Smashing bronze snakes: When God's gifts become idols

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.

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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.

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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).

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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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Redeeming Your Timeline by Troy Brewer

I had a great conversation with Paul, a friend who was on the USS Cole that was bombed before 911, 2001. He's involved in a healing ministry that reminds me of Redeeming your timeline by Troy Brewer that I first heard about from a SALT friend at work in 2022: God redeems our past and we can see our future with him (Job 19:25-27) Today I have serval friends going through late stage cancer and others suffering from anxiety over past truma. I thought I post some of the key ideas and scripture to encourage these friends and hope others find encouragement as well. 

Troy Brewer’s central premise: God is not bound by time.

Because He stands outside past, present, and future, He can redeem all three — healing yesterday, securing tomorrow, and giving rest today.

This book addresses the deep human need for peace, identity, and hope by showing how God interacts with our personal timelines.

God redeems your timeline by healing past wounds, stabilizing the present with peace, and guiding the future with purpose.

Brewer’s message is that nothing in your past disqualifies you, nothing in your future can intimidate you, and nothing in your present has to overwhelm you — because Jesus rules your entire timeline.

God’s View of Time: He Is Eternal, We Are Not

Big idea: Time is a created dimension. God moves through it freely and can rewrite what sin, trauma, or fear broke.

Key Scriptures

• Isaiah 46:10 — “I make known the end from the beginning.”
• Psalm 139:16 — All our days were written before one came to be.
• 2 Peter 3:8 — With the Lord, one day is like a thousand years.

Insight: We often act like our timeline is fixed. God sees it as flexible, healable, and redeemable.

Redeeming the Past: Healing Memories and Wounds

Big idea: God can reach into the past, heal what happened, and break the power of damaging moments that shaped unhealthy patterns.

Key Scriptures

• Joel 2:25 — “I will restore the years the locusts have eaten.”
• Psalm 147:3 — He heals the brokenhearted and binds wounds.
• Colossians 1:20 — Through Christ, God reconciles all things. 

People carry old scripts — identity wounds, shame stories, losses. Brewer teaches replacing those memories with God’s truth and letting Christ heal the emotional residue.

Redeeming the Present: Calming the Chaos of “Right Now”

Big idea: Trust transforms the present. The Holy Spirit produces peace, presence, and strategic clarity when we surrender control.

Key Scriptures

• Matthew 6:34 — Don’t worry about tomorrow.
• Philippians 4:6–7 — Peace guards our hearts and minds.
• Psalm 23 — God leads, restores, and protects moment by moment.

Insight: Anxiety comes from living either in the past or the future. God invites us into a redeemed present anchored in Him.

Redeeming the Future: Breaking Off Fear of Tomorrow

Big idea: God already occupies your future. Therefore fear has no authority over it. Brewer emphasizes prophetic identity and future hope.

Key Scriptures

• Jeremiah 29:11 — Plans to prosper and not harm.
• Romans 8:28 — God works all things for good.
• Proverbs 3:5–6 — Trust Him and He makes your paths straight. 

People fear uncertainty. God’s kingdom reframes the future as safe, guided, and purposed.

Supernatural Skillsets Brewer Teaches

• Timeline Redeeming Prayer
• Invite Jesus into a specific past moment to heal the wound and rewrite the pattern.

• Luke 4:18 — Jesus heals the broken and sets captives free.
• Prophetic Declaration Over Future Moments
• Speaking God’s promises over upcoming decisions, seasons, or events.
• Job 22:28 — “You will decree a thing, and it will be established.”
• Redeemed Perspective
• Seeing time through heaven’s lens; aligning your story with God’s story.
• Romans 12:2 — Renew the mind to discern God's will.

The Promise: Rest in the Now

When past wounds lose their power and future anxiety evaporates, you experience rest — a settled confidence that God carries the whole timeline.

Key Scriptures

• Hebrews 4:9–11 — There remains a rest for God’s people.
• Matthew 11:28–30 — “Come to me… and I will give you rest.”

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A heart that knows God, is truthfully surrendered before him (Jer 4:3-22)

 Jer 4:3-22

Key verses;

This is what the Lord says..."Plow up the hard ground of your hearts! Do not waste your good seed among thorns. My people are foolish and do not know me,” says the Lord... (Jer 4:3,22)

A) God's heart change is required, pride and power must be surrendered. (Jer 4:1-9)

4:3-4) LORD says, "Plow up the hard ground of your hearts! Don't waste good seed among thorns, surrender pride, power - change heart before the LORD or bear unquenchable fire of anger for sin.

• Today, God's word is living and active (Heb 4:7,12),Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective (James 5:16). 
• The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. Luke 8:14
• But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop. Luke 8:15
• I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Ezekiel 36:26-27

5-9) Shout, broadcast, signal - terrible destruction upon you, land, devastated, ruined, LORD's anger brings mourning, broken heart

Application: When Jesus says forgive and bless don't curse - do you put it into action? This is retention, persevering and producing. What evidence in your relationships 

B) God's people deceived about peace, on the road of destruction without Him. (Jer 4:10-22)

10-12) Jeremiah confused, "People deceived by God's promised peace, but sword, burning wind - no breeze for winnowing grain, blast - destruction

• Jesus, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword... (like Jesus) take your cross and follow, find life in Christ and lose it for his sake. (Matthew 10:34,38-39)
• Apostles given authority; cast out unclean spirits, heal every disease/affliction (even Judas) - Matt 10:1-4)
• Apostles sent to lost sheep of Israel, proclaim 'Kingdom of Heaven is near', no money, worthy house, peace/ else worse than Sodom/Gomorrah (Matt 10:5-15)
• Apostles persecuted like sheep among wolves, wise serpents, innocent as doves, Spirit of Father speaks through you, family's against each other for Jesus' name sake, (Matt 10:16-22)
• Apostle misunderstood like Jesus, run out and perceived as 'Lord of dung/flies', Servant isn't greater than master (Matthew 10:23-25, John 15:18-21)
• Apostle fearless of men, valued by God. Reveal/proclaim, abiding in/given to God (Matt 10: 26-33, John 15, Romans 12)
• Jesus taught to live life with God on purpose (Matt 16:25-27, Job 27:8)
  

13-15) enemy hurricane speed, doom /Jerusalem cleanse your heart, be saved don't harbor evil thoughts destruction

• Doctrine of Election is God's irrevocable call for everyone (Genesis 25:23)

16-18) warn nations, Jerusalem enemy against Judah, 'for my people rebelled against LORD' actions/punishments' bitter/ piercing to heart 

19-21) My heart pain, heard trumpets blast, waves of destruction, battle flags

• For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. Heb 4:12
• Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking. For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven! (Hebrews 12:25 NLT).
• For God speaks again and again, though people do not recognize it (Job 33:14 NLT)

22) My people are foolish, don't know me says the LORD, stupid, no understanding, cleaver enough to do wrong, no idea how to do right!

Application: Many people don't realize their lack of belief doesn't remove them from God's plan for humanity. As Christians our hearts are broken, we speak yet find few hearers. Yet we believe God is close to the broken hearted and able to heal the hardest heart. The apostle Paul was a Christian Killer who ended up receiving apostleship to the gentiles that includes me. We'll all see clearly some day, in time and eternity.  

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To see truth and listen with clarity (Isaiah 32:3)

Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed, and the ears of those who hear will listen. Isaiah 32:3 NIV

Then everyone who has eyes will be able to see the truth, and everyone who has ears will be able to hear it. Isaiah 32:3 NLT

BibleHub has this verse linked to Isaiah 29:18 and Isaiah 35:5

A) Living humbly with the Lord brings fresh joy and understanding as we rejoice in Jesus (Isaiah 29:11-24). Everyone's choice: sacrilege or coram Deo

Study notes:
Isaiah 29:11-12, All the future events in this vision are like a sealed book to them. When you give it to those who can read, they will say, “We can’t read it because it is sealed.” When you give it to those who cannot read, they will say, “We don’t know how to read.”
 - 13) they say "I belong to the Lord", but their hearts are far from him, worship is man-made rules learned by rote (Mark 7:7)
 - 14 So the Lord astounds hypocrites with amazing wonders. Wise and learned pass away, frustrated (I Cor 1:18,19,20  Isaiah 29:14)
 - 15) Sorrow awaits those hiding from the Lord who sees everything we do and plan
 - 16) He created us for his purpose
 - 17-18) soon arid land fertile, deaf will hear words read from a book and blind will see through gloom and darkness
 - 19) humble will be filled with fresh joy from the Lord, poor will rejoice in Holy One of Israel (Jesus)
20-21) GONE will be: scoffer, arrogant, evil plotters, liers, those who pervert justice, tell lies to destroy innocent
22-23) Lord who redeemed Abraham, to people of Israel: no longer ashamed, fearful but blessed with children - recognize the Holy One of Jacob.
24) Then the wayward will gain understanding, and complainers will accept instruction.

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God works through Abigail, David, Saul, and Philistine home (1 Samuel 25-27, Psalm 37)

“Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me.” – Psalm 54:4

“The Lord makes firm the steps of those who delight in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.” – Psalm 37:23-24

The best part of BSF is the first question every week: "how you have seen God’s activity during the week. (How has He provided, answered, comforted, reconciled, guided, etc.?)"
 - It helps us to notice HOW God is at work in our lives. Through people, through circumstances, that prayer is all we have, in ourselves that in spite of circumstance we have joy and peace. In relationships that seemed irreconcilable and in decisions/commitments that put us on the right path he's showing us. What a wonderful year we've had in fellowship with one another.

Big Idea: God’s mercy is greater than all our weakness, weariness and sin.

1 Samuel 25-27; Psalm 37
A) Abigail intervenes between Nabal and David saving many lives
25:1) Samuel died, all Israel gathered mourned, buried at his house Ramah, David arose to wilderness of Paran
2-3) Nabal (harsh/evil/Calebite) in Maon, 3,000 sheep, 1,000 goats in Carmel, Abigail wife intelligent/beautiful
4-8) David sends 10 men to bless him with peace, give an account of blessings bestowed and ask a favor, give
9-17) Nabal didn't know David/Jesse, David/400 come to visit, a worker tells Abigail truth of David's protection
 - 11) Nabal SCORN: "Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men whose origin I do not know?”
 - 17) Nabal workers: "he is such a worthless man that no one can speak to him
 - Principle: Respect those whom God has placed in charge
 - Application: I'm like Nabal, Arrogance, stupidity, "unearned wealth", unknown protection from government/police - assuming that my position is and knowledge gives me the right to treat other/unknown people in need poorly. Certainly should know better but go on towards foolish ends.
- Application 2: I'm like David, quick tempter, going to extremes when I feel mistreated. Both sides suffer when the greater more mature person goes to the extreme. Thank God for godly women at home and in the workplace - cooler heads prevail, love covers a multitude of sins.

 - Proverbs 17:27 tells us: “He who has knowledge spares his words.” This means keeping in check a multitude of opinions that could ignite further anger in others. Someone who displays wisdom will think before speaking, and then will share only insights likely to be helpful.

18-22) Abigail 200 loaves, wine, 5 sheep prepared.. loaded on donkeys, workers, David intends to slaughter all Nabal has
 - 21) “Surely in vain I have guarded all that this man has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him; and he has returned me evil for good."
23-25) Abigail takes blame for not intervening sooner, Nabal name = folly
26-31) Abigail blesses David in the name of the LORD with gifts, asks forgiveness, acknowledges David as lord
32-35) David acknowledges LORD who sent Abigail, grants her request.
 - 35) David received from her hand what she had brought him and said to her, “Go up to your house in peace. See, I have listened to you and granted your request.”
Application: Be like Abigail: wise, takes responsibility to save many at great personal risk, leadership - gets others to help her make things right, intervenes between two opposing forces helps them make peace.
36-38) Nabal eating/drinking like a king, Abigal tells what happened, his heart died, 10 days later LORD struck Nabal, he died
39-42) David, "Blessed be the LORD", heard David, brought Nabal's evildoing on himself - took Abigail to be his wife
 - 41) She arose and bowed with her face to the ground and said, “Behold, your maidservant is a maid to wash the feet of my lord’s servants.”
 - Application: be like Abigail, follow the LORD wholeheartedly and help others do the same Lord, wash my feet, Godly relationship enhance spiritual growth (Romans 16), Everyone's choice: sacrilege or coram Deo
43-44) Meanwhile David also marries Ahinoam of Jezreel and Saul regifts Michal to Palti son of Laish, from Gallim.
Psalm 37:1-6) don't worry/envy wrongdoers, trust God and do good, cultivate faithfulness, delight in the LORD, commit your way to HIM - trust in HIM, he will bring forth righteousness/judgment as the light of noonday
7-11) rest in the LORD, wait patiently for Him, stewing over others wicked schemes only leads to evildoing
12-15) wicked plot againt righteous, LORD laughs, He sees, their sword enters their heart
16-20) better little + righteous, than abundance + wicked, LORD sustains, knows = evidence not ashamed in the time of evil
21-22) wicked borrows, doesn't pay back, righteous graciously gives, blessed inherit land, cursed cut off
23-26) STEPS of man established by the LORD, He delights in his way, fails but God has his hand, gracious/lending, descendants are a blessing (footprints in the sand)
27-34) depart from evil and do good, LORD loves justice, righteous speak wisdom/justice, law of God in his heart (Psalm 119:11), his steps don't slip wait for the LORD you will see
35-40) wicked men like big tree gone, man of peace has posterity - salvation of righteous is from the LORD, strength, help, delivers - because they take refuge in HIM.
Application: better to rest in the LORD, trust him as I obey and see his day approaching.

B) David trust LORD, sparing Saul's life a second time
26:1-5) Ziphites tells Saul David hiding, 3,000 searches for him. David, spies where Saul lays
6-12) While Saul and army slept, David and Abishai walk up to Saul and converse about killing him or letting LORD deal with him, steal spear and jug of water.
13-16) David calls the army out for not protecting LORDs annointed
17-20) Saul recognized David's voice, David asks why he pursues him, evil he's done, LORDs will?
21-25) Saul repents, David gives back spear, they make peace blessing eachother
 - 23) The Lord will repay each man for his righteousness and his faithfulness

C) David lives with Philistines under false pretense
27:1-7) David lives with Philistines, Achish at Gath with 600 men and their families, Saul no longer searched for him, 1 year, 4 months in Ziklag, Judah
8-12) David robs and kills Geshurites, Girzites, Amalekites - lies to Achish - says Negev of Judah, Jerahmeelites, Kenites - Achish, believed David is his servant

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