Fire Water (Consuming Fire, part 7)

"And fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them." Revelation 20:9  God pours out His fiery heart toward the unrepentant and they are consumed by it.  The fire proceeds from Him as the last embrace after millions of rejections.  His unrequited love is still ardent, but they have no love for Him.  They do not know His presence and His presence is what would make it possible to walk in the midst of that fire water.

"And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory...stand on the sea of glass..."  Revelation 15:2  This sea is mingled with fire.  Because of the reflection, the entire body of water must look like fire.  A sea of fire!  But there stand His beloved children doing things that are impossible, standing on water and walking in fire.  "When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: When thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.  For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior." Isaiah 43:2, 3

Eventually we are all surrounded by God's fiery love.  If we stand there alone, it is consuming.  If we stand there with Him it is all consuming.  Dear friends choose love, "And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us.  God is love: and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." 1 John 4:16

Napalm (Consuming Fire, part 6)

"How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him...Call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God." 1 Kings 18: 21, 24

The Israelites were "two-timing" God.  They loved and worshiped Baal while only giving God their cursory affections.  The moment of decision came with Elijah's confrontation.  Let the God who loves you answer you by fire.  They called on Baal, the devil, all day long, but he did not answer.  He has no love.

But when Elijah asked God, "Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again.  Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.

The fire of love consumes everything, like napalm nothing escapes.

Fiery Love (Consuming Fire, part 5)

"Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame." Song of Solomon 8:6

Not to be too scholarly, but in Notes on the Bible, Albert Barnes says regarding this verse:

"The Key-note of the poem.  It forms the Old Testament counterpart to Paul's panegyric 1 Corinthians 13:1-13...

a.  Love is here regarded as an universal power, an elemental principle of all true being, alone able to cope with the two eternal foes of God and man, Death and his kingdom.  "For strong as death is love, Tenacious as Sheol is jealousy."  "Jealousy" is here another term for "love," expressing the inexorable force and ardor of this affection, which can neither yield nor share possession of its object, and is identified in the mind of the sacred writer with divine or true life.

b. He goes on to describe it as an all-pervading Fire, kindled by the Eternal One, and partaking of His essence: "its brands are brands of fire, A lightning-flash from Jah."

To put it simply... Love is a consuming fire ignited in God's heart.
                 

       

The Burning Bush (Consuming Fire, part 4)

"And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed." Exodus 3:2

Wood burns, that is what it does when in fire.  It is the natural response of wood to fire.  But in this case the wood did not burn.  What did God do, did He change the fire, or change the wood?  It seems to me, He changed neither.  It was His presence that prevented the naturally occurring thing from occurring.

"I will be with thee...When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.  For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior." Isaiah 43:2, 3
His presence will keep us through every fiery trial.  The naturally occurring will be unnatural when He is near.

A Flaming Torch Between the Pieces (Consuming Fire, part 3)

Suzerain - vassal contracts in Abrahams time were between a superior and a subordinate. They were irrevocable and bound the parties together for life.  The terms were confirmed by cutting one or more animals in half and walking in between the pieces.  If one of the parties did not keep his end of the bargain, the other had the right to saw him asunder like the animals had been.

"And it came to pass that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp (maragin: flaming torch) that passed between the pieces." Genesis 15:17

God, the Suzerain, is represented by that flaming torch.  When He walked down that bloody path between the pieces, He put Himself on the line. Abraham did not walk in between the pieces; if the contract was boroken only God's life would be forfeited.  In this relationship with Him we hold no risk.  Our God is a "consuming fire" that was extinguished.  His fiery heart was pierced in two because we broke the contract.

The Flaming Sword (Consuming Fire, part 2)

"For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire..." Deuteronomy 4:24

Fire is first mentioned in Genesis 4:24, "So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." At first glance it seems as if that sword was a punishment, but in reality it was a blessing.  That heavenly flame, prevented Adam and Eve from becoming eternally living sinners.  Imagine what horror life would be if we lived forever in this sinful condition.  Disease and sorrow would know no end.  Battles in war could never stop.  Mass murderers could inflict their tortures on victims one day and just begin again the next.  God prevented all that suffering, He interposed Himself in the flame and did not allow this planet to become worse than the worst horror movie ever filmed.  

Embers (Consuming Fire, part 1)

"For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire..." Deuteronomy 4:24

From the smallest ember to wind swept wild fires, God expresses Himself as fire.

In the dark night, the embers from our fire pit fly effortlessly up into the sky.  They are like tiny stars, dancing and shimmering their way up towards heaven, but their beauty is fleeting.

Everywhere we look God has tiny torches glowing and expressing His character.  They glow for just seconds and then die out, but their beauty is memorable.  The bird songs, the maple trees that seem to wave all their tiny hands as the wind blows by, the smile from a friend,  these are embers of God's beauty and love.  They float through our lives lighting us up with joy.

Little Presents

 “I would seek unto God...which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvelous things without number: who giveth rain upon the earth, and sendeth waters upon the fields.” Job 5:8 - 10  

Rain, sometimes called the gift of God, came in abundance this past summer.   In August, we had three times as much rain as usual, 11 inches compared to the average three.  I marvel at God’s wisdom in sending His blessings.

One inch of rain falling on a square mile will weigh 1,650,501,280 pounds.  What would happen if it fell in one heap?  Annihilation of all living things.  But our merciful Father sends His blessings, which He heaps upon us, in such a subtle way that we do not realize the grand weight of their significance. We sometimes do not even realize He is sending them. But they are there, millions of little love gifts which if added together would be more than we could hold.