Fire or Fire: Symbolic use in Scripture

There is a very satisfying and instructive consistency about the meaning associated with the symbolic use of “fire” in a number of Bible passages.

Perhaps the clearest and most familiar is Luke 3:16-17. John the Baptist’s announcement of the Messiah and his warning of coming judgment use the same figure in different ways: “He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire . . . the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.” Thus John presented every man who heard his message with alternatives: either be utterly consumed by the fire of divine energy (“the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up”), or be utterly destroyed by it!

When the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost with a manifestation of tongues of fire, Peter’s appeal to the people made the same contrast. It could be either the outpouring of this fiery Spirit of God on young and old, or as the only alternative “blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke” (Acts 2:18, 19) . For forty years of heaven’s patience that choice was set before Israel.

The same choice faces all men. Human nature must be purified and transformed by the fire of God, or must be destroyed by it.

Jesus used the same message: “Everyone shall be salted (by discipline) for the fire (of altar sacrifice) ” just as every sacrifice used to be salted with salt (Leviticus 2:13) . The immediate context of this austere requirement is equally austere: “If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: for it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into Gehenna fire: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:47-49) . So a choice must be made between the fire of self-dedication and the fire of destroying judgment.

Israel’s experience was the same in ancient days. They were called out of “The iron fur­nace” of Egypt to serve in the wilderness a Lord God who was “a consuming fire” (Deuteronomy 4:20, 24) .

*The AV: “salted with tire” is meaningless. The Greek dative here can read either way.

In the wilderness this Shekinah Glory of God, the pillar of cloud and fire, rested upon them, and guided thcir journeyings. When it rested, Moses said: “Return, 0 Lord, unto the many thousands of Israel.” But when the people complained and displeased Him, “the fire of the Lord burned among them, and consumed them” (Numbers 10 : 34-11:1) . Thus throughout their wilderness journey the same fire of God was a blessing or a punishment. The experiences of Nadab and Abihu, and Korah and his fellow rebels illustrate the same truth (Leviticus 10:2; Numbers 16:35) .

Psalm 80, looking back on these experiences, laments that the same wrong choice has been made by the people of God: “Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt:” but now “it is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.” Yet there is a transcendent alternative: “Thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth” — the Shekinah Glory of God manifesting approval of His forgiven people (Psalm 80:1, 16) . But it is only the people or the man or the ecclesia that endures the transforming fire of God that can be saved from the fire of His anger.

In Isaiah’s day it was the same. Six times in chapter 5 the prophet was constrained to utter: “Woe unto them” because of unrepented iniquity: “Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness” (5:24) . But immediately after this came the prophet’s own experience of the fire of God: “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, . . . and the house was filled with smoke.” His godly reaction was: “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” How different from the attitude of the nation! “Then flew one of the creatures of flame (one of the cherubim) unto me, having a live coal in his hand . . . from off the altar . . . Lo, this hath touched thy lips: and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged” (Isaiah 6: 1-7).

The fire of the Lord is not to be evaded. It is a savour of death unto death, or of life unto life.

God has often answered His servants by the fiery acceptance of sacrifice:

  1. The consecration of Aaron and the tabernacle. Leviticus 9:24.
  2. Gideon’s altar. Judges 6:21.
  3. Manoah’s altar. Judges 13:19, 20.
  4. David’s altar on Zion. 1 Chronicles 21:26.
  5. The dedication of the temple. 2 Chronicles 7:1.
  6. Elijah’s altar. 1 Kings 18:33.
  7. The crucifixion. Psalm 18:6-15.
  8. Abel’s sacrifice? Genesis 4:4; Hebrews 11:4.

There are also many examples of divine judgment by fire:

  1. Sodom: Genesis 19:24.
  2. The plagues of Egypt. Exodus 9:23, 24.
  3. Nadab and Abihu. Leviticus 10:2.
  4. Israel’s murmuring. Numbers 11:1.
  5. The men of Korah. Numbers 16:35; 26:10.
  6. Uzzah? 2 Samuel 6:7.
  7. Elijah and the men of Ahaziah. 2 Kings 1:10-14.
  8. The destruction of Sennacherib’s army. Isaiah 30:30, 33.
  9. Christ’s judgment against those who reject him. 2 Thessalonians 1:8.
  10. And against the wicked also who oppose him, Isaiah 66:15, 16; Psalm 46:9; 50:3; Ezekiel 38:19; Revelation 20:9, 10, 14, 15.