“He also crushed to pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel had been burning incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan.”
King Hezekiah began his religious reformation by reopening the Temple. He then tore down the High Places that had erroneously been used as places to worship God. Then he did something very interesting. He commanded the bronze Serpent ,which God commissioned in Numbers 21:9, to be crushed to pieces… Why? Why would something that God ordered, made for the deliverance of His people, need to be destroyed? The answer is found at the end of the verse. The Israelites had begun to worship the gift instead of the Giver. A good thing had become bad, because it had become an idol.
Has that happened in your life? Has something God provided to help you, become an idol that needs to be crushed. Even something that God ordained can be misused and become harmful.
Some religions have elevated people and relics far above their intended purposes. Other denominations have pushed some gifts to levels of importance to which they were never intended to be raised. Others look to their discipline and routines to provide their salvation. Even the cross can be pushed beyond a symbol of the one who died upon it… The item or action itself may be neutral but worshiping it is not. Burning incense literally or figuratively to a created object, person or practice is idol worship. And ANYTHING that detracts from Jesus Christ as God - must be crushed to pieces.
It doesn’t have to be people or relics, it can be routines, emblems, images, religion, reputation, education, etc. The enemy is skilled in misdirecting us by using neutral items to pull us off the path we are intended to follow. God is a jealous God, and Jesus was clear, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me". Chase what matters… and chase only what matters. Being a man after God’s own heart, means making sure nothing even comes close to participating in the worship that is due to the one and only true God.
The first commandment is first for a reason – One God and only One God.
"An 'idol' is anything which displaces God in my heart." — A. W. Pink
This was a great devotion and reminder. I really appreciated how you brought out how easy it is to take the gifts the Lord gives us and allow them to become too important in our lives. I really enjoyed how you showed that idols are not always obvious things, but can be anything that slowly takes a greater place in our hearts than it should. It is so easy to find ourselves trying to straddle both worlds, worshiping the Lord while holding tightly to things of no eternal value. It is an encouraging and convicting message, and it reminded me again to ask the Lord to help me hold all things with an open hand so that His will is glorified above all else.
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