Over the past weekend I have been contemplating what it means to worship a false god and how it could relate to the second commandment which starts with Exodus 20:4-5a: "You shall not make for yourself any idol, or any likeness (form, manifestation) of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth [as an object to worship]. 5a You shall not worship them nor serve them;..."
In Numbers 21:8-9 we see YHWH giving Moses instruction to make the bronze serpent: "Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent [of bronze] and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten will live when he looks at it.” 9 So Moses made a serpent of bronze and put it on the pole, and it happened that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived."
The people had to look at the bronze serpent to be saved. It doesn't say that they had to bow their knees, accept the serpent as a god and then be saved. So in my understanding this instruction doesn't break the second commandment.
I have so many question on this:
1. At what point does this "looking at" become worship as there is a positive outcome for the onlooker and therefore they will give the outcome as evidence of the power in the object they are looking at?
2. If looking at the serpent was enough to save a person and the bronze serpent was a representation of Yeshua on the cross, then could it mean that salvation doesn't necessitate worship?
3. If YHWH is a jealous god and distinctly separate from Yeshua, can we then bow our knees in worship to Yeshua and not break this command?
#bronzeserpent #jealous
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Their faith (belief) and trust is in Yah, and therefore they obeyed and looked at the serpent.
In verses 6,7 they realized they sinned when spoke against Yah and against Mosheh.
2 Kings 18:4 Hezekiah destroys the serpent of bronze. Because in those days the sons of Yisra’ĕl burned incense to it.
Worshipping the serpent of bronze.
3) Every knee will bow.
Mark 16:14
Remember when Yeshua rebuked his Disciples for their unbelief and hardness of heart...
Yeshua gave Thomas a warning, John 20 v27 be not unbelieving, but believing. v28 And Thomas answered him, "My Master (Lord) and my Elohim!" (John 20:24-29)...
Matthew 28:16-20
Matt 28 v16 But eleven Disciples went into Galilee, to the mountain where Yeshua had sent them. v17 When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. v18 And Yeshua came to them and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been GIVEN to me in heaven and on earth.
We gave our oath to Yah to hear and obey.
John 3:16,36.
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Henk Wouters
what is the comparison between moses and Yeshua about?
john 3
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.
not just as the snake was lifted up, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, but just as moses lifted up the snake.
so, what did moses do?
numbers 21
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.
moses interceded.
by lifting up the snake.
Yeshua, just as moses did, interceded.
by being lifted up.
the people had sinned, and the deadly venom of the snakes was their reward/punishment for that. that venom was not in some way their sins.
now those snakes were seraphim, executing the justice of the Law upon the people.
and the (shadow image) intercession of moses was to raise the (image of the) seraph on the pole, and the people had only to look at that (image of the) very source of the venom to be saved from it.
(the people themselves were also probably quite confused by all this shadow prophecy, albeit very happy to have survived)
that later the snake was venerated is the people going off in wrong directions again, just as some would see Yeshua as Good. for only One is Good.
so, and i'm speaking now with the understanding that YHWH is indeed Manifested in Yeshua, the Giver of the Law will also ensure that the justice of the Law must take place.
we're all doomed.
yet that very Giver of and Executioner of the Law (read revelation lately?) then intercedes and is Himself lifted up, and we only have to look at, and believe in, the Source of our doom, to be saved from it.
He is both Sword and Saviour.
and salvation necessitates belief in it.
worship is something different.
this is not an entirely correct statement, but worship is at the very least a result of salvation.
one is not stopped from worshipping before being saved.
but to not worship AFTER being saved?...
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Caleb Lussier
Insertions into the text. And it’s a translation that is very heavy and too wide ranging. It’s everything from bowing to a king to performing pagan sacrifice to an idol. And everything in between. One of the most dangerous pluses is for Yeshua. His disciples bowed down to Him just as the servants of King David did to him. Same verbiage and everything. But we are expected by Christian interpretation to render proskunio or saha as worship and mean it always in the sense of divine reverence. Worship was in old English very broad a category of action.
“worship (n.)
Middle English worshippe, worship, "high respect, honor, fame," from Old English woroscip, wuröscip (Anglian), weorscipe
(West Saxon) "condition of being worthy, dignity, glory, distinction, honor, renown," from weord "worthy"
The sense of "reverence paid or due to a supernatural or divine being" is attested by late Old English. The original sense is preserved in worshipful.
worship (v.)
c. 1200, worshipen, "pay divine honors to, conduct religious rites, participate in religious services," from worship (n.). By
c. 1300 as "hold in honor, treat (a parent, spouse, etc.) with due esteem and affection."
In English we would account the statement not to make a pesal as being literally that and the snake being a violation of it. But YHWH said not to make the pesal and not to bow to it and serve it. It’s not two different statements as it appears in English. It’s one. If written originally in English it would say not to make this thing for the purpose of bowing to it or serving it. Any statue can be a pesal. A G.I.Joe or a cabbage patch doll would fit the description too. But it’s not a forbidding of making carved things but of doing so in bowing and serving as elohim.
The bronze snake was a tool. It was imbued with the power of YAH for healing and it worked…but it was later made into an object veneration itself for its own merit. It was set up in temple in the face of YAH and bowed to and served instead of YHWH.
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