HAPPY NEHUSHTAN EVERYONE!!






Introduction

As the month of December unfolds, the season of Christmas comes right along. This is one of my least favorite holidays, not because of the music and festivities, but because of that fact that I don’t like the religious trappings that go along with it.

People scratch their heads when I tell them that I’m a Christian but I don’t celebrate this holiday religiously. As I’ve stated in previous articles, this holiday was manufactured by man to downplay the pagan season of Solstice. But, in doing so, they have paganized Christmas as well.



Just Like the Jews

Several years ago, I happened across a woman’s website who touted the birth of Jesus on December 25th. I emailed her and asked where does the bible say that. She responded that it wasn’t in the bible, but that she was going to do it anyway as she felt that it was important to her to do it.

That reminds me of the Jews during the time of The Kings. In latter years, around the time of Ahaz, the Jews were worshipping idols and burning incense in the high places to various gods. One specific item of worship was the bronze serpent that Moses fashioned in the wilderness.

The story is told in Numbers 21:5-9, 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 our soul loathes this worthless bread." So the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died. Therefore 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. Then the LORD said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live." So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.




A Thing of Brass

The bronze serpent is not mentioned again until Hezekiah’s reign in 2 Kg. 18:4, He removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan. Some might argue that if they didn’t have it with them, they wouldn’t have worshipped it. That may be true but it seems to me that the reason they still had it was similar to that of keep a pot of manna and Aaron’s budding rod; a reminder to the Jews of the great events that took place in their history.

As for the use of the word, Nehushtan, here’s a definition found in Easton’s Bible Dictionary: a brazen thing a name of contempt given to the serpent Moses had made in the wilderness Num. 21:8 and which Hezekiah destroyed because the children of Israel began to regard it as an idol and "burn incense to it." The lapse of nearly one thousand years had invested the "brazen serpent" with a mysterious sanctity; and in order to deliver the people from their infatuation, and impress them with the idea of its worthlessness, Hezekiah called it, in contempt, "Nehushtan," a brazen thing, a mere piece of brass 2 Kg. 18:4.



Conclusion

The birth of Christ has been turned into a “Nehushtan” during the season of Christmas. Jesus was NEVER the reason for season and should never be as such. Yet people take this great bible event and transform it into an idol to be worshipped year after year.

To those who know it’s not in the bible but do it anyway, Jesus said of these people, “…All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.” It is better to follow the word of God then the hearts of man.

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