Serpents and the Savior

The other night, at Bible study, I was asked a question by our teacher, and was forced to reply that my mind had been wandering.  We were in Amos 9, and I was fixated on the Hebrew word "nachash", in Amos 9:3, saying the word over and over in my head, trying to achieve the correct Hebrew pronunciation. I don't read Hebrew, but had found that word in my text notes and was distracted thereby.
Busted.

I was reminded of this incident yesterday as I was doing morning Bible reading in 2 Kings 18, which speaks of the theological reforms of King Hezekiah, one of Judah's "good kings".  When encountering some biblical incident or fact I had never previously seen, read or heard of, I am always delighted.  Such occasions reinforce my opinion that the Bible is the greatest book ever penned, as it was, in fact, penned by mere men, under the flawless direction of the Holy Spirit.  Maybe you are unfamiliar with this story also.  Let's investigate.

1In the third year of the reign of Hoshea son of Elah over Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz became king of Judah. 2He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abi,a the daughter of Zechariah. 3And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done. 4He removed the high places, shattered the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He also demolished the bronze snake called Nehushtanb that Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had burned incense to it.

2 Kings 18:1-4 (BSB)

Ok, did you just go "whoa...."?
My text notes say that this was the FIERY, bronze snake Moses had set up for the healing of the people, around 1000 years earlier, as recorded in Numbers 21:9.

4Then they set out from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea,c in order to bypass the land of Edom. But the people grew impatient on the journey 5and spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you led us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread or water, and we detest this wretched food!”

6So the LORD sent venomous snakes among the people, and many of the Israelites were bitten and died.

7Then the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you. Intercede with the LORD so He will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses interceded for the people.

8Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and mount it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will live.” 9So Moses made a bronze snake and mounted it on a pole. If anyone who was bitten looked at the bronze snake, he would live.

Numbers 21:9 (BSB)

So, it seems that, after the miraculous healing which occurred in the Numbers account, the Hebrew people toted that "bronze serpent on a pole" around with them for around 1000 years, venerating it, to some extent.  What began as a symbol of faith, healing and the almighty power of God became an idol.  Some versions of 2 Kings 18:4 say they burned incense to it, as in the Berean Study Bible translation above, while other versions translate it as "offered sacrifices to it".  Regardless, we are talking idolatry here, which Hezekiah rightly recognized as needing to be done away with.

Several things about these three stories (Amos, 2 Kings, Numbers) amaze me.
1.  Why would the LORD God prescribe this particular method of healing, in the first place?  I'm just trying to understand, not being disrespectful to my God, who can certainly do what He pleases and use any of his creations however He wants.  However, apart from some light Jesus shed on the Numbers incident, I have little insight into why God chose this method.  It seems ... regressive.
The Hebrews had not been long out of Egypt.  They were having one of their griping/groaning sessions, which tried the patience of both Moses and God severely.  Had the Scriptures not explicitly said this was God's remedy, I would have filed it away with the golden calf incident, which took place at the foot of Mt. Sinai, while Moses was on the mountain, receiving the commandments from God.
Both the calf and the serpent were symbols of Egyptian false religion. The Hebrews had spent the last 400 years immersed in this idolatrous climate, as slaves.  So, when commanded to "look and live" (Numbers 21:9), they willingly complied.  Regardless, they committed an obedient act of faith, an act of worship, and it was this that healed them.
2.  Why would the LORD God allow the Israelites to tote around and worship this bronze serpent for so many centuries, until the time of Hezekiah?  There had been religious reformers before Hezekiah, numerous prophets, etc., but none of them had thought to end the inappropriate veneration of this religious symbol?!  It makes no sense to me.  Yet, God DID allow this to continue, to go on and on and on.  It is a perfect illustration of how God engineered something for a specific purpose, after which Satan wormed his way (pun unintentional) into the situation and corrupted things in the aftermath.  The enemy always starts with something good, holy and pure, then keeps a kernel of its original beauty, in order to twist and pervert it for his own evil ends.
This is the only reference I could find in the Bible of God using a serpent image for healing, although, at various times, God, used snakes for punishment (1 Cor. 10:9, Ecc. 10:8, Amos 9:3, Numbers 21)
(The Amos reference with which I began the post was to a sea snake which, through Amos, God warned He would use to find and punish evildoers who tried to hide in the depths of the sea.). Amos and Hezekiah were almost contemporaries.  Amos' ministry occurred around 760-755 BCE, while Hezekiah's reign was 728-686 BCE. 

Apparently, by Hezekiah's time, this serpentine object had a proper name:  Nehushtan.  The name bears similarities to both the Hebrew words "nechosheth", which means "brass", and "nachash", which means "serpent".  (Same word in Amos 9:3.)We could be looking at a sort of play on words here.  As it was a "copper serpent", the proper name could be a blend of both words.  Several versions (King James Bible, Holman Christian Standard Bible, International Standard Bible, New Heart English Bible, etc.) of 2 Kings 18:4 say this is the proper name Hezekiah attributed to the object, and some commentators believe it was a term of derision.  In other words, the king derisively referred to the object as a mere piece of brass, as opposed to a god, and broke it into pieces, accordingly.

The aspect I love most about the Numbers story is that God used the serpents/snakes to His own ends, proving His lordship over all.  Satan manifested himself in the form of a serpent in the book of Genesis and is called "that ancient serpent" in Revelation 12:9.  Most interpret that to be some sort of beautiful and beguiling snake. Since that time, the serpent or snake has been a symbol in many cultures of false religion, fertility, and other vile practices.  But, in the Numbers story, God used the serpent as both punishment and redemption.  He did something similar in Exodus 7:8-13, where Aaron and the Egyptian magicians were turning their walking sticks (a symbol of prophetic authority) into snakes, but Aaron's snake gobbled up all the other snakes.
There are several New Testament scriptures that equate snakes as symbols of the enemy of the gospel (Mark 16:18, Luke 10:19, Acts 28:3-5), but show the power of Jesus Christ and His message overcoming them all.

We can't leave this exposition without mentioning Jesus' reference to "the bronze serpent", in John 3.

12If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13No one has ascended into heaven except the One who descended from heaven—the Son of Man.c 14Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.d

John 3:12-15 (BSB)

Are you marveling, along with me, that Jesus compared Himself to this action by God, nearly two millennia earlier?  Was this why God did what He did in the Numbers 21 story?  Was that a foreshadowing of Jesus Messiah to come?
The symbol of Satan, the symbol of sin, hoisted (lifted up) on a pole, suspended between Heaven and Earth, brought healing from the deadly bite of the fiery snakes.
The Savior, God Himself, hoisted (lifted up) on the Cross, suspended between Heaven and Earth, to defeat the enemy, to conquer sin, and bring healing from the sin curse to all who believe, who put their faith in Him.
Faith is the victory.  Faith extinguished the deadly, fiery snake bites.  Faith overcomes the deadly, curse of sin, both at the moment of salvation and as we grow in our Christian walk.

In closing, look at what the apostle Paul said in his famous spiritual warfare passage from Ephesians.

16In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 

Say it with me....WHOOOAAA....
What an amazing God!

Sources:

https://www.gotquestions.org/Nehushtan.html

https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/nehushtan/

https://biblehub.com/topical/n/nehushtan.htm

https://www.openbible.info/topics/snakes