Fire Came Out From God

"One Year Bible" Old Testament History Passage
Leviticus 9:7-10:20

"And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar.  When all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces."  Leviticus 9:24 (NKJV)

Who ever said Leviticus was a boring book?  We have some incredibly dramatic events taking place here.  Two times in this passage, "fire came out from the Lord."  How would you like to see that? 

In the two incidents of this passage, very different results took place.  In the first -- 9:18-24 -- a proper and correct sacrifice was made for sin.  It was done according to God's directions.  The result was a shouting good time!

In the second, incorrect fire was offered.  An incorrect sacrifice was prepared -- done in contradiction to God's instructions.  The result was death.  A fire sure enough did come out from God, but it did not consume the offering, it consumed the priests, Nadab and Abihu. 

When we call for God to send His fire, we need to be sure we are surrendered to His ways.  We can not expect His fire to fall on our fleshly, self-willed ambitions and bless them.  He will burn them up!  When His fire comes, it purifies that which is His, but it destroys that which is not His.  Actually, that is great news.  Better to lose the useless things today, than to invest years in them only to see them gone in eternity. 

Our God is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29).  That is really good news to us.  But it is bad news to the flesh.