Jim shared this the other day and I really needed to let go of my past trophies and live in today's challenges.
The Backstory
In Numbers 21, God told Moses to make a bronze serpent and lift it on a pole. Anyone bitten by snakes who looked at it would live (Numbers 21:8-9). It was an instrument of healing and a call to faith, nothing more.
Hundreds of years later, the object remained. But its purpose had curdled. By Hezekiah's time, the people were burning incense to it, had given it a name ("Nehushtan," meaning simply "a piece of bronze"), and were treating it as an object of worship (2 Kings 18:4). What God designed to point toward Him had become a substitute for Him.
Hezekiah destroyed it. No hesitation, no nostalgia. His reasoning was clear: the symbol had replaced the Savior. The created thing had eclipsed the Creator (Romans 1:25). It had to go, even though it once carried a holy purpose.
The Lesson
Even gifts from God can become idols when we cling to them wrongly. Traditions, symbols, spiritual experiences, past blessings — any of these can quietly take the throne that belongs to God alone. Israel did it with the bronze serpent. We do it with subtler things.
The warning echoes across Scripture. The prophet Isaiah records God saying, "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing" (Isaiah 43:18-19). Jesus warned that no one pours new wine into old wineskins (Luke 5:37-38). Paul pressed forward, refusing to be held by what was behind (Philippians 3:13-14). Reverence for what God did must never become a chain that keeps us from what God is doing.
The Beautiful Twist
Jesus Himself references this moment in John 3:14-15: "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him."
The bronze serpent was never the destination. It was always a signpost pointing forward to Christ. Hezekiah was not rejecting God's past work. He was protecting God's present glory by refusing to let a shadow replace the substance (Colossians 2:17, Hebrews 10:1).
Reflection for the Week
What bronze serpent do you need to smash?
It might be social media, a phone habit, an unhealthy website. But it can be subtler than that.
For me, pride in past achievements became an idol. I found myself protecting a former version of myself rather than remaining open to God's corrective input today. It is a kind of PTSD in reverse: worshipping a past experience, guarding an old award, rehearsing a former identity. The very thing God once used became a wall between me and what He wants to do now.
The Psalmist prays, "Search me, God, and know my heart... see if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Psalm 139:23-24). That is the prayer for this week.
Lord, help me look forward to Your presence and the promises You are fulfilling in me now and in the days ahead. Loosen my grip on what was. Give me eyes for what is. Amen.
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