Critical Information

While King Sennacherib of Assyria was still besieging the town of Lachish, he sent his officers to Jerusalem with this message for Hezekiah and all the people in the city: “This is what King Sennacherib of Assyria says: What are you trusting in that makes you think you can survive my siege of Jerusalem? Hezekiah has said, ‘The LORD our God will rescue us from the king of Assyria.’ Surely Hezekiah is misleading you, sentencing you to death by famine and thirst! Don’t you realize that Hezekiah is the very person who destroyed all the LORD’s shrines and altars? He commanded Judah and Jerusalem to worship only at the altar at the Temple and to offer sacrifices on it alone. [2 Chronicles 32.9-12]

There is something very important locked within this passage that only careful consideration will reveal.

Sennacherib accused Hezekiah of destroying all the LORD's shrines and altars. Why would he think and say that?

What Hezekiah did was go on a purification rampage.

He did what was pleasing in the LORD’s sight, just as his ancestor David had done. He removed the pagan shrines, smashed the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke up the bronze serpent that Moses had made, because the people of Israel had been offering sacrifices to it. The bronze serpent was called Nehushtan. Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before or after his time. [2 Kings 18.3-5]

It was Hezekiah's actions in 2 Kings 18.3-5 that Sennacherib was referring to. There is a critical piece of information in that passage that sheds light on Sennacherib's misunderstanding: Nehushtan.

Nehushan historically stands to prove that Israel's idolatry was not always clearly evident (no different than it is today). 

Nehushtan started out a good thing. When Israel was in the wilderness after having left Egypt and encountered deadly snakes, God told Moses to make a bronze snake and put it on a stick so that when the people looked upon it, they would be healed. 

Nehushtan, in fact, started out as a "God-thing." There is no doubt, because of the significance of this event, that Sennacherib knew this story. So, for Hezekiah to destroy Nehushtan would have appeared to Sennacherib to mean Hezekiah was destroying the LORD's stuff!

But Sennacherib's misunderstanding reveals more... 

As idolatry goes, it usually begins with a "blend" of idol worship put into the mix of worship of God. All the Old Testament confirms this. Nehushtan, although a blessing at first, eventually became seen in Israel's eyes as an idol that they began to worship instead of God Who gave it. It is not out of character then, to think that many of the shrines and altars Sennacherib pointed out were also initially pure in their focus only on the LORD God, but, in time and in step with Israel's waywardness, eventually became polluted with idolatry.

I think it shortsighted to think only Sennacherib misunderstood Hezekiah's purification. Certainly many Israelites shared Sennacherib's misconception as was indicated by Sennacherib's commander insisting on declaring the accusations against Hezekiah in Hebrew so the people could understand it and hopefully side with him. Sennacherib wasn't stupid - there was reason to believe the people would share his thoughts.

For this reason, well-meaning (even Christian) people today make some dangerously idolatrous statements like, "We all know God uses doctors and medicine..." This statement is often made so boldly as to indicate God simply does not perform unexplainable miracles today, but instead is limited to medicine. Hello idolatry!

But why should we be surprised? As long as God has given gifts to man, man has in turn worshiped them instead of God Who gave them. It's amazing that God hasn't taken away the sun, moon, stars, trees, grass, mountains, rivers, seas and oceans because man has made idols of all of them!

[I feel like there is reason to have a sidebar conversation here about thankfulness and why it is such an important part of faith. Thankfulness keeps God in His rightful place as Giver of All and the "stuff" is just His expression of love to us.]

There is ample argument here to warrant serious reflection upon our own lives. What gifts has God given that we now worship? Science? Technology? Medicine? Finances? Government? Guns? Knowledge? By "worship" I mean, is our trust in God dependent upon these things? If so, then they have become gods unto us (albeit "in sync with God" as religious folks see it).

Not all idols are outright replacements for God. In fact, most could and should be appropriately called "support-idols." In other words, we believe in God, but we must have support-idols "...because that's how God works today."

Even though Satan is a "God"-"damned" liar, he is not stupid. His methods of deception are cleverly constructed to present only a "little" falsehood with the truth. Otherwise, his scheme would be obvious and immediately rejected. He doesn't mind us "throwing a bone" to God as long as we qualify it with, "...but God uses [insert anything here that would imply God is incapable of doing what He said all by Himself]" Let me make this painfully more clear in words I have heard with my own ears, "I know God is my Healer, but I also know He has given us medicine for that to happen today." IDOLATRY!

I CHALLENGE anyone reading this to consider what you trust "alongside God." If you have no conviction about it, good for you. But I would further challenge you to spend some serious time focused on Israel's repeated sins of idolatry and see if you remain un-convicted. I challenge you to do this in light of Exodus 20.3:

You must not have any other god but me. [Exodus 20.3]

God has ALWAYS called His people to purity of faith. It is what the Bible is all about and confirmed crystal clearly by Jesus. Faith is no joke. Faith is NOT abstract. Faith is the ONLY way to please God! Do we dare dilute or pollute it with anything else?

Father, help us to rid ourselves of idols! Help us understand how cleverly they have been introduced and inserted into our lives today. Help us to stand for faith knowing full well it will secure our title of "fool" in the world's estimation. Forgive us for "buying in" to impurities in our faith that have rendered it "faith-less." Help us to see that our faith is not abstract, but REAL because Your are REAL!