Numbers 21 · a question people ask
Wasn't a bronze snake on a pole an idol? Hadn't God forbidden images?
The command at Sinai says, "You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is on the earth beneath" (Exodus 20:4), and goes on, "you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them" (Exodus 20:5). Here the LORD himself says, "Make a venomous snake, and set it on a pole" (21:8), as he had told Moses to make "two cherubim of hammered gold" for the mercy seat (Exodus 25:18). The people aren't told to bow to it, only that the bitten who "sees it, shall live" (21:8). The Bible also shows what happened when it was worshipped: King Hezekiah "broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, because in those days the children of Israel burned incense to it" (2 Kings 18:4).
The verses
““You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me,”
“The LORD said to Moses, “Make a venomous snake, and set it on a pole. It shall happen that everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.””
“You shall make two cherubim of hammered gold. You shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat.”
“He removed the high places, broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, because in those days the children of Israel burned incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan.”