Nehushtan

Every cloud has a silver lining, they say, and this coronavirus sure has one!  We are confined to our homes due to the nature of the virus.  Lenten days are exceptional in the Church calendar; the Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday culminating in Easter celebrations.  We were blessed much since most of the churches conducted their services online, we could listen to more messages and thereby be edified, challenged, and uplifted.  What was broken was just the tradition around these services. If you think about it, God is not interested in our customs and traditions.  He is interested only in our hearts. He wants every child of His to seek His face, hear His voice, and obey His commands!

During the time of the plague upon the nation of Israel, Moses made a bronze serpent for the people to look upon and be spared death from the snake bites. Whenever I read this portion (Numbers 21:1-9) I used to wonder why God chose a snake because snakes always pointed to evil in the Bible.  The snake must have represented their sin! Commentators say that what saved them was not the snake but their act of looking up in obedience to God's Word. It is true even today! Jesus said in John 3:14,15, "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." Jesus became sin for us on the Cross, and that is why He said the one who believes in His substitutionary death would be saved!  In 2 Kings 18:3, we see king Hezekiah calling it 'Nehushtan' which means ‘piece of brass.’  Through the centuries, the people had started worshipping it by burning incense to it.  Even though It had more than 700 years of history, Hezekiah boldly broke it to pieces in his effort to cleanse the land from idolatry.

We must be on guard against idolatry in our lives today. There are many forms of idolatry in our life.  We make preachers our idols. We make customs and traditions our idols.  We make forms of worship our idol.  Jesus said, "…the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him."

My friend, we are called to worship the Father in Spirit and truth.  Remember, our traditions and customs will not take us to heaven.

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