Part 1

Years ago I was staying in a motel in Montana, and when I came out to the breakfast area the next morning, I glanced up at the TV screen and said, "What's burning?" A man standing near me, also watching the screen, answered, "The West." The West is still burning, not to mention Alaska, Canada, and the Everglades. Let's see what the Bible has to say about the hot topic of fire.

Genesis 15:7-21, The flaming torch confirms the covenant (08/25/25)

Suzerain treaties (which are apparently uncommon or unknown in modern times) are treaties or covenants between unequal parties. Typically there's a statement of what the greater party will do for the lesser party (blessings), which we see in Today's reading, what the lesser party is obliged to do, and what will happen to the lesser party if the covenant is broken (cursings).

The treaty was commonly ratified when the two parties walked together between the halves of animals. When God confirms his covenant with Abraham, a flaming fire moves between the halves of the animals.

Exodus 3:1-14; Acts 7:30-35, 51-53, Burning Bush (07/15/25)

Moses, the great lawgiver who spoke face to face with God (e.g., Deuteronomy 34:10) is one of the central figures of Judaism and Christianity, so of course there's tremendous interest in their first meeting. We all know that Jesus used God's statement to Moses, "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," in a discussion about resurrection with the Sadducees (Matthew 22:23-32; Mark 12:18-27). Stephen, one of the first deacons, also repeated the story of Moses and the burning bush, but he used it for a different purpose: to show that the members of the Sanhedrin persecuted God's chosen vessels just as their ancestors had. He was martyred for his trouble.

Exodus 13:21-22; Numbers 14:12-24; Isaiah 4:3-6, The pillar of fire was a sign of God's presence (08/04/25)

Have you ever said, "I'll go if you go"? Sometimes we're willing to do something only if we don't have to do it alone. When God told Moses, "Take the people up to the land I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" (Exodus 33:1), Moses said, "I'll go if you go" (Exodus 33:13-15). God said, "Fine, you're a pretty good guy, so I can do that for you" (Exodus 33:17). God's presence in the wilderness was shown by a pillar of cloud in the daytime and a pillar of fire at night.

Deuteronomy 5:1-7, 22-33, The fire on the mountain was also a sign of God's presence (08/05/25)

In Deuteronomy, Moses summarizes all that the children of Israel have gone through in the wilderness and the law that was given to them at the beginning of their journey. He reminds them that God appeared to them in fire on Mount Sinai. Here he says they were afraid to get close, although in Exodus 19 God tells Moses not to let them get close, because whoever did come (other than Moses and Aaron) would die, which I assume was pretty scary. In any case, the mountain, the fire, the commandments, and the presence of God are the same in both books.

1 Kings 18:17-40, Elijah and the prophets of Baal have a contest (08/22/25)

I first heard Mark Twain's story about Elijah and the prophets of Baal read as a devotion in choir practice back in the late '70s. The point of his version of the story is that Elijah was a sharp dealer who put one over on King Ahab and the prophets of Baal.

One of the many dynasties of the northern kingdom, Israel, was that of Omri, who came to the throne by assassination, the normal custom in Israel. King Omri arranged a marriage between his son Ahab and a Philistine princess, Jezebel, who was a devout Baal worshiper. She greatly increased idolatrous practices in Israel and was a bad influence on Ahab, which is saying a lot (1 Kings 16:30). She established Baalism as a co-state religion along with the worship of God, tried to kill all the prophets of God, and hired 450 prophets of Baal. Elijah challenged them to a contest, and in a mighty act of power, God sends down fire from heaven. The point of the biblical story is that Baal is powerless and unworthy of worship, and the LORD is powerful and God.

Malachi 3:1-5; 1 Peter 1:1-9, God purifies like a refiner's fire (08/06/25)

One of the common themes shared by the Bible and fantasy novels is that fire can be destructive or purifying, often at the same time. Silver or gold are separated and purified simultaneously with the destruction of the ore. I got distracted into searching for videos to show you as examples of the ancient process, which turns out to be more complicated than just sitting down and throwing ore into a fire. Obtaining pure silver or gold takes an amazing amount of work, and righteousness and pure faith are even more valuable than they are.

Ezekiel 22:17-28; Zechariah 13:1-9, God purifies like a refiner's fire (08/07/25)

Something else to notice about the refining videos we watched yesterday is that a lot of stuff goes into the fire, and only a little bit of silver or gold comes out. Ezekiel and Zachariah were aware of this, of course, and when they report that God is going to refine Israel, they also say that only a small portion of the people will survive. Ezekiel says, "you have all become dross" like "the dross of silver," although he may be speaking to the civil and religious leadership in particular. Zechariah is more generous: he says that merely the false prophets and two-thirds of the population will perish. A common theme of prophecy is the idea that only a small portion of the people, called the faithful remnant, will survive God's punishment.

Leviticus 1:1-17; Ezra 3:1-6, Burnt Offerings (07/16/25)

The first standard sacrifice commanded was the whole burnt offering, also called the holocaust. Detailed instructions are given for this and all other offerings, because they had to be done in exactly the right way, by the right person, with the right animal, grain, or incense. The first seven chapters of Leviticus are devoted entirely to instructions about how to properly perform offerings of various kinds, but all of them appear to involve fire. When the Jews began to return from the Exile, just about the first thing they did was to build an altar and re-institute the practice of making offerings by fire.

Isaiah 1:1, 10-31, Relative importance of burnt offerings (07/17/25)

There's a biblical scholar on YouTube whom I agree with about half the time, and one thing he says repeatedly is that people are just mistaken when they say there are no contradictions in the Bible. That I agree with, as you know from our next to last study. Folks who think there aren't any contradictions haven't read it, I'm sorry to say. (I don't know of any contradictions that are important to salvation, though, so don't fret about them.)

One of the most puzzling contradictions, to me, is the disconnect between the long set of rules in Leviticus about burnt offerings and the message of some prophets that burnt offerings are useless. Now, I get Jeremiah 6 and 7, where God says, "Hold on a sec. You think you can continue to commit all these sins and then show up in the temple with a burnt offering, and we're suddenly cool? No, that's not how it works." What I don't get is when Isaiah says, "I don't delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand?" Um, it was you, LORD? Or when Amos says, "Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, house of Israel?" (Amos 5:25). Um, yes? So that part isn't clear to me. What is clear in Isaiah's message, as in all the other prophetic messages, is that the most important offering is the abandonment of sin.

Psalms 40:6-8, 51:16-19; Hosea 6:4-6; Mark 12:28-34, Relative importance of burnt offerings (07/18/25)

The main reason that the Jews no longer practice animal sacrifice is that they have had no place to do it since the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. by the Romans. Even before that, however, they acknowledged that burnt offerings are meaningless in the absence of doing God's will, having a contrite heart, doing mercy and knowing God, and loving God and one's neighbor.

Numbers 21:5-9; John 3:9-21, Moses made an image of the fiery serpents (07/31/25)

We don't know exactly what animal the "fiery serpent" might have been. The "serpent" is a snake or serpent in both the Hebrew and Greek of Numbers 21. The "fiery" is actually burning or fiery in Hebrew, but deadly in Greek. Various translations have it as a venomous or poisonous snakes or serpents, and I think I've seen commentaries saying it could have been a scorpion. Isaiah 14 and 30 mention a "fiery flying serpent," which would be some kind of stinging insect. Deuteronomy 8:15 refers both to "fiery serpents" and to "scorpions," but also to "drought" and "no water," so we could be looking at two different animals or just at a typical Hebrew parallel description of the same thing. There does seem to be considerable agreement that whatever the animal was, the animal didn't actually burn,* but the bite burned like fire. That's true of quite a number of venomous animals. Your opinion is about as good as anybody's.

A more important point is that Jesus used the bronze serpent as a symbol of God's rescue of the people of God from death.

* Probably because we aren't aware of any that do.

2 Kings 18:1-12, Later, people burned incense to the image as an act of worship (08/01/25)

The whole Israel/Judah thing is complicated, because sometimes each name refers to a person, sometimes Israel is the whole people of God, sometimes Judah is a tribe, sometimes the names refer to the two separate kingdoms that arose after the death of Solomon, and sometimes they refer to the people that make up those two kingdoms. In today's readings they are used to refer to the two separate kingdoms. Well, except in vs. 5, where "Israel" in "the LORD, the God of Israel," is more likely referring to the whole people, and in vs. 11 it clearly means just the people of the kingdom of Israel.

And then, of course, there's the problem that the writers didn't use the same calendar we do. Instead of saying, "Hezekiah the king of Judah began to reign around 716 B.C., " they tell you that he began to reign the third year of Hoshea king of Israel. Reading Kings can be confusing; you have to pay close attention to who is king of what when.

Last week we saw that incense was used both in the worship of God and in the worship of a false goddess, and yesterday we saw that Moses made an image, at God's direction, of the fiery serpents. Sigh. Next thing you know (well, hundreds of years later), people in in the kingdom of Judah are burning incense to the image as an act of worship. King Hezekiah put an end to the practice by destroying the image, along with a number of other symbols of false gods.

Exodus 30:1-10; Jeremiah 1:13-19, Incense is burnt on altars as an act of worship, both to God and to false gods (07/24/25)

The ark we read about yesterday was behind the veil in the tabernacle, in a place called the Holy of Holies. Aaron brought incense into the Holy of Holies, but only on specified occasions. The altar of incense, on the other hand, is located in front of the veil, and Aaron burned incense on it twice a day as an offering to the LORD. This duty passed down through the priestly line until the final destruction of the temple (Luke 1:9-11).

Meantime, many Jews also burned incense to foreign gods. God took a dim view of this apostasy, and it's one of the practices that led to the Exile.

Jeremiah 44:1-23, Incense is burnt on altars as an act of worship, both to God and to false gods (07/25/25)

Before the Babylonians besieged, defeated, and razed Jerusalem, many Jews (not all) were worshiping a variety of foreign gods, both in the temple itself and at home. One of these was a sky goddess - there are lots of them, so it isn't clear which one Jeremiah is talking about. I suspect it was either Astarte, whom the Jews had worshiped off and on for a long time, or Isis, who was Egyptian. It doesn't really matter, because neither was real, and the worship of either was wickedness. Jeremiah tries to call the Jews who have escaped to Egypt to repentance, but they say, "No, thanks, we're fine." The Jews worshiped the goddess by burning incense. God was incensed.

Hosea 2:1-23, God will take you back, once you stop burning incense to Baal (08/27/25)

One of the standard symbols for Israel in the Old Testament is that of the wife of the LORD, unfortunately most often the unfaithful wife of the LORD, whose lovers are false gods. God directs the prophet Hosea to marry "a wife of whoredom"; I've never been 100% clear on whether Gomer is a prostitute already or simply the kind of women who will immediately be unfaithful to him. In any case, he names her second child Lo-Ruhamah, No-Mercy, and her third child Lo-Ammi, Not-My-People, as a sign that God will no longer have mercy on unfaithful Israel and repudiates them as his people.

After Gomer runs away and descends from prostitution into slavery, Hosea can't stand it and buys her back. In the same way, God can't stand being separated from his wife Israel and promises to take her back, but she has to stop burning incense to Baal. God loves you and will always take you back, but you do have to stop being unfaithful.

Genesis 3:1-24, Flaming Sword (07/14/25)

I've always talked about "the angel with a flaming sword," but it turns out to be several angels (because "cherubim" is plural) and a flaming sword. Our special guest writer John Wesley has this to say about vs. 24:

This signified the exclusion of him and his guilty race from that communion with God which was the bliss and glory of paradise. But whither did he send him when he turned him out of Eden? He might justly have chased him out of the world, Job 18:18, but he only chased him out of the garden: he might justly have cast him down to hell, as the angels that sinned were, when they were shut out from the heavenly paradise, 2 Peter 2:4, but man was only sent to till the ground out of which he was taken. He was only sent to a place of toil, not to a place of torment. He was sent to the ground, not to the grave; to the work-house, not to the dungeon, not to the prison-house; to hold the plough, not to drag the chain: his tilling the ground would be recompensed by his eating its fruits; and his converse with the earth, whence he was taken, was improveable to good purposes, to keep him humble, and to mind him of his latter end.

Observe then, That though our first parents were excluded from the privileges of their state of innocency, yet they were not abandoned to despair; God's thoughts of love designing them for a second state of probation upon new terms. And he placed at the east of the garden of Eden, a detachment of cherubim, armed with a dreadful and irresistible power, represented by flaming swords which turned every way, on that side the garden which lay next to the place whither Adam was sent, to keep the way that led to the tree of life.

Psalm 104:1-4; Isaiah 6:1-8; Hebrews 1:1-8, Some of the angels are fiery messengers (07/21/25)

As we know from an earlier study, some angels look a lot like us, and others ... don't. Seraphim are some of the ones who don't. Saraph is Hebrew for burning, so a seraph appears to be some kind of burning creature. Certainly the seraph who brings a live coal to Isaiah in his hand doesn't seem to have a problem with a little heat. (Seraphim also have six wings, which is another way they don't look like us.) It's interesting that the psalmist, quoted by the writer of Hebrews, seems to be saying that flaming servants, presumably the seraphim, are messengers, and it is a seraph who delivers the message to Isaiah that his sins are forgiven.

The seraphim we read about in this chapter of Isaiah seem to be sentient creatures. Everywhere else (Numbers 21, Deuteronomy 8, Isaiah 14, Isaiah 30), the word is used for a particularly nasty creature often called a "fiery serpent," like the one Moses and the children of Israel encountered in the wilderness.

Judges 13:1-25, An angel goes up in flames (07/22/25)

Now, you've certainly heard the story of Samson and Delilah, but maybe you haven't heard the story of Samson's parents and the angel of the LORD. In both Hebrew and Greek, an "angel" is a messenger, although as we learned in our study of angels, it's often hard to tell whether an "angel of the LORD" is a messenger or a manifestation of the LORD. In vs. 6, Mrs. Manoah thinks that the person who has visited her is a particularly attractive and impressive man, but in vss. 21-22, Manoah equates the angel with God after the he ascends in the flame of the burnt offering.

My favorite part of the story is when Manoah, concluding that they've seen God, says, "Aaiii! We're gonna die!!!" and his wife responds, "Get a grip! God wouldn't have told us all this stuff if he was just going to kill us."

Exodus 25:10, 17-22; Leviticus 16:2, 11-13; Ezekiel 10:1-15, Cherubim are associated with burning incense (07/23/25)

When you think about cherubim, this Renaissance painting of two cute little winged babies is probably what pops into mind. If you've seen a lot of Bible illustrations, you might think about these cherubim at the ends of the mercy seat. This more biblically accurate image of cherubim above the ark probably doesn't pop into mind immediately, unless you have a pretty strange mind or have spent a lot of time reading Ezekiel. We hear a lot about the cherubim in Exodus, Numbers, and 1 Kings because of their presence in the tabernacle and the temple, but Ezekiel's is the only detailed description we've got. Most of the time when we see cherubim, we also see and smell clouds of smoke from burning incense.

Matthew 25:1-13; Luke 12:35-36; John 5:33-36, Keep your lights on (09/01/25)

These days when we want light, we usually flip a switch. Maybe in a pinch, or for atmosphere, we'll light a candle. But burning oil in a lamp? That's pretty uncommon now. Fortunately, the oil, or lack of it, isn't the point in Jesus' parables. The point is that we must be ready All. The. Time, because we don't know when he's coming back, or when we'll suddenly be called to go to him. John was a different kind of burning and shining lamp, but his message was the same: Get ready! Jesus is coming!

Proverbs 6:27-29; Judges 9:6-20, Don't play with fire (09/02/25)

When we see people doing something inadvisable and maybe even dangerous, we say, "They're playing with fire." I suppose it would be possible to mean that literally, but we almost never do. It turns out that the Bible says essentially the same thing and means it the same way we do.

It always amazes me when someone who has been having an affair with a married person then marries that person. Wait! You know for a fact that this person cheats on his or her spouse, and now you want to be the spouse? Jotham says the same thing to the kinsmen of Abimelech. "Wait! You know that Abimelech has murdered all his half-brothers, and now you want him as your kinsman and king? You're playing with fire!"

Genesis 19:15-28; Luke 17:20-32, Don't look back (09/03/25)

The historicity, location, and destruction of Sodom by fire and brimstone have been hotly debated by biblical scholars, archaeologists, geologists, and others for centuries - even within the past few years - without coming to any lasting conclusion. Let's just cut to the chase. Both natural disasters and the second coming are likely to happen with little or no warning, while we're just moving along with our lives. When they do occur, just grab your kids and go! Don't look back!

Matthew 18:1-10; Mark 9:42-48; Isaiah 66:22-24, Don't lead others astray (09/04/25)

There's a lot of debate among scholars, clergy, and laity about hell. Who goes there? Why do they go there? Does anybody go there? Is there any "there" there at all? Is it fire, ice, or eternal nonexistence? Does our idea of "hell" (whatever that idea may be) have anything in common with the biblical words hades and gehenna that are translated into English as hell?

All I can tell you is that Jesus talks several times about folks being thrown into gehenna, where there is fire.

Proverbs 16:27, 26:20-21; James 3:1-9, Watch your tongue (09/05/25)

I looked up "burn" as a slang term, because I was pretty sure that it means to insult, disrespect, or mock. I was amused that one website attributes its popularity to "That 70's Show." In fact, anyone who reads the Bible should recognize the idiom, because we know that "the tongue is a fire" and the speech of a worthless person "is like a scorching fire." Speech can set fires or put them out, although putting them out is a lot harder. Watch your tongue.

Genesis 22:1-19 (08/11/25)

A long time ago, when I must have been fairly impressionable, I saw the movie Ruth. The Bible says nothing about Ruth's childhood, but that's okay, because the screenwriter has graciously filled us in. Early in the movie, the child Ruth, maybe 8 or 10 years old, is so perfect that she is chosen to be sacrificed to the idol Chemosh. As they are leading her to the altar, they discover a previously unnoticed blemish on her arm - a good two inches in diameter - and she is rejected. As she's walking away, she looks at her arm again, and the blemish disappears. This is the only part of the movie I remember. The only part of the scene with any historical basis is that children were indeed burned as sacrifices to assorted Canaanite gods. God shows Abraham that His requirements are entirely different, and the perfect sacrifice is a ram, not a child.

By the way, I think it was particularly tactless of Abraham to make Isaac carry the wood for his own pyre, but that's probably a minority opinion.

Leviticus 18:21, 20:1-5; Deuteronomy 12:29-32; 18:9-14 (08/12/25)

Much debate has taken place over the centuries about whether child sacrifice by fire among the peoples of Canaan was a real phenomenon or merely propaganda. If it was propaganda, it was pretty widespread propaganda, proliferated not only by the writers of the Bible but also by various Greek and Roman writers. Apparently, archaeological evidence of the practice hasn't been found within Canaan proper; however, Carthage was at bottom a Canaanite city, and dedicated cemeteries found there contain urns with the remains of burned infants and animals with inscriptions to gods. The debate goes on, but current scholarly consensus leans in the direction of infant sacrifice by fire.

One reason I don't find the propaganda argument terribly convincing is that the Law doesn't just say, "Oh, those evil Canaanites burn their children." It says, "If I catch any of you Israelites burning your children, like those evil Canaanites, you will be an abomination, cut off from your people, potentially responsible for getting your entire family cut off, and stoned to death with stones." The existence of this law, not to mention the severity of the punishment, suggests to me that there was a need for it, not only as a point of differentiation between Israel and the Canaanites, but also because the Israelites were, at minimum, toying with the idea of taking up the practice for themselves (Deuteronomy 12:30, 18:9).

2 Kings 3:22-27, 16:1-3, 17:26-32, 21:1-6 (08/13/25)

One of the upsides (or downsides, depending on how you look at it) of a topical study like this one is that we read scripture passages not often taught in Sunday school or from the pulpit. Child sacrifice is definitely not something we want to expose our children to, in any sense of the word! I still tend to doubt that the accusation of child sacrifice was just propaganda against the foreign peoples of the area. Yeah, today we read that the king of Moab and the Sepharvites burned children as offerings, but we also read that Ahaz son of Jotham and Manasseh son of Hezekiah - who were kings of Judah - did the same thing! It's really hard to read that as propaganda against foreigners.

Our reading from 2 Kings 17 is interesting for another reason, too. The Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom of Israel (capital: Samaria) and deported most of the Jews who lived there (the "ten lost tribes of Israel"). The Assyrian foreign policy was that if you move all your conquered people to someplace they've never been before, they'll give you less trouble. With the exception of the Jews, it was universally accepted each god had its own territory, so when the foreign peoples were attacked by lions in Israel, they decided they'd better pay some attention to the local god, the LORD. The Assyrian king gave orders that his officers should find a priest of the LORD and send him back to Israel so that the peoples he had sent there could add the LORD to their pantheon. It's a long story, but this is the origin of the Jewish antipathy to the Samaritans.

2 Kings 23:1-3, 13, 20; Jeremiah 7:30-34, 19:4-6, 32:35 (08/14/25)

Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah, put in a program to refurbish the temple, and in the process the workers found the book of the covenant (either Deuteronomy or the Torah). Josiah was appalled at everything Judah had been doing wrong, and he set about to right it. Among other things, he desecrated altars to assorted gods by slaughtering and burning their priests on them. The text says this was a sacrifice, although it doesn't say to whom, and I think it's the only example of adult human sacrifice in the Bible. (I know I can count on you to correct me if I'm wrong.)

Jeremiah preached in part during the reign of Josiah. Through Jeremiah, God says, "When these people burned their sons and daughters, they did done something so detestable and abominable that it never even crossed my mind!" Apparently, God didn't have a problem with what Josiah did, because Josiah gets the highest grade possible for a king, "he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and walked in all the way of David his father, and he did not turn aside to the right or to the left. Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him" (2 Kings 22:2, 23:25).

Ezekiel 16:20-22, 20:27-38 (08/15/25)

Ezekiel is another late prophet who, on the Lord GOD's behalf, violently condemns burning children as sacrifices and promises judgment for doing it. "Whoring" is a common Old Testament name for worshiping other gods. With regard to vs. 20:29, remember that "X is called Y because ..." usually means that X sounds kinda like Y in Hebrew. In this case, however, they are the same word: bamah/high place. "What high place are you going to? So its name is called High Place to this day."

More of Fire! Fire!
Fire! Fire! - Part 2

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