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ALONE
WITH GOD
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Spiritual Answers and Reasons
for Faith |
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GOD A
CONSUMING FIRE
Our
God is a consuming fire."-HEBREWS xii. 29.
THIS is one of the shortest texts
in the Bible. It takes rank with those other three brief
sentences which declare the nature of God: God is Light,
God is Love, God is Life. But to many it is one of the
most awful sayings in the whole of Scripture. It rankles
in the memory; recurs continually to the uneasy
conscience; and rings its wild tocsin of alarm in the ear
of the anxious inquirer. And yet there is an aspect in
which it may be viewed which will make it one of the most
comforting, precious passages in the whole range of
inspiration.
Fire is indeed a word significant of
horror. To be awakened from sleep by that one awful cry
will make the flesh tremble and the heart stand still. A
baby's cradle wrapped in flame; a beloved form suddenly
enveloped in a burning fiery furnace; a ship on fire amid
the wild expanse of the homeless ocean, and slowly burning
down to the level of the waves-in any of these figures you
have a suggestion of almost unparalleled horror.
And yet, for all that, what comfort and
homelikeness and genial blessedness there are in the
kindly glow of firelight! There is no sign of more abject
poverty than the fireless grate. And however warm the
rooms may be in Russia or France, the traveler greedily
longs for the blaze of the open fireplace of his native
land. Besides, what should we do without this strong,
good-natured giant, which toils for us so sturdily? It
draws our carriages along the metal track. It drives the
machinery of our factories. It disintegrates the precious
ore from its rocky matrix. It induces a momentary softness
in our toughest metals, so that we can shape them to our
will. The arts of civilized life would be impossible but
for this Titan worker.
It is obvious, therefore, that whilst
Fire is the synonym for horror and dismay, yet it is also
full of blessing and good-will. It is the former only when
its necessary laws are violated. It is the latter when
those laws are rigorously and reverently observed. Yes,
and are not destruction and ruin the strange and unnatural
work of fire? whilst its chosen mission is to bless and
beautify and enrich; consuming only the dross and thorns
and rubbish, so that there may be a clearer revelation of
the enduring realities over which it has no power.
When, therefore, our God is compared to
fire, is it only because of the more terrible aspects of
his nature, which are to be dreaded by transgressors? Is
there not also, and perhaps more largely, a suggestion of
those beneficent qualities which are needed for our purity
and comfort? Surely there is a strong flavor of such
characteristics in the assurance given to us by the
prophet Isaiah, "The light of Israel shall be for a
fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and
devour his thorns and his briers in one day" (Isa. x.
17).
Fire in the Word of God is not
always terrible. When of old God came down on Sinai,
its upper peaks were veiled with impenetrable folds of
smoke, like the smoke of a furnace. And in the heart of
the smoke there was the appearance of devouring fire.
There is dread here! Bounds had been set to keep the
people back; but a special message must be see fit to warn
them against breaking through to gaze, lest the fire
should break forth upon them. But there was no harm so
long as they kept without the barriers; and when Moses
entered into the very heart of it, it did not singe a hair
of his head, and injured him no more than when it played
round the fragile acacia bush, which burned with fire
without being consumed, not a leaf shriveled, nor a twig
scorched. It is quite true that in the desert pilgrimage
there was much of the punitive aspect in the divine fire;
as when there came out a fire from the Lord, and consumed
the two hundred and fifty men with censers who had joined
in Korah's rebellion, and had spoken contemptuously of
God's anointed servants: but, on the other hand, it did
not hurt one other soul; and these were destroyed, awfully
indeed, but almost too suddenly to feel the keen smart of
pain. And surely that fire did a beneficent work in
staying the further progress of evil, which would have
honeycombed the whole nation and led to their destruction
as a people.
In the days of Elijah the
fire of God consumed two captains and their fifties; but
the captains and their troops were full of wanton
insolence. There was no hurt done to him who knelt at the
mountain foot, beseeching the man of God with reverence
and humility. And when, shortly afterward, the great
prophet was to go home, it was a chariot of fire in which
he sat himself, as in some congenial and friendly element,
to waft him to his home.
And on the day of Pentecost when
each head bent low beneath the sound as of a mighty
rushing wind, a moment afterward each was girt with fire.
Apostles, disciples, and women alike experienced this
sacred investiture; but it hurt them not. They were far
from being perfect characters; and yet there was evidently
nothing to fear in the descent of that fiery baptism. They
were baptized with the Holy Ghost, but they were
unconsumed.
Do not these instances shed light upon
our text?
OUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE; AND THERE
IS TERROR IN THE SYMBOL. But the terror is reserved for
those who unceasingly and persistently violate his laws
and despise his love. For those who willfully follow
courses of sin, after they have received the knowledge of
the truth, there is doubtless a fearful looking for of
judgment and fiery indignation. On those who will not obey
the Gospel of the Lord Jesus, clearly presented to them,
vengeance will be taken in flaming fire. No words can
exaggerate the terror, the anguish, the dreadfulness of
their fate. Sin is no light matter. In this world even it
is fearfully avenged. Walk through certain wards in our
hospitals, and tell me if anything could exceed the
horror, the agony, of the penalty which is being inflicted
on those who have flagrantly violated the laws of nature.
And, so far as we can see, the physical penalties which
follow upon wrongdoing are not unto life and restoration,
but unto death and destruction. It is necessary that these
sufferings should be veiled from the eye of man; but
surely they must be taken into account when we estimate
God's treatment of sin. And if such pain, keen as fire,
consumes those who violate physical law, surely we must
admit that there is a still more awful doom for those who
violate the laws of God's love and grace and pleading
mercy.
God forbid that we should say one word
to lessen men's dread of the penal consequences of sin.
There is a great danger lest, amid our growing conceptions
of the love of God, we should come to think that he is
altogether such a one as we are inclined to be in our
dealings with our children, soft, easy, and indulgent. God
is love; and yet he permits the little child to be burned,
if it plays heedlessly with flame. God is love; but he
permits bodies to rot in loathsome disease, without hope
of cure, if men persistently do despite to his law. God is
love; but he allows the whole course of a life to be
blasted by one yielding to transgression and sin. And
thus, though God is love, it is possible for sins to be
punished with sufferings, bitter as the gnawing worm, keen
as the fire that is not quenched.
If once we realized these things (and
we should realize them if we would quietly consider the
clear statements of the Word of God on such matters), we
should come to understand much better the desperate nature
of sin; and to yearn with deeper compassion over those who
obstinately resist the grace of God, either following the
evil courses suggested by their own hearts, or led captive
by the devil at his will.
O disobedient soul, who hast read these
words thus far, stop and bethink thee of thy danger!
Beware lest thou be as the chaff or thorns, which are
burned up with unquenchable fire, on the part of the Lord
himself. Be quick to turn to him and live. Yet if thou
suffer irretrievable ruin, remember thou wilt have
only thyself to blame; because thou hast broken the
elementary laws of thy nature, and hast set thyself in
opposition to the God who loves thee, and would redeem
thee, but whom thou hast refused and defied. If only thou
wouldst bend thy stubborn neck and sutbmit to shelter
thyself in the person and work of Jesus, God's perfect
holiness would bring thee, not hurt, but blessing and
help.
OUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE; AND THERE
IS COMFORT AND BLESSING IN THE THOUGHT. When we
yield to God's love, and open our hearts to him, he enters
into us, and becomes within us a consuming fire; not to
ourselves, but to the evil within us. So that, in a very
deep and blessed sense, we may be said to dwell with the
devouring fire, and to walk amid the eternal burnings.
Fire is warmth. We talk
of ardent desire, warm emotion, enthusiasm's glow and
fire; and when we speak of God being within us as fire, we
mean that he will produce in us a strong and constant
affection to himself. Do you long for more love? you
really need more of God: for God is love; and when he
dwells in the heart, love dwells there in power. And there
is no difficulty in loving him or loving men with the love
which has entered in majestic procession in the entrance
of God. Live in God, make room for God to live in you; and
there will be no lack to the love which shall exemplify in
daily action each precept of the holy psalm of love (1 Cor.
xiii.).
Fire is light. We are
dark enough in our natural state; but when God comes into
the tabernacle of our being, the shekinah begins to glow
in the most holy place, and pours its waves of glory
throughout the whole being: so that the face is suffused
with a holy glow, and there is an evident elasticity and
buoyancy of spirits which no world joy can produce or even
imitate. The light that shone on the face of Moses was
different from that which shone on the face of Jesus. That
was flung on it from without; this welled up from within.
But the latter rather than the former is the true type of
the blessed effect produced on that nature which becomes
the temple of the indwelling God.
Fire is purity. "
How long, think you, would it take a workman with hammer
and chisel to get the ore from the rocks in which it lies
so closely imbedded? But if they are flung into the great
cylinder, and the fires fanned to torrid heat, and the
draught roars through the burning mass, at nightfall the
glowing stream of pure and fluid metal, from which all
dross and rubbish are parted, flows into the waiting
mold." This is a parable of what God will do for us.
Nay, more: he will burn up the wood, hay, and stubble, the
grit and dross, the selfishness and evil of our nature; so
that at last only the gold and silver and precious stones
shall remain. The bonds that fetter us will be consumed;
but not a hair of our heads shall fall to the ground.
"The Lord shall sit as a refiner
of silver." He the refiner, and he the fire. Contact
with God, being bathed in his Holy Spirit, the perpetual
yielding of the nature to him, will work a marvelous
change upon us. At first the face of the melting metal may
be dark and lurid-deep orange red, over which a flickering
flame shall pass; but, as the process is pursued, the
color will become lighter, the dark fumes will pass off,
and the metal shall bear the appearance of the highly
polished mirror, reflecting the beholder's face. The
process may be long; but the result is sure.
Is not fire painful and terrible,
though applied by infinite love? It may be so; but he will
not ply us with more than we can bear, and he will enable
us to endure. And it will be more than a compensation, as
we find one after another of the old evils losing its
power. We shall never in this life be free from a sinful
tendency, which seems part of our human nature. Nor shall
we ever, on this side of heaven, be perfect; but we may
expect to be growingly transformed into the image of the
Son of God.
0 God, who art as fire, be thou a
consuming fire to our inbred sins; burn deeply into our
inmost hearts, until all that grieves thee is compelled to
yield to the holy intensity of thy grace, and our whole
being, made free from sin, begins to serve thee in
holiness and righteousness, through Jesus Christ, who came
to kindle thy Sacred Fire on the earth!
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