The Pattern or the Life
In the third year of Hoshea, son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years … He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done. 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 18:1-4
There is a well known story of a bronze snake in Numbers 21 that is important on a number of levels. Israel has spent thirty-eight years camped around Kadesh Barnea (Deuteronomy 2:14), as part of their discipline before God. All the first generation except Moses, Joshua and Caleb have died. As our story picks up, the people are at last on the move again when the younger generation begin to murmur and criticise (Numbers 21:4,5).
God sends snakes into their midst. Many of the people are bitten and many die. Moses intercedes and in response, God tells them to put the bronze statue of a snake up on a pole. Those who were bitten and who look at the statue would be healed (Numbers 21:6-9).
We come down the corridors of time seven hundred years. Hezekiah is the new king of Judah. One of his first acts is to cleanse the land of idolatry. Amongst the idols is the bronze snake made in Moses’ time.
What was a source of healing to one generation has become an idol to another. Hezekiah doesn’t venerate God’s instrument of blessing. He destroys it.
When we elevate any instrument God has used as a source of His life and blessing to us, we are in danger of idolatry.
It has been said before but is worth repeating. When God moves, we try to work out the pattern of what happened. We copy the man or woman, the outline of the service, or the building. We think the pattern will produce the life. But it was the life that produced the pattern.
When we’re thirsty and go to a tap for water, we know it’s the water that we want. The tap is just the instrument that brings the water to us. But in our Christian life we too easily elevate “what” or “who” God used above the refreshing life of Christ that they brought to us. They were just the instruments God used but it can seemingly take a lifetime to learn the lesson.
The bronze snake, God’s instrument of healing, had to be destroyed. Anything that stands between you and Christ must likewise go.
What matters most in this life is Jesus. Drawing on His life is the Christian’s greatest “secret” (John 15:5,6). Don’t let anything or anyone take away from that.
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