{"id":64322,"date":"2019-10-14T06:53:48","date_gmt":"2019-10-14T03:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=64322"},"modified":"2023-05-07T09:47:59","modified_gmt":"2023-05-07T06:47:59","slug":"the-copper-serpent-moses-vs-hezekiah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-copper-serpent-moses-vs-hezekiah\/","title":{"rendered":"The Copper Serpent: Moses vs. Hezekiah"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[898,429,448],"acf":{"old_id":"64322","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":40788,"related_cahpter":"327","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"What happens when our rituals become cause for spiritual alienation: are we bold enough, like Hezekiah, to pivot accordingly?","content":"

When we meet King Hezekiah in Chapter 18, he is a man on a mission. He has just witnessed the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel and their exile at the hands of the Assyrians and is determined to save his Kingdom of Judah from this same fate. Immediately upon taking the throne from his father Ahaz, he begins to destroy all forms of idolatry in Judah. While we have read about other \u201cgood Kings\u201d in Judah who have acted similarly, Hezekiah stands out among these iconoclasts. He not only destroys the many idolatrous monuments and high places, but he also smashes the <\/span>nahash hanehoshet<\/em> <\/span>(copper serpent), which since the time of Moses had been a sanctioned ritual object within Israelite culture. In fact, this copper serpent had been constructed at the behest of God.<\/span><\/p>\n

Numbers 21 recounts how the people of Israel were suffering from lethal snakebites in the desert \u2013 yet another creative punishment for their desert kvetching. When the people cried out to Moses for divine intervention to end this affliction, God suggests that Moses craft a snake that the people will be able to look towards when they seek healing. Moses makes a copper snake and all goes as planned. While this short episode comes to a swift end, the copper snake lived on as a reminder of God\u2019s miraculous healing powers and was preserved by the Kings of Israel and Judah. That is, until the reign of Hezekiah.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why did Hezekiah feel the need to destroy this copper snake that had served the people well since the time of Moses? Why, if God considered this a useful tool for the people of Israel in the time of Moses, did Hezekiah deem it threatening in his time?<\/span><\/p>\n

It appears that God recognized the people\u2019s unhealthy dependence on Moses as a mediator between them and God, which began already in their first encounter with God at Sinai and their subsequent Golden Calf incident. This copper snake was thus a tool employed to wean them off Moses and encourage their more direct reliance on God. However, by the time of Hezekiah\u2019s reign, the people had become so engrossed in idolatry they ceased to see the copper snake as a <\/span>vehicle<\/em> <\/span>for worship of the true God, but as a god itself. What had once been a useful ritual object was now furthering their estrangement from the divine. Hezekiah recognized this shift in his people and acted swiftly to destroy the copper snake. In so doing, he boldly ended a custom that had been part of Israel\u2019s history since the time of Moses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are our ritual objects and vehicles for connecting with God today? What happens when our cultural artifacts and long-standing rituals no longer serve their original religious purpose or even worse, become cause for spiritual alienation? Are we bold enough, like Hezekiah, to pivot accordingly? How might we hone our spiritual eyesight to recognize when we are going astray so that we can bring ourselves back on course?<\/span><\/p>\n

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