In this archaeologist’s review, we have a lot of scripture that is pointing us to the answer, that is being look for and in fact the big question is in the heading of the review. “Why did king Hezekiah of Judah Destroy the Bronze serpent that Moses had Fashioned to Protect the Israelite?” in the very intro to the review we some to this “2 kings 18:4 He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan). ESV” so what is it that he did? Did he think that it was a false worship that the people of Israel were baring to as god? Did he think that it was going against what was given to Moses him self on mount. Sinai, were God had give them the Ten Commandments and were in the top five of them was Exodus 20:3-5: “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me.” (ESV) or was it some a another reason that he had done this, as I go on in this review of this “mystery” we will see if it was because of the ten commandments that the king had done this or if it was for some other reason that he had done this.
The word itself, nechushtan (נחש ), means “serpent or snake”. In the times of Hezekiah there is a part of the well-known religious reform aimed at centralizing worship in the Jerusalem temple. The snake in the temple, what is it doing there what does the snake have to do with protection? If we go back to genesis, we see that the snake has a bad taste to the name. But does it have a good meaning here In later scripture? Well I would say yes it does we see in the exile of the Jews from the pharaoh and his captive, they were complaining about there not being food for them and God had sent the snake upon them (as a just sing of there compiling to him) but then God has Moses make a bronze snake just as he used one to bite them he used one to heal them if they looked at the snake (he used the snake in a good way in this part of the scripture). This comes from Numbers 21:4-9: “From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edam. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.’ Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people. And the LORD said to Moses, "’Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.’ So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.” (ESV).
So to get to what we have as the big question in this whole thing, what was the reason for King Hezekiah to destroy the bronze snake? Well the answer comes from both the review but not as well as it does from scripture, so in this we will see them both. But we need to find the whole reason why it was there in the first place, and what was ask from God, in the first place of the Jews apron there coming to the city he had made a covenant with his people, and when they came to the land, God told them to do as follows. (Deuteronomy 7:5 “But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Ashram and burn their carved images with fire.” (ESV) and in Deuteronomy 13:3 “You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Ashram with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place.” (ESV) So God has told them to first take and bring down the ideals of the heathen altars that were in the city. But then in 2 Kings the heathen altars were rebuilt them by Manasseh who is the son of Hezekiah Who we know was the one to bring them down, there are many scriptures to use for this (e.g., Judges 3:7; 6:25 2 Kings 3:2;10:26-27;23:4) so by looking at the scripture there seems to be this like father son thing with the two on who there God is, and if it should be there. But that is not what the whole thing is on, but only why did he do it?
I think that it was from the politics of the time that it was destroyed, at the time of the late eighth century B.C.E. Hezekiah was a vassal of Assyria, who was the superpower in that part of time. Hezekiah, had joined a rebellion against this power and the Assyria had then invaded, Judah and in this he (Assyria) was able to conquered 46 fortified Judahite cities. The bible backs this in 2 Kings 18:13. In this he took, 200,150 Israelites, alone with horses, mules, camels and cattle alone with the Israelite. And after all this he said that we would take on any burden that was put apron him, and this lead to what professor Swanson, says that is why the snake was destroyed, and not because it was in his mind, going against Exodus 20:3-5, and in this all I have seen that this is something that is yet to be found to be one way or another in this matter on why it was destroyed.
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me.” (ESV) or was it some a another reason that he had done this, as I go on in this review of this “mystery” we will see if it was because of the ten commandments that the king had done this or if it was for some other reason that he had done this.
The word itself, nechushtan (נחש ), means “serpent or snake”. In the times of Hezekiah there is a part of the well-known religious reform aimed at centralizing worship in the Jerusalem temple. The snake in the temple, what is it doing there what does the snake have to do with protection? If we go back to genesis, we see that the snake has a bad taste to the name. But does it have a good meaning here In later scripture? Well I would say yes it does we see in the exile of the Jews from the pharaoh and his captive, they were complaining about there not being food for them and God had sent the snake upon them (as a just sing of there compiling to him) but then God has Moses make a bronze snake just as he used one to bite them he used one to heal them if they looked at the snake (he used the snake in a good way in this part of the scripture). This comes from Numbers 21:4-9: “From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edam. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.’ Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people. And the LORD said to Moses, "’Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.’ So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.” (ESV).
So to get to what we have as the big question in this whole thing, what was the reason for King Hezekiah to destroy the bronze snake? Well the answer comes from both the review but not as well as it does from scripture, so in this we will see them both. But we need to find the whole reason why it was there in the first place, and what was ask from God, in the first place of the Jews apron there coming to the city he had made a covenant with his people, and when they came to the land, God told them to do as follows. (Deuteronomy 7:5 “But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Ashram and burn their carved images with fire.” (ESV) and in Deuteronomy 13:3 “You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Ashram with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place.” (ESV) So God has told them to first take and bring down the ideals of the heathen altars that were in the city. But then in 2 Kings the heathen altars were rebuilt them by Manasseh who is the son of Hezekiah Who we know was the one to bring them down, there are many scriptures to use for this (e.g., Judges 3:7; 6:25 2 Kings 3:2;10:26-27;23:4) so by looking at the scripture there seems to be this like father son thing with the two on who there God is, and if it should be there. But that is not what the whole thing is on, but only why did he do it?
I think that it was from the politics of the time that it was destroyed, at the time of the late eighth century B.C.E. Hezekiah was a vassal of Assyria, who was the superpower in that part of time. Hezekiah, had joined a rebellion against this power and the Assyria had then invaded, Judah and in this he (Assyria) was able to conquered 46 fortified Judahite cities. The bible backs this in 2 Kings 18:13. In this he took, 200,150 Israelites, alone with horses, mules, camels and cattle alone with the Israelite. And after all this he said that we would take on any burden that was put apron him, and this lead to what professor Swanson, says that is why the snake was destroyed, and not because it was in his mind, going against Exodus 20:3-5, and in this all I have seen that this is something that is yet to be found to be one way or another in this matter on why it was destroyed.
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