Jesus Is Borg The Truth Shall Set You Free.

When Moses came down off the Mount with the tablets that had the ten commandments written on them, he saw the people dancing naked and worshipping the golden calf idol. This made him so angry that he threw the tablets down and they broke (Exodus 32:19). He then had the people kill each other.

God had commanded that his people were not to make idols or images that they would bowed down before and worship (Leviticus 26:1).

But during one of the times when God failed to provide food or water for his pets, (the Hebrews) they dared to complain and he sent them "fiery" (poisonous) snakes which bit the people and many of them died. When Moses asked God to take the snakes away, God commanded Moses to make an idol for the people to bow down to, in violation of his own law. This idol was a brass serpent which was placed on a pole. Any who had been bitten by the snakes who looked at the idol would be cured (Numbers 21:5-9). The Bible doesn't mention why God didn't just use his magic powers to heal those who had been bitten. Why was it suddenly okay to worship a serpent, of all things? The serpent was supposed to be evil wasn't it? It seems to us that this story was stolen from some other mythology since God would never have commanded his people to create an idol of a serpent to look up to for their salvation.