Hello everybody, it's me Stahl23 back there in the video, let me check the sound real
quick to make sure that's working.
Alright so the sound is working, so in this video I want to talk about a particularly
interesting term which is used to describe the Lord in the Bible and talk about why it's
used and what the Bible says about such a term and compare it with other verses that
show very similar things.
So in the book of Hebrews in chapter 12 verse 29 it says, for our God is a consuming fire
and that's quoted actually from the Old Testament from Deuteronomy 4.24 which says, for the
Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.
So the context of Deuteronomy 4 verses before this, it's a commandment of God not to forget
the covenant which He made with the Israelites.
So the four that we see at the beginning of the verse, for the Lord thy God is a consuming
fire, is of course that means a because.
So the meaning is that they should not make graven images and worship other gods as assessed
in the previous verses because the Lord is a consuming fire.
Now that's exactly what we see in the Scriptures, that's an amazing aspect of who the Lord is.
Now based on what the Bible tells us in this video, so the Bible says in Exodus chapter
24 verse 17, and the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top
of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel.
So the word devouring is of course a synonym to consuming.
The same description is used in the Bible, both devouring and consuming, both of them
are used constantly in the word of God.
Back in Exodus 19, it describes the descent of God onto Mount Sinai and how the whole
mountain claked and went up in smoke and fire because of the presence of the Lord.
I always try to picture this in my mind and what that would have looked like, as I know
what the actual Mount Sinai looks like, I've seen pictures of the mountain, but I can't
really imagine how amazing and how glorious it was when God descended on the mountain
because the Israelites were really afraid.
So it must have been a really amazing event that the whole mountain was on fire and looked
like it was being consumed by the fire.
So also in this same book, in the book of Exodus when the Israelites made the golden
calf at the foot of the mountain, God made a promise to consume the Israelites.
He said to Moses in Exodus 32 verse 9 to 10, and the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen
this people and behold it is a stiff necked people.
Now therefore let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them and that I may consume
them and I will make of thee a great nation.
The book of Psalms is written in Psalm 21 verse 9, thou shall make them as a fiery oven
in the time of thine anger, the Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath and the fire
shall devour them.
So I made a video a couple of weeks ago where I talked about the wrath and judgment of God.
So God in his wrath, which would mean anger, indignation, consumes the wicked, he devours
them with fire.
And essentially what this means is the fire which goes out from God, which is poured out
as a result of his wrath, it burns them up.
That's what consuming means.
Usually when we hear the word consuming and devouring, we think of like eating.
When you consume something or devour something, that's a description for just eating something
up, right?
So it's just like fire eating something up, completely burning it up, just into ashes.
There's nothing left.
That's what devouring or consuming is.
And we see this all over the Bible, that one of the main ways that God deals with the wicked
is by fire.
He before cleansed the earth with water at the time of Noah.
But back in Genesis 9, he promised that he would never destroy the world with water again.
We know that next time the world is destroyed, it will be by fire.
It says in Isaiah 66 verse 15 to verse 17, for behold, the Lord will come with fire and
with his chariots like a whirlwind to render his anger with fury and his rebuke with flames
of fire.
For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh and the slain of the
Lord shall be many.
They that sanctify themselves and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst,
eating swine's flesh and the abomination and the mouse shall be consumed together, saith
the Lord.
So this in context is talking about the end times.
It's just before God establishes the new heaven and the new earth in Isaiah 66.
So he comes with fire, he rebukes with flames of fire, in verse 17 it tells us that the
wicked will be consumed together.
So of course this is again talking about the consuming fire, that they will literally be
consumed by the fire of God.
How we see the same prediction and the same imagery in the New Testament as well, as in
Isaiah 66, compare that with 2 Thessalonians verse 1, 7 to 9, it says, and to you who are
troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty
angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the
gospel for the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from
the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power.
So when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his angels to take vengeance, this is
the coming of Jesus on the white horse in Revelation 19 when he brings down fire and
consumes the beast and the false prophet and the nations which gather themselves at Armageddon
to fight against God.
So at this point he completely destroys the wicked with the fire from God.
How it's not just the end times, it's not just the final wrath of God where God consumes
people by fire.
There are numerous other examples in the scriptures which talk about this consuming fire of God.
So besides the descent upon Sinai, which is not talking about a specific person or the
wicked people being destroyed, that's just a description of what it looked like, what
the fire looked like upon Mount Sinai.
One of the first depictions of this consuming fire is in the case of Nadab and Abihu.
So Leviticus chapter 10 verse 1 to 5 says, Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either
of them his censer and put fire therein and put incense thereon and offered strange fire
before the Lord which commanded them not.
And there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord.
Then Moses said unto Aaron, this is it that the Lord speaks, saying I will be sanctified
in them that come nigh me and before all the people I will be glorified.
And Aaron held his peace and Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel,
the uncle of Aaron, and said unto them, come near, carry your brethren from before the
sanctuary out of the camp.
So they went near and carried them in their coats out of the camp as Moses had said.
So notice the details that are given here.
So Nadab and Abihu, they disobeyed the commandments of the Lord's ordinance.
They've offered something that they were not supposed to.
As a result of this it says in verse 2 that fire went out from the Lord and devoured them.
So we see this aspect of God being a consuming fire to those who are wicked.
These men have sinned in the presence of the Lord and immediately they were devoured.
So perhaps this is the reason why the Lord says no man can see my face and live.
God is so holy that just being in his presence as a sinner is enough to be consumed by the
fire of God.
And notice the detail in verse 5.
It says that they carried Nadab and Abihu out of the camp in their coats.
Now why does it add that detail that they were in their coats?
That seems completely unnecessary.
Why does it matter that they were in their coats?
Well I believe that this may be telling us that the coats were unharmed by the fire.
They were not burned up.
It was just Nadab and Abihu, the persons who were burned out of the fire.
This fire from God consumed and killed the people within these coats who had sinned but
the coats being an inanimate object were not affected by the fire of God.
We see another example of this in the wilderness in the following in Numbers 11 verse 1.
It says that when the people complained it displeased the Lord and the Lord heard it
and his anger was kindled and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed them
that were in the uttermost parts of the camp.
Again we see as part of the wrath of God the fire comes out from God, it consumes the
wicked whose heart was against the Lord.
Now that's very similar to what happened with Nadab and Abihu, that this fire comes out
from the Lord and consumes them.
So besides specific examples the Lord talks about several other times in the scriptures
in Deuteronomy 32 verse 21 to 22 this is a promise of God for those who will disobey
him.
He says they have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God.
They have provoked me to anger with their vanities and I will move them to jealousy
with those which are not a people, I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
For a fire is kindled in mine anger and shall burn unto the lowest hell and shall consume
the earth and her increase and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
So here we have a description of the power of the fire of God that in God's anger if
the Israelites continue to disobey God, his fire will burn so strongly that it will consume
the earth and the foundation of the mountains.
So not only does God consume the wicked but he promises to set everything in the land
on fire, to burn it all up so none of them can escape from the wrath of God.
In Psalm 53 it says, and that's chapter 50 verse 3, our God shall come and shall not
keep silence, a fire shall devour before him, it shall be very tempestuous round about him.
In Isaiah chapter 30 verse 30 it says, and the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to
be heard and shall show the lighting down of his arm with the indignation of his anger
and with the flame of a devouring fire with scattering and tempest and hailstones.
And finally the last time we see this to happen is in the book of Revelation at the war of
Gog and Magog, the scriptures say in Revelation chapter 20 verse 7 and 9, and when the thousand
years are expired Satan shall be loosed out of his prison and shall go out to deceive
the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them
together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
And they went up on the breadth of the earth, encompassed the camp of the saints about,
and the beloved city, and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.
So in this last battle when Satan gathers the nations to fight against God, it says
that God again brings down fire from heaven and devours these people who are rebelling
against God.
So this is how God destroys the wicked, he destroys them with this devouring fire which
no one can escape from.
So we see in the scriptures this side of the fire of God, that in his indignation and
his anger and his wrath, God consumes the wicked, that those who transgress against
him and oppose him have been in the past and will be burned up in the future with this
devouring or consuming fire of God.
One who is wicked simply cannot live in the presence of the Lord, that's one of the reasons
why we need to be saved and our spirit needs to be born again, why we need to have our
sins forgiven.
We can't live in the presence of God, right?
But by contrast, as I've already hinted at, there's also the aspect of the fire of God
which does not consume.
See as I pointed out earlier in this video, and through all the verses we already read,
God is called a consuming fire in the context of the destruction of the wicked.
He consumes the wicked with the fire, however as in the cases of Nadab and Abihu, they may
have been set on fire, they may have been burned, but their coats weren't, right?
Well that's at least what it hints at in the chapter, Leviticus chapter 10, but there's
another instance of something like that happening in the Bible.
Actually two instances, I'm going to look at these real quick.
Verse is in Exodus 3 verse 2 to 3, it says, And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him
in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush, and he looked, and behold, the bush burned
with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not
burned.
So this is the famous story of the burning bush in the book of Exodus.
The same words are used here as in Isaiah 66 about the Lord appearing with a flame of
fire.
It even talks about how it's not consumed, and yet even though God is in this bush with
fire, or with a flame of fire, the flame of God encompassing this bush, Moses observed
that the bush is not consumed, it's not burned.
It's just like the coats of Nadab and Abihu.
Why?
Because it's an inanimate object.
God consumes the wicked with his fire, but this bush is just a bush.
It's not a human being that's disobeying God's commandments, so it's not burning.
It's not being consumed by the fire.
And we see a similar thing in the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
In Daniel chapter 3 verse 20 to 27, this is a story of not the wicked, but righteous men.
It says, And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace.
Then these men were bound to their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other
garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
Therefore, because the king's commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot,
the flames of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down, bound into the midst
of the burning fiery furnace.
Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said
unto his counselors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?
They answered and said unto the king, True, O king.
He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they
have no hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.
Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and
said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you servants of the most high God, come forth
and come hither.
Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came forth of the midst of the fire.
And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king's counselors, being gathered
together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of
their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed
on them.
So when Nebuchadnezzar throws these three Jews into the fiery furnace, he has the intent
of consuming them with that fire in this fiery furnace, right?
As a way to execute them because they refused to bow down to the idol that he had made.
But after he does this, he observes not only there are three men walking in the fire, but
that there is also a fourth man who is called the Son of God.
Now this Old Testament appearance of Christ shows that, you know, obviously Christ is
God according to the Bible in John 1-1, 1 Timothy 3-16, that these men, Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego, are in the presence of God at this point.
The inability of the fire to hurt these three, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shows that
perhaps again the fire of God had replaced this earthly fire that they were thrown into.
So in another Old Testament appearance of Christ in Ezekiel chapter 1, Ezekiel sees
the likeness of the glory of the Lord.
He describes a man sitting on a throne encompassed with fire and brightness round about.
So we know that that's talking about Christ because he describes him as a man sitting
on a throne and we know that the Bible says that nobody's ever seen God the Father.
So this isn't the Father he's seeing, he's seeing an Old Testament appearance of Christ
in the book of Ezekiel.
He describes him as one with fire and brightness all round about him.
So in the story of Daniel, these men, they're saved, they believe in God, they were not
consumed by the fire surrounding the presence of God and furthermore when they left the
furnace they did not even smell like smoke.
Not a bit of them was burnt, not their coats, not their hairs, nothing.
They were not burnt up at all.
So despite standing in the fire of God they were completely unharmed.
So we see in the Scriptures there are certain things which are consumed by the fire of God
and things that are not consumed by the fire of God.
So the consuming fire of God is not what we normally think of as fire.
It's part of who God is, it burns up sinners and everything that's wicked but it does nothing
to that which is good and righteous, things that are not wicked.
So that's what the Bible teaches concerning this.
I think it's a pretty interesting topic.
I learned about this quite a bit ago but I kind of wanted to do a video on this before
actually but I just kind of remembered it just a few weeks ago so I think this is a
really interesting topic.
Thank you everybody for watching and goodbye, God bless you.