"Then the Lord spoke to you
out of the fire....the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the
fire....took you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt....for
the Jehovah (Adonai), God is a consuming fire (Deut. 4:12ff)."
God spoke to Israel through the fire. Moses tells us in Deuteronomy 4, that this prevented anyone from seeing God and attempting to make an image of God. But God also spoke to Moses in Exodus 3:2, "in flames of fire from within a bush....Though the bush was on fire it did not burn up."
Fire has come to symbolize an important reality for people of faith. We understand fire as the trial of life. All life is trial, test, even when we think everything is going well, we are still being "tried by fire." The Christian Bible teaches us that every human being will be judged. The Christian will not be judged for sins because her/his sins have been covered by the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ, but every work done by the disciple of Christ will be tested by God's fire. Those who refuse to acknowledge God's gift of unconditional love will be judged on the basis of their own human efforts alone, without the benefit of mercy. But life is there to test us and prepare us and refine us so that we can learn the lessons of life that will lead us to God's ultimate unconditional love.
To remain faithful to the unseen God whose rewards are less tangible than some of the prosperity preachers would have us believe, is in itself a difficult test in this age of "thing-worship" and conspicuous consumption. Fire is the symbol of the Holy Spirit's presence. It means that the very presence of God is in us, on us, in our communities, in our families, in every situation and circumstance that people of faith find themselves. It purifies us, "removes the dross" so that the silver will shine, removes the impurities so that we will "be pure Gold." Isaiah prophesies that God is a "refiners fire. He will purify the sons of Levi." Not even imams, pastors, priests and rabbis can serve without fire.
The invisibility of God is countermanded by fire. When we see the crisis of our children's lives in great peril for whatever reason, we are face-to-face with God because we are IN THE FIRE. We need to remember as Moses did that God desires to speak to us in this fire.
The crisis we face in obtaining a higher education for our children, where they must mortgage their lives at high interest rates just to fund colleges and universities they are more than qualified to attend is a FIRE THAT CONFRONTS US and we need to hear what God is saying in that fire. Should our rich nation and those who profit off of its labor power and its resources, but are too greedy and selfish to pay any real taxes, be one of the few developed nations in the world that does not guarantee a free college education to those who qualify? Should we be charging interest rates at all for college loans. Shouldn't a well-trained work force be the material reward for lending such dollars out to our children?
The crisis of domestic violence is a fire where God is seeking to get a hearing on the value we place on children's and women's lives. The crisis of sexual abuse of children (and men and women) is a FIRE IN OUR MIDST where we need to hear what God has to say about our sexually repressed society where sex is used as a weapon for unhealthy people to abuse the weak.
Each of us face many fires. I contend that each of those fires, each challenge, each trial, each difficulty, is a place in our lives where God can be heard if we will FACE THE FLAMES and listen. Already with the most recent crises facing our nation, people are looking for scapegoats, seeking to hide from the uncomfortable issues and concerns of others, seeking to excuse the inexcusable.
Moses stood before a burning bush but the fire did not consume it. The FIRES that come into our lives do not destroy us, even though they seem so deadly, so real, so decisive, so overwhelming. The fire reminds us that God is always with us, just as he was always with the ancient Hebrews as a Pillar of Fire in the night. We are not alone in this night we call life. The FIRE of God is always there, where we can discover the truth, the lesson, the miracle that leads to our soul's advancement.
"Jesus promised, I have a baptism of fire to bring on the world. God seeks to baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." This is not a comfortable baptism, but our being tried and tested is the only real reason we are journeying on this plane. To ignore the fire is to miss our opportunities for growth, it is to miss the voice of God, the real universal soul-life presence that will ultimately complete us and our journeys.
God spoke to Israel through the fire. Moses tells us in Deuteronomy 4, that this prevented anyone from seeing God and attempting to make an image of God. But God also spoke to Moses in Exodus 3:2, "in flames of fire from within a bush....Though the bush was on fire it did not burn up."
Fire has come to symbolize an important reality for people of faith. We understand fire as the trial of life. All life is trial, test, even when we think everything is going well, we are still being "tried by fire." The Christian Bible teaches us that every human being will be judged. The Christian will not be judged for sins because her/his sins have been covered by the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ, but every work done by the disciple of Christ will be tested by God's fire. Those who refuse to acknowledge God's gift of unconditional love will be judged on the basis of their own human efforts alone, without the benefit of mercy. But life is there to test us and prepare us and refine us so that we can learn the lessons of life that will lead us to God's ultimate unconditional love.
To remain faithful to the unseen God whose rewards are less tangible than some of the prosperity preachers would have us believe, is in itself a difficult test in this age of "thing-worship" and conspicuous consumption. Fire is the symbol of the Holy Spirit's presence. It means that the very presence of God is in us, on us, in our communities, in our families, in every situation and circumstance that people of faith find themselves. It purifies us, "removes the dross" so that the silver will shine, removes the impurities so that we will "be pure Gold." Isaiah prophesies that God is a "refiners fire. He will purify the sons of Levi." Not even imams, pastors, priests and rabbis can serve without fire.
The invisibility of God is countermanded by fire. When we see the crisis of our children's lives in great peril for whatever reason, we are face-to-face with God because we are IN THE FIRE. We need to remember as Moses did that God desires to speak to us in this fire.
The crisis we face in obtaining a higher education for our children, where they must mortgage their lives at high interest rates just to fund colleges and universities they are more than qualified to attend is a FIRE THAT CONFRONTS US and we need to hear what God is saying in that fire. Should our rich nation and those who profit off of its labor power and its resources, but are too greedy and selfish to pay any real taxes, be one of the few developed nations in the world that does not guarantee a free college education to those who qualify? Should we be charging interest rates at all for college loans. Shouldn't a well-trained work force be the material reward for lending such dollars out to our children?
The crisis of domestic violence is a fire where God is seeking to get a hearing on the value we place on children's and women's lives. The crisis of sexual abuse of children (and men and women) is a FIRE IN OUR MIDST where we need to hear what God has to say about our sexually repressed society where sex is used as a weapon for unhealthy people to abuse the weak.
Each of us face many fires. I contend that each of those fires, each challenge, each trial, each difficulty, is a place in our lives where God can be heard if we will FACE THE FLAMES and listen. Already with the most recent crises facing our nation, people are looking for scapegoats, seeking to hide from the uncomfortable issues and concerns of others, seeking to excuse the inexcusable.
Moses stood before a burning bush but the fire did not consume it. The FIRES that come into our lives do not destroy us, even though they seem so deadly, so real, so decisive, so overwhelming. The fire reminds us that God is always with us, just as he was always with the ancient Hebrews as a Pillar of Fire in the night. We are not alone in this night we call life. The FIRE of God is always there, where we can discover the truth, the lesson, the miracle that leads to our soul's advancement.
"Jesus promised, I have a baptism of fire to bring on the world. God seeks to baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." This is not a comfortable baptism, but our being tried and tested is the only real reason we are journeying on this plane. To ignore the fire is to miss our opportunities for growth, it is to miss the voice of God, the real universal soul-life presence that will ultimately complete us and our journeys.
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