Breaking up the Brazen Serpent

 Do you read the Bible as a book of real events that happened to real people? It’s easy to fall into a dry familiarity with the narratives of the Bible, and I’m just as prone to skipping the familiar bits as anyone else, but when I read with a heart and mind in tune with the reality of the Bible and the people described therein, I find myself intrigued by details I never would have noticed otherwise.

For example, this verse in Exodus got me thinking:

“And the holy garments of Aaron shall be his sons’ after him, to be anointed therein, and to be consecrated in them.” (Exodus 29:2)

I wonder how long it was before they had to retire Aaron’s garments and replace them because of wear. What was it like for the priests who made that final decision that it really was time for the high priest to have new garments. Were the old garments treasured up in some side tent or storage room, or were they reverently committed to fire as we do with flags, to ensure they have a respectful end?

We don’t really know what happened to Aaron’s garments. As far as I know, we don’t have a record of when or how they were retired from service. For all we knew, it could have been as late as the Roman occupation, or it could have been as early as the era of the judges. We simply don’t know.

Perhaps they were lost during one of Israel’s seasons of apathy and idolatry, or perhaps they were carefully, lovingly handed down for hundreds of years, and reverently laid aside when the time came. It seems to me that there must have been a sense of loss that accompanied the freshness of the high priest’s new garments, however careful and exact a copy the new ones had been, they hadn’t been worn by Aaron.  

And it’s not just Aaron’s garments: the historian in me always wonders what happened to the precious original pieces of Israel’s early history. For the most part, the Bible is silent on this. But there is at least one case in which we do know what happened. It is found in 2 Kings 18.

“Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Abi, the daughter of Zachariah. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father did. He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.” (vv.1-4)

The “brazen serpent that Moses had made” was the very same serpent we are told about in Numbers 21. (If the serpent doesn’t sound familiar to you, go read that passage first.) Interestingly, God had commanded Moses to make the serpent in the first place. It must have been quite a shock when Hezekiah called it “Nehushtan,” or just a piece of brass, and had it broken up.

The Serpent

The serpent started out as a symbol of God’s mercy extended in the midst of His judgment of sin. In Numbers 21, we see that the Israelites were facing a plague (an infestation of deadly serpents) which their own sin had brought upon them.  And yet, even in their well-deserved judgement, God provided a way of salvation.

The serpent was, in fact, just a piece of brass, and yet, God used it as a symbol, an outward display of inward faith. Those who had repentant hearts looked up at the serpent, believing what God had said, believing that whoever looked at the serpent would be healed. It is a powerful illustration of repentance and faith, so much so that Jesus Himself used it in describing saving faith to Nicodemus in John 3:14.

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

 Christ

In fact, there are many similarities between Christ upon the cross and the brazen serpent upon a pole.

Just like the serpent was made like the real live fiery serpents, Philippians 2:6-7 tells us that Jesus Christ,

“Being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men”

To the Israelites in the wilderness, the serpents were a tool of God’s justice, and thus the living serpent was a symbol of sin. For the human race, Adam is used to typify, or symbolize fallen, sinful mankind. Thus as the serpent was made to look like a serpent, Jesus was made to look like mankind—only He really did become God in the flesh, fully God and fully man. (Romans 4:12-21)

The Israelites who had been bitten by the snake faced death, and the only way to be saved was to lift their eyes to look on the image of death: just as you and I face eternal death for our sins, and the only way to be saved is to look to the cross, to the death of the perfect Lamb of God whose sacrifice fulfilled God’s judgement on our sin.

And just as Jesus went far beyond the illustration of the serpent by taking on not just the image but the substance of mankind, so too, He goes beyond in this aspect, because although His death paid for our sin, we look not only to His death but to His resurrection as well.

Christ died for our sins, and we look to the cross—a symbol of death—to find forgiveness and be reconciled with God, but we look also to the resurrection and the joy that death has not just been delayed or deferred, but defeated!

The Israelites kept the serpent, likely as a way to remember what God did for them that day. But, oh the dreadful irony! There came a time when instead of looking at the serpent as a symbol of God’s mercy, the people started worshipping the serpent itself.

We are not told exactly when or why, but the symbol of a just yet merciful God became just another idol. 2 Kings indicates that they had been burning incense to the serpent for many years by the time Hezekiah came to power.

It was time for the idolatry to stop, and notice that, although in the eyes of the average Israelite, destroying such a precious piece of heritage and worship was unthinkable, God commends Hezekiah, even comparing him to David, who seems to be God’s measure of a king who (though human and sinful) followed after God. Only the remarkably good kings were favorably compared to David.

You and I

I often wonder if this little account of the brazen serpent is given in Scripture to help us understand why God did not preserve more of the actual artifacts of Bible history.

We don’t have the manger from Bethlehem, or the cross of Calvary. We don’t have Goliath’s sword or David’s five smooth stones. We don’t even know the exact spot of Christ’s birth, death, or burial and resurrection.

We don’t have the last blade of grass or patch of earth His feet touched before ascending into heaven. And although we may wish we did, God knows our tendency to turn symbols into serpents, to worship the creation rather than the Creator. (Romans 1:25)

This may seem afar off, something that happened in the misty horizon of the past, but you and I do the same thing if we’re not careful. We can easily take a work of God and reduce it to a place or time rather than a Person.

For example, there was a morning at Family Camp several years ago that honestly changed my life. Sitting at a picnic table in a clearing ringed by cabins, I met with God in the cool damp of the morning like I had never met with Him before. Praise the Lord, I walked away from that picnic table in the clearing forever changed, my relationship with God brought to a deeper level than it had ever been before.

But I could easily fall into the trap of thinking, “You know, that picnic table was special. Maybe if I pray there again I’ll feel the presence of God like I did that morning.” or, “That week of Family Camp was so special… I just can’t get as close to God the rest of the year as I can at camp.” or even, “If I get up and pray outside early in the morning, then I’ll be close to God like I was at camp.”

Do you see what I mean? It is easy to get our eyes off God and onto our earthly surroundings. Each of those thoughts above is a lie. The truth is, God’s presence is always wherever I am, and it doesn’t matter what time or place I meet with Him in. What matters is that I meet with Him.

Now, what about you? What is there in your life that has taken your eyes off the Lord? Is it a time or place or thing you think you must have in order to be close to God? Is it something that has become the focus of your worship instead of God Himself? Maybe it’s time to dig into the truth of Scripture and break that serpent up!

--After all, it’s just a piece of brass.

“Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith; Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2