2 Kings 28:4:
It appears the people of Israel had not lost the serpent of brass, which Moses made in the desert; but they had kept it with the most religious care. It was now more than seven hundred years old, and they had such reverence for this ancient “relic,” that they worshiped it; burning incense to it as if it had been a god. Other kings had allowed this to go on, but now that Hezekiah was king, and was trying that in all things God should have His way in his kingdom, he saw how wrong this worship of the serpent was, and would not have it carried on any longer. He calls it “Nehushtan,” that is, “a piece of brass,” and has it broken up and destroyed. No doubt the men of his day were, many of them, greatly shocked at what he did, and would urge upon him to consider what a wonderful thing that emblem was. Made at the command of God Himself, by no less a person than Moses, the great deliverer and lawgiver and having such virtue in it that if dying people only looked to it they “lived,” how could they be willing to see it smashed to pieces, and spoken of as only ordinary metal? But such was done, and it is recorded with approval, among the things this zealous king did, which were ‘right in the sight of the Lord.”
We have to observe that nothing is right before God, simply because it is an old custom. No forms of worship are right because they have been in use for many years, and many people have conformed to them. This piece of brass had been worshiped “unto those days.” We do not know how soon they began to do so after Moses died. We do not know how soon after the Apostles left the world those men arose “speaking perverse things,” to whom Paul referred, when he was at Miletus, taking leave of the elders of the church at Ephesus (Acts 20:3030Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. (Acts 20:30)), and telling them what would happen when he was gone. Very soon after the Apostles’ days there were all kinds of wrong doings and teachings brought in among the people of God; and if we want to be doing what really pleases Him, it will not do to learn from “the fathers” what was done in “the early church.” We must have what was “from the beginning,” as taught by the inspired Apostles themselves (1 John 1:1, 2:24, 4:6). There is much in the way of religion that is practiced even in these days, which is not found at all in the Scriptures of truth, and it is thought that it must be right, because it has been done for so many years; and of all this we must beware, if we would be pleasing to the Lord Himself. He says, “Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.” Jer. 6:1616Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. (Jeremiah 6:16). Alas! His people answered in time of old, “We will not walk therein,” and so they cut out paths for themselves, as those who say, “Well, but I can please myself, can I not?” It is written of the only Person whose will was always right, “Even Christ pleased not Himself” Rom. 15:33For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me. (Romans 15:3), and He is the One whose example we (if believers) are called to follow. And among other things that have been mixed up with the worship of God, there has been, and still is, a great deal that is very much like this burning incense to the brazen serpent. The very wood of the cross on which the blessed Lord died for sinners, and many other “relics,” are said to have been preserved to this day, and believed to possess wonderful virtues for healing the sick and other things. The smallest pieces of wood or bone have been given by the priests as a reward to people who have gone on long “pilgrimages,” and the poor souls have prized them as if they were really of great value!
I suppose all who read “Messages of Love” know that it is only those who look by faith to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, that have eternal life, and have their sins forgiven. Once there was an object to be seen on earth, and persons about to die looked and lived: but it is not now anything seen with the eye that brings any benefit to the soul. Jesus said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should, not perish, but have eternal life” John 3:14, 1514And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:14‑15).
Dear children, we live in a day when very much is made of outward show, and the heart’s love going out towards the blessed Jesus, who “first loved us,” is too much forgotten. We do well to be reminded that, as even the serpent of brass was after all only Nehushtan (a “piece of brass”), so all the “things that are seen” are the things that faith does not “look at” so really as the “things which are not seen” (2 Cor. 4:1818While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18)). May we learn more and more that it is “the invisible God,” the “living and true God,” with whom we have to do; that there may be simplicity and reality, and the desire to please Him in all our ways, and above all, in those things that are connected with His worship and service!
ML 09/18/1904