14/07/2026
ARE U BUILDING YOUR LIFE/GOD'S MINISTRY ON "NEHUSHTAN"
Everyone talks about what the bronze serpent pointed to. Few talk about what it became.
People usually skip straight to the Gospel of John. They see the part where Jesus says He has to be "lifted up" just like the bronze serpent in the desert. It’s a good connection, and makes for a good sermon. But if you stop there, you’re missing the the other side of the story.
As we know, Numbers 21 is a mess. It’s strange. People are dying, and God tells them to look at a piece of bronze to stay alive. It’s a raw, desperate moment of mercy. Most of us stop the story right there because we like a happy ending.
But that bronze snake didn't stay a harmless reminder.
By the time Hezekiah becomes king, the people are burning incense to it. The thing God used to save them had become a god itself. What was once a tool of mercy became a problem that had to be smashed into dust.
This means God can use a method without wanting you to worship the method. He can use something real, visible, and helpful in one season, and still not mean for you to keep clinging to it as though it were the source.
The bronze serpent was only a means through which people responded to what God had said. Once they started depending on the object itself, they had already lost the point of the revelation.
I see this happen all the time. God uses something or someone to help you; a specific person who spoke into your life at the right time, a way of praying, or a community, and because it worked, you start to think you can’t survive without it. None of those things are evil by themselves. In fact, some of them may have been genuine.
Some divine helpers yesterday have become bedroom friends to those who they were suppose to help. Some great men and women of God have fell due to this ( may the Lord help and come through ) .
Some have built a doctrine from what the spirit lead them to do at just that season.
But if left unchecked, subtle changes creep in, and before you know it, you are creating a doctrine; a system that gently stop you from looking at God and start looking at the thing that once led you to Him.
Although you don't say it out loud, you start panicking when the usual routine breaks or the person leaves. You’re not holding the gift anymore; you're clutching it tightly because you think it’s what keeps you secure.
Hezekiah didn't destroy some random pagan idol, but rather something God had actually used. He knew that we are the ones who get attached to the tools, not God.
That’s the part that should bother you. Most of us love the story of God providing. we don't like the moment He demands we stop trusting the provision or tools we term “sacred”. We want the channel to stay open forever and forget that the channel isn't the water itself.
What God once used as a means of healing had become an idol when people shifted their trust from God to the object. Hezekiah destroyed it to restore true worship of the Lord.
The bronze serpent raises a question that doesn't have a simple conclusion.
It isn't "how has God helped you," but "what have you started treating as if it carries power on its own?".
Maybe it’s a habit that used to be good but is now just a cage, a tool or object you use in prayer or place of worship, or a leader you trust more than your own conscience.
God can use anything to bless you but doesn't mean you should build your life around the toolbor object.
Numbers 21:4–9 – God instructed Moses to make a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. Anyone bitten by venomous snakes who looked at it in faith was healed.
2 Kings 18:4 – During King Hezekiah's reforms, he destroyed the bronze serpent because the Israelites had begun burning incense to it. The verse says:
"He broke into pieces the bronze serpent Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. It was called Nehushtan." (NIV)
What in your life started as a way to get to Him, but is now just standing in the way?
Ref: John 3:14, Numbers 21, 2 Kings 18:4
By Rev Enobun , adding on and rewritten with the help and grace of God using me