Sermon Tone Analysis
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In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign.
He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem.
His mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah.
And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done.
He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah.
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).[1]
Few situations generate stronger emotions than perceived threats to beloved institutions.
Our church, the congregation with which we worship, is dear to us, and we react instinctively to any threat, actual or alleged.
The building in which we meet is more than simply wood and stone; the building represents dreams and hopes purchased with our sweat and blood.
The denomination to which we belong, the seminaries or schools we support as a church, the missionary organisations to which we send our moneys, all alike are vigorously defended against any slight, real or perceived.
However, our defence of institutions and buildings can lead us into idolatry.
Though the idolatry “feels” good, idolatry is nonetheless opposed to righteousness and in conflict to the will of God.
In order to understand this subtle insinuation of the tendency to idolatry, I invite you to consider an incident that occurred early in the reign of Hezekiah, the 14th King of Judah.
The account of the early years of his reign is provided in the historical book of *2 Kings*.
Among his initial acts was removal of an idol—an idol that God commanded the people to make.
Let me explain by studying the Word of God.
The Curse of the Lure — In order to understand the incident that is recorded briefly in our text, it will be helpful for us to review how the bronze serpent came to be.
An old saying teaches that good is enemy of the best, and that was certainly true in this instance.
Some may not be aware of the particular account of the incident in Israel’s history when God commanded Moses to make a bronze serpent on a staff.
The specific account is provided in *Numbers 21:4-9*.
The account informs us that people of Israel set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom.
And the people became impatient on the way.
And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?
For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.”
Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.
And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you.
Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.”
So Moses prayed for the people.
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.”
So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole.
And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
As they wandered in the desert, despite making progress toward the land God had promised to give them, the people became impatient.
This is a common failing of the people of God.
They plan for a particular outcome, and because God does not move according to their plans, they become impatient.
Almost inevitably, when the people of God become impatient, they begin to grumble.
In the case of Israel, they began to speak against God and against Moses.
Take careful note that complaining against Moses was equated to complaining against God.
No one actually spoke out against God, “God is unfair!
Boo, God!”
However, complaints against Moses were tacit complaints against God who appointed him.
Grumbling, tolerated among the people of God, tends to contaminate the entire community.
Complaints, however, expose to divine judgement those who are grumbling.
Either the people of God must police themselves, or God will correct them.
Israel, as is equally true for many Christians, was characterised by complaints.
The people complained in the hearing of he Lord about their misfortune, and when the Lord heard it, His anger was kindled [*Numbers 11:1*].
Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses, and their complaint was that he had married the wrong woman [*Numbers 12:1*]!
Imagine!
Actually, their complaint was a smokescreen; they were angry because they considered that their thoughts about what would please God were as good as Moses’ thoughts [*Numbers 12:2*]!
When the spies returned from exploring the land God had promised, they reported that they saw giants, though the minority report was that God was still in control.
The response of the people to the challenge of moving at God’s command was to complain.
All the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night.
And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron.
The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt!
Or would that we had died in this wilderness!
Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword?
Our wives and our little ones will become a prey.
Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?”
And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt” [*Numbers 14:1-4*].
Korah decided that he was better able to lead than the one whom God appointed, and he raised a rebellion against Moses.
Moses and Aaron responded by cautioning Korah and all who supported him in his rebellion against grumbling against God [*Numbers 16:1-11*].
When God judged Korah, the people grumbled.
In *Numbers 16:41*, we read, all the congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and against Aaron, saying, “You have killed the people of the Lord.”
Here is a stunning revelation of human nature!
Moses warns against rebellion.
When God judges the rebels, the people complain that Moses killed the people of the Lord!
God’s response to grumbling is judgement.
The incident in *Numbers 21:4-9* is but one of many examples of divine judgement.
When the people began to grumble, the Lord sent venomous snakes among them, and many of the people died.
God’s judgement will either harden us in our rebellion, or it will turn us from our self-destructive tendency.
Because God sent snakes among them, the people repented of their sin; and when His people repented, God relented.
Because the people repented, God commanded Moses to make a bronze serpent, place it on a pole and instruct the people that when they were bitten, they must look at the serpent on the pole.
It worked!
In fact, Jesus made specific reference to this incident during His conversation with Nicodemus.
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*].
The bronze snake was intended to be temporary, an expedient required for healing the stricken people.
God never intended that the snake on a stick would be permanent, yet, in *2 Kings 18*, we learn that the serpent on the pole was still around.
Moreover, it had not been in storage throughout the years since Moses moved from Oboth.
Hezekiah reigned in the Sixth Century B.C.; the serpent was created in 1450 B.C. For eight centuries—over eight hundred years—God’s people had kept the bronze serpent.
When the judgement ceased, they began to worship before the snake; they made an idol of that which God gave for their benefit.
They even gave it a name—/Nahushtan/.
/Nahushtan/, when translated into English, may be taken to mean “a piece of brass.”
Did you get that?
The people knew that the snake was just a piece of brass!
Yet, this piece of brass had been turned into an object of worship.
Something that had once been useful and even necessary had become an idol.
That which had been commanded by God, was at first venerated and finally worshipped.
That which had once been a blessing, had become a curse.
The people had begun to treasure this “piece of brass.”
We are prepared to condemn liturgical Christians for creating objects of worship, but we pride ourselves that we evangelicals would never do such a thing—would we?
The heart of fallen man is prone to every sort of wickedness.
Jeremiah cautions that
The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick.
[*Jeremiah 17:9*]
The songwriter penned a wise and a true confession when he wrote,
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love.[2]
Because we are a fallen people, because we are sinners, we are susceptible to every form of wickedness.
We often create idols, without even realising what we are doing.
A church building can be subtly transformed into our /Nahushtan/, when all the time it is but a place to meet, a place that permits a measure of comfort as we worship the Lord our God.
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