“And there came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces.”
Fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown. Fire from the divine presence consumes the offerings on the altar — the divine ratification of the priestly worship that the first day of ministry has produced. The fire from the presence of the Lord is the fire that will never be allowed to go out (Leviticus 6:13): the fire kindled by God Himself at the altar's inaugural moment is the fire that the priests must maintain perpetually. The response of the community — shouting for joy and falling facedown — is the double response to the divine presence: joy at the nearness of the God who accepts and worship at the holiness of the God who appears. Hebrews 12:29 says our God is a consuming fire — the fire from the divine presence at Leviticus 9:24 is the fire that Hebrews invokes to describe the God who cannot be approached casually.
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