What a peculiar word is Nehushtan. It means a piece of brass. The serpent of brass that Moses made had been kept all those many years from Moses to Hezekiah. He called it Nehushtan.
In the journeys of the children of Israel through the wilderness, we read that, "The soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way." Num. 21:4. Then, "The people spake against God, and against Moses." Num. 21:5. Because of their murmurings, "The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died." Num. 21:6.
The people confessed their sin and asked Moses to pray unto the Lord to take away the serpents.
Moses prayed for the people and then the Lord instructed him to make a serpent of brass and put it upon a pole. When anyone was bitten, all he had to do was to look at the serpent of brass and he lived.
What saved the people was the faith to believe the word of the Lord, and not that piece of brass.
In the beginning of Hezekiah's reign, "He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it." 2 Kings 18:4. So they worshipped that visible, material object and forgot the word of the Lord.
Would men do such things today? Is it possible that the cross could become an object of veneration? Or might a sepulcher or some so-called holy place in the so-called holy land be worshiped?
John's last word in his first epistle is, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." Also in 1 Cor. 10:14 we are told, "Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.”
Material things contribute nothing to a Christian's worship today. Although we are on earth, actually our worship is in heaven where Christ has gone, "now to appear in the presence of God for us." Heb. 9:24. There, "into the holiest," we are invited to, "draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith." Heb. 10:19-22.
Let us be sure that we, "worship God in (by) the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." Phil. 3:3. How easily and quickly the flesh will make an idol! "The flesh profiteth nothing." John 6:63. Ed.