Addicted to Idols

Look closely at the dynamics here: 

So God commands Moses to make a ‘bronze snake’, so that the people who are sick from a snake bite (because of their ‘impatience’ and rebellion) can look at the snake and be healed. You can read about this in Numbers 21:4-9. It is short, sweet, and dramatic. 


Following this ‘revelation’ and intervention and provision of God, the people begin to focus on the bronze snake, and worship it. They begin to burn incense to it, even give it a name: Nehushtan. A good king, Hezekiah, had to destroy this ‘bronze snake’ as it no longer ‘saved’ people, but stood between them and their true Savior as a ‘false god’. (2 Kings 18:4) 

The irony is stark, but we are all guilty of this same thing in many ways. We take what God has given us, and begin to ‘serve’ it or worship it, rather than the Creator who made it and gave it. We forget God, and make a god of His gift. We make idols. What comes between you and Jesus? That’s your idol. Money? Lust? Popularity? Do you profess God with your words, but deny him with your actions? (Titus 1:16)

Interestingly, despite the misuse of the ‘bronze snake’, Jesus won’t be deprived of its original use and meaning. He likens himself to it. He says:
‘Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.’ (John 3:14-15)

We are bent on trading God’s Spirit for something tangible or material. We crave the power of ‘holding’, of ‘knowing’. (Gen 3:5-6) When Jesus bent down to wash Peter’s feet, Peter first denied him this act of servitude. When Jesus explained that it was necessary spiritually, had meaning, Peter then asks him to not only wash his feet, but his head also. Jesus simply says, ‘If you’ve had a bath, it’s just your feet that need to be washed.’ (John 13:1-10) Almost a comical response, because Jesus washing his feet had nothing to do with whether they had a bath or not, or whether their feet were dirty or not. 

The point here, however, is that when Peter was told of the spiritual import of this act, he tried to elevate it, add to it, get all sanctimonious about the act itself. Acts are external. Jesus is about the heart and the spirit. We are addicted to making truth visible, measurable, experiential, expandable, and in the process often lose the truth itself. Jesus says:

‘God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.’ (John 4:24)

​My friends, we came into this world with nothing, and we’ll leave with nothing. (1 Tim 6:7) Don’t work for a legacy here; work for a legacy ‘there’. (Mt 6:20) Let’s truly ask God to help us discern the ‘spirit’, His Spirit, in our life. Let it blow to us and through us, for his glory, not our spiritual resume. (Jn 3:8) You can’t make an idol out of spirit.