The Snake that Roared

Ever found yourself frustrated by endless conversation while you knew that time for critical action was passing? You need the roadmap to transformation.

Genesis chapter 46 enumerates Jacob’s children and grandchildren by name, arriving at a total of seventy souls who came to Egypt. All is as expected until we arrive at Jacob’s fifth son, Dan.

Dan’s sons: Chushim.

(Genesis 46:23)

That’s right, Dan’s “sons” suggests a plural, yet there is only one—Chushim. Strangely, his name ends in the manner that masculine plural nouns end in Hebrew—IM. SoyeladIM means boys; sefarIM means books, and susIM means horses. Though Dan only has one son, ChushIM, there is a hint in the ending of his name that he is actually plural—two people.

We see one additional hint at a duality in the tribe of Dan:

The Danger of Symbols

"He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)" — 2 Kings 18:4

Having just witnessed their brothers and sisters in the northern kingdom of Israel being driven away to exile by the Assyrians, King Hezekiah of Judah began to institute some sweeping reforms to turn the nation away from idolatry. As we see in our verse, he began by smashing all the sacred stones and cutting down the Asherah poles.

But then, Hezekiah seemed to take his reforms a step further – he broke into pieces the bronze snake that Moses had made. But why? If this was something that Moses had made, surely it could not have been idolatrous, and so what right did Hezekiah have to break such a sacred object?