WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BRAZEN SERPENT?
Raymond Elliott
The children of Israel became very discouraged and impatient as they traveled from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom. They began to speak against God and His servant Moses. Complaints could be heard as to why God had brought them out in the wilderness to perish. Because of this display of a lack of faith, fiery serpents were sent among the people and many of them died that day. The children of Israel cried to Moses to ask God for mercy and deliverance. God instructed Moses to make a fiery serpent and put in on a standard. Those individuals bitten by the serpents could look upon the brazen serpent that Moses had built and be spared from certain death (Numbers 21:4-9).
This act of God’s grace and salvation from death was a type of that greater deliverance from eternal ruin and destruction. Jesus said, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:14,15). The brazen serpent certainly became something sacred to all those Israelites who were spared from death.
But what happened to the brazen serpent erected by Moses? Some seven hundred years later we find that Hezekiah began to reign in Judah. In his desire to walk in the likeness of David, he made every effort to please God. “He removed the high places, and brake the pillars, and cut down the Asherah: and he 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” (2 Kings 18:4). That which had been sacred had become an object of superstitious homage. There is nothing definite as to the length of time involved in such idolatrous worship but it must have been for many years. And there is do doubt that this was the same brazen serpent and not an imitation because the Bible reads, “...and he brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made.” Man is prone to worship the creature rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25). It may be the golden calf that Aaron made or the golden calves that Jeroboam set up at Dan and Bethel (Numbers 32; I Kings 12:28,29). Even that which was ordained of God can become a snare and a temptation to the people. This was true in the case of the brazen serpent.
Have you wondered why we do not have the ancient relics (the Ark of the Covenant, etc.) in our possession? Did you ever desire to see a true likeness of Jesus Christ? People are still searching for Noah’s ark. How about the cross on which Jesus was crucified? And then there is the robe of Christ. Men want something tangible to touch and see. So, there appears from time to time something like the ’Shroud of Turin’ in order for people’s faith to be strengthened. But, we do not need to have that which is material in order to have faith and assurance. Christianity is based on faith. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:7, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” Jesus said, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Faith in God and the Lord Jesus Christ is essential for salvation (Hebrews 11:6; John 8:24). There were witnesses to the life and works of Jesus and by the guidance of the Holy Spirit they wrote down all that is necessary to produce faith in our hearts (John 20:30,31). It is through the Word of God that saving faith is found and secured (Romans 10:17).
It would appear that in the divine providence of God, those items previously mentioned, along with others, have not been preserved for us to have and see today. God knows that man’s basic nature never changes. There would be the likelihood for mankind to do exactly what Israel did regarding the brazen serpent and that is of worshiping the inanimate object instead of the Lord God