2 Kings 18:4
He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan. He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.
Hezekiah did what was right in removing the high places, images and groves of idolatrous worship, and he broke in pieces the brasen serpent Moses had made because Israel burned incense to it, calling it Nehushtan, a mere piece of brass. Moses had made it at God's command and lifted it up so that bitten Israel looking to it in faith in God's word would live, a memorial of grace and a type of Christ lifted up for humanity. The serpent had no healing power in itself but was only lifeless brass, with healing coming through faith in the Lord and pointing beyond the object to God. Centuries after, the people forgot God's mercy and what it represented and worshiped it as though virtue were in it, so what had been a means of life became an idol and snare whose destruction became necessary. It rebukes putting material symbols and forms in the place of God and worshiping the sign instead of the Giver, showing that age and long custom do not make such worship lawful.
Hezekiah's Faithful Reforms
Hezekiah did what was right before God, in direct contrast to his father Ahaz, whose idolatry and unfaithfulness had created an urgent need for reform. As the son of Ahaz he stands as proof that godliness was possible even in adverse circumstances. He was one of Judah's two decisive reformers, set against Judah's departure from God and idolatry. He was a devoted king of God who nevertheless made mistakes. His good and prosperous reign seemed to hold back God's impending wrath, even though the people had not all fully returned to God with him.
He removed the high places, images, groves, and hilltop altars used for idolatrous worship, including licentious sun-worship. By breaking down those worship sites on the hills and mountains he helped the people turn from idolatry and seek refuge in God. The aim was that they would learn righteousness and seek refuge in God rather than in idolatrous practices.
His story shows that God is a friend to His people in trouble and delivers those who trust Him. When threatened, Hezekiah spread the threatening letter before the Lord and prayed, and believers may spread their letters and troubles before God in the same way. Children are to learn from this faith and self-denial and how to trust God now, so they will not be overwhelmed in the coming time of trouble. His reform removed idolatrous worship and restored recognition of God, showing that true worship does not depend on splendid temples or outward religious beauty.
Serpent's Purpose and Judgment
At God's command Moses made the serpent and lifted it on a pole so high that all could see it when sinning Israel were bitten in the wilderness by fiery serpents, fit symbols of sin. Looking upon that symbol by faith in God's power and love and word meant healing, and many were healed. It served as a memorial of grace and a sign of mercy and healing, and as a type pointing to trust in Christ and to Christ lifted up for humanity.
The serpent had no power to heal in itself but was only a lifeless piece of brass. Its worth depended on people looking beyond it to God, for healing came through faith in the Lord's word and pointed to Christ, not to the object.
Israel kept the serpent until Hezekiah's reign and burned incense to it down to those days. In so doing they treated a material object as a source of religious help long after its original purpose.
Centuries after, the people forgot God's mercy, goodness, power and what the serpent represented. They worshiped it as though virtue or healing power were in it, when with the faith, the character, and the cleansing for which it stood all gone it was only brass. What had once been a means of life and a symbol of Christ became an idol and a danger and snare.
Because Israel burned incense to it, Hezekiah broke it in pieces. He called it Nehushtan, meaning a piece of brass or bronze, thereby identifying it as an ordinary object with no power in itself. That name declared there was no divine command or promise attached to it, though some people may still have claimed that it healed them.
False Worship Exposed
Making the serpent and looking to it for healing was not sinful, for it was made at God's command and those who looked in faith lived. Making an image was not in itself forbidden; the sin lay in turning it into an object of worship. Even a thing made for a holy purpose can thus be misused as an idol, so that its destruction becomes necessary.
Burning incense to the bronze serpent is rebuked because healing came from God and not from the object, and no sacred object holds healing power in itself to deserve veneration. Hezekiah ended that worship by breaking the serpent in pieces and calling it Nehushtan, a piece of brass, and this was praised as part of his faithfulness to the Lord in removing idolatrous worship.
The danger is putting material symbols and forms in the place of the real divine presence, worshiping a sign or religious form instead of God the giver of power. Such worship of the object itself, whose worth depended on looking beyond it to God, is a faithless, sense-bound religion. Though the serpent had once been a God-given sign pointing to Christ lifted up for humanity, destroying the object did not destroy the truth it had once served. An object once associated with God's work must be rejected when wrongly treated as an object of worship, and this illustrates that truth triumphs over error.
Images may serve as teaching aids and as symbols of Christ's offering, for the serpent first symbolized faith in God's power to save from the fiery serpents, yet the object itself had no saving power. It was only an object and not God, and must not be worshiped. When Israel turned from God to worship the symbol and burn incense to it, Hezekiah courageously destroyed it. His removal of an object become an idol provides the model for removing an unauthorized object of worship when it is treated idolatrously.
Though the serpent was originally made according to God's command, its age and its long adoration from the days of Moses unto those days did not make its worship lawful. Faithful obedience ruthlessly and justly broke the idol in pieces despite pleas of antiquity and custom. The keeping of a religious institution by good men does not prove that God requires it, and Sunday sacredness has even less claim since it never had God's command or example at all. Discipleship is doing whatsoever Christ commands and keeping His commandments, offering only the worship He has required.
Images now worshiped as having virtue in themselves trace back to some good principle the original image symbolized, which later generations forgot while continuing to worship the image. Centuries after the wilderness healing, Israel forgot God's mercy, goodness, power and cleansing for which the serpent stood, and worshiped it as though virtue were in it, when with faith and character gone it was only brass. The more the principle was forgotten the more elaborately the image was worshiped and the more sacredly it was regarded, till it became a symbol of persecution against all who did not agree with its worshipers.