling prophecies of the cross in all of scripture.

It is startling because Jesus on the cross is represented as a snake on a pole! As the people of Israel made their way through the wilderness,
they grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert?" Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them 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. (1)

The snake on the pole, a symbol of evil, represented Jesus on the cross because--
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2)

Jesus pointed to the snake as a picture of himself:
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. (3)

But now in Hezekiah's time, the people had forgotten that it was just a symbol of God's deliverance. So they began to worship the symbol instead of God, the Deliverer! It had become an idol, worshipped for its own sake: They burned incense to the brazen serpent and called it Nehushtan.

So Hezekiah broke it in pieces. It had become a stumbling block. It was time to get rid of it. God had used it for a purpose once. But that purpose had been served. What had been a symbol of saving faith had become an obstacle to faith.

Are there any traditions in your life or in your church that served a purpose once--but not any longer? Is God still behind them, or has the Spirit of God moved beyond them now?

Some of our old dusty relics should be set out to the curb. Set them right there next to Nehushtan.

(1) see Numbers 21:4-9; (2) 2 Corinthians 5:21; (3) John 3:14-15

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