Every word which men speak or hear in worship must either renew that word or cheapen it.
God has determined to sanctify us through His Word, and therefore, because of our sinful inclinations, we tend to invent various shifts and devices in a vain attempt to keep this sanctification from happening.
Of course, overt denial of His Word is the obvious way to do this, but in the midst of the covenant people, that is the problem with it — too obvious. Most of us need more camouflage for our sins than that.
And so thus it is that we offer a substitute faith by taking hold of the word of faith we have heard, and we then have it bronzed. This is why every generation immediately following a great deliverance of God wants to take the symbol of that deliverance and have it fashioned into an object that will stay put. Thus it is that we gravitate to our successive Nehustans, bronzed serpents. But Moses showed his faith by making the bronze serpent and Hezekiah manifested his faith by destroying it.
In Scripture, that which renews the word, makes it come alive, is always faith. This faith is not a “yeah, uh huh faith” but rather a faith that overcomes kingdoms, throws down idols, evangelizes nations, and sees the Word of God as it is — living, powerful, active. The Word of God can never be domesticated.