Moses had made a bronze snake that the Israelites could look to in faith for healing when they were bitten by poisonous vipers (Numbers 21:8-9). Since then, someone had been carrying that bronze snake around through 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, 7 years of military campaigns to conquer Canaan, through the reigns of David, Solomon and then the successive reigns ofall the kings of Israel. Somewhere along the line, over the centuries, the Israelites began to worship this thing as a god!