AP

2 Kings 18:4-5a [Hezekiah] 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 [Hebrew: ’brass object’]).  He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel, …

King Hezekiah was one of the better kings of Judah (in sharp contast with his father, Ahaz, and his son, Manasseh), and, seeking to emulate his great ancestor David, he tried to set a godly example to the nation by trusting fully and whole-heartedly in ‘the LORD, the [Covenant] God of Israel’.

This led him to smash and get rid of all the symbols and objects of Canaanite worship.  And he was also spiritually astute enough to recognise that even the ‘healing bronze snake’ that Moses had been commissioned by the LORD to provide miraculous healing from the deadly snake bites being inflicted upon them as punishment for the ongoing sins of grumbling and insubordination (Numbers 21:4-9), that even this wonderful beneficial ‘symbol’ of God’s saving grace (cf  Jesus’ reference to it in John 3:14-15) had become in itself, over the centuries, an object of superstitious reverence to which they offered sacrifices and burned incense, thus diverting their devotion from the LORD himself.

We learn from this praiseworthy action of Hezekiah how easy it is for our sinful hearts to replace our true worship of God with the ‘worship’ of other things he has graciously provided for our spiritual benefit.  It is not without significance that the first two of the Ten Commandments are “You shall have no other gods before me [in my presence alongside me]” and.”You shall not make for yourself images in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.  You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,  but showing love/mercy [‘ches-ed’] to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:3-4)

A similar subtle, but gross, error had been made with the ‘ephod’ Gideon had made, intended only as a ‘memorial’ to the miraculous victory God had given Israel over the Midianites, but which became instead an object of worship in itself,  “and all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family.” (Judges 8:27)

Let us continually be on the careful look-out for such potential subtle ‘snares’ in our devoted worship of the Lord, our God!

– Bruce Christian