What does the Bible say about idol worship?

The Bible consistently condemns idol worship as a violation of the first commandment, where God commands that we shall have no other gods before Him. In 2 Kings 18, King Hezekiah confronts this issue by destroying the brazen serpent that Israel had begun to worship as an idol, despite it originally serving as a means of God's healing for His people. This act of idol worship illustrates humanity's tendency to corrupt God's gifts into objects of veneration rather than allowing them to point us to Him. Hezekiah recognized that the brazen serpent, which had its purpose in a specific historical context, had become nothing more than a 'worthless piece of brass.' Likewise, modern religion can often devolve into rituals and icons that distract us from true worship, which should be centered solely on God.