{"id":64319,"date":"2019-10-13T18:39:34","date_gmt":"2019-10-13T15:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=64319"},"modified":"2023-05-07T09:53:45","modified_gmt":"2023-05-07T06:53:45","slug":"the-snake-still-stands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-snake-still-stands\/","title":{"rendered":"The Snake Still Stands"},"content":{"rendered":"
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King Hezekiah is the anti-idolatry hero we did not know we needed. After Gideon smashed the altars of Ba\u2019al worshippers, Samson brought down the temple of Philistine god Dagon, and earlier kings like Jehu and Jehoash destroyed the idols of their wicked predecessors, Hezekiah arrived to cut down the idol built by none other than Moses.<\/span><\/p>\n

The origin of this idol is the story told in Numbers 21. The Israelites grew impatient with wandering in the desert and disgusted with the food provided for them. They complained, and God sent \u201cseraph\u201d snakes to kill them. After the people confessed their sin and pleaded to be rescued from the snakes, God commanded Moses to mount a snake statue on a pole, so that people who are bitten by snakes may look upon it and be healed. Moses created and mounted a copper snake, and people were healed by glancing at it. This solution seemed to echo<\/span> ancient Mesopotamian and Greek traditions that presented snakes as a symbol of healing<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

In II Kings 18, we learn that the copper snake remained in Israel some 800 years after Moses\u2019 death, and that people had since begun to worship it as a god called <\/span>Nehushtan<\/span><\/em> (derived from <\/span>nahash<\/span><\/em>, the Hebrew word for snake). Hezekiah, in his zeal to eradicate idolatry from his kingdom, cut down Moses\u2019 own handiwork. The medieval commentator Radak offered some context for this act, explaining that previous righteous kings had no cause to destroy Nehushtan, because it did not become an object of worship until the reign of Hezekiah\u2019s father Ahaz. Although the snake had been preserved to commemorate the miracle of Numbers 21, \u201cit is better to burn [the snake] and let the miracle be forgotten than to leave the snake undisturbed and have Israel err on its account today or tomorrow.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In Hezekiah\u2019s uncompromising view, neither the copper snake\u2019s impressive pedigree nor its educational purpose mattered any longer. Because people used the snake as a means of idolatry, it had to go. It was irredeemable.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, the snake has been redeemed. The symbol of the Israel Defense Forces\u2019 Medical Corps features a snake wrapped around a sword. While<\/span> other<\/span><\/a> nations\u2019<\/span><\/a> medical corps use a similar symbol, often attributed to the Greek mythological<\/span> Rod of Asclepius<\/span><\/a>, the IDF<\/span> insists<\/span><\/a> on a Hebrew Biblical origin for its choice: \u201cThe source of the symbol of the Medical Corps is the copper snake that Moses erected for the nation of Israel during its wanderings in the desert.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Does it no longer matter that Moses\u2019 snake was defiled by idolatry and eradicated by Hezekiah? The IDF\u2019s Bible citation may be the iconographic equivalent of posting an article on Facebook before reading the whole thing. Or it may be read as faithful to Hezekiah\u2019s own message: Moses\u2019 snake had to be cast away once it became an instrument of sin, but only for so long as it remained an instrument of sin. In a post-idolatry Israel, the snake reassumes its rightful place.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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