GOD A CONSUMING FIRE

"For our God is a consuming fire."-HEBREWS xii. 29. The term fire was employed in different senses by the ancient Hebrews, and was a very common figure chosen to represent severe national calamities and judgments, coming upon the sinful and disobedient in this life, but never employed to set forth the retributive justice of God in the immortal world. The people were represented as being consumed with fire, and the land as being devoured with fire, and the inhabitants in a furnace of fire.

The divine judgments were threatened upon Israel in the following language: "For a FIRE is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, [sheol] and shall consume the earth, with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains, etc. They shall be burnt with hunger and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction." Deut. xxxii. 22-24. The judgments of God in the earth, are referred to under the figure of fire, and the people being burnt with hunger and devoured with burning heat.

Dr. Adam Clarke, the Methodist commentator,

says:

"All this was fulfilled in a most remarkable manner, in the last destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, so that, of the fortifications of the city, not one stone was left on another."

Severe temporal judgments are spoken of under the figure of fire in the following passage: "For there is a fire gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon; it hath consumed Ar of Moab, and the lords of the high places of Arnon." Num. xxi. 28. Similar phraseology is employed by David to represent the judgments of God upon the wicked in this life. "A fire goeth before him and burneth up his enemies round about." Psalms xcvii. 3.

In this sense God is spoken of as a "consuming fire," because He brought judgments upon the disobedient and sinful. In the prophecy of Isaiah, the destruction of Babylon is spoken of under the same figure: "Behold they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them: they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame." Isaiah xlvii. 14. That is, they shall not escape the judgments of God; for verily, "He is a God that judgeth in the earth." Psalms Iviii. 11.

In the passage under consideration, Paul uses nearly the same language which Moses had employed when addressing the children of Israel, as recorded in Deut. iv. 24: "For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God." Moses exhorts the Israelites to observe God's commandments and walk in his ways, and warns them

against idolatry as a sin; God has forbidden and would justly punish, hence He was said to be a consuming fire. The apostle in the context is speaking of things pertaining to the new dispensation, and of Jesus the mediator of the new covenant. If those living under the old economy, did not escape a merited retribution, "much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaketh from heaven." Verse 25. God is still a consuming fire; He still maintains a moral government and punishes iniquity. He is said to be a consuming fire, because He is the author of those judgments which came upon the disobedient Jews, and destroyed their national existence, or consumed their national life. God punishes iniquity under the new economy as He did under the old dispensation. When the divine judgments came upon the Jewish nation, and the people were visited with famine, war and destruction, God was said to consume them, inasmuch as his judgments were upon them. In this sense He was spoken of as consuming the sinful because He punished them; thus: "I will send a sword after them till I have consumed them." Jer. ix. 16. "God consumed the wicked by the sword, by famine and by pestilence." Jer. xiv. 12.

When, in the course of Providence, famine, pestilence and war came upon the Jewish nation, and they were overwhelmed in destruction, God was again called a consuming fire. This is the meaning of Paul's language, as we understand it. It

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had reference to the judgments of God in the earth, and not to the endless ruin of a single member of the human family.

We present the following concurring testimony from Dr. Clarke:

"Not to the earth only, but also heaven: probably referring to the approaching destruction of Jerusalem, and the total abolition of the political and ecclesiastical constitution of the Jews, the one being signified by the earth, the other by heaven, for the Jewish state and worship are frequently thus termed in the prophetic writings.

For our God is a consuming fire: the apostle quotes Deut. iv. 24, and by doing so he teaches us this great truth-that sin under the gospel is as abominable in God's sight, as it was under the law, and that the man who does not labor to serve God with the principle, and in the way already prescribed, will find that fire to consume him which would otherwise have consumed his sins."- Com. in loc.

IMPOSSIBLE TO RENEW THEM.

"For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame."-HEBREWS vi. 4-6.

The chief difficulty to a correct understanding of this language of the apostle, has arisen from the supposition that he intended to teach that it was absolutely impossible to renew those to repentance, who had once tasted of the joys of Christian salvation, and afterwards turned away from the truth. Divine truth and grace were given especially to enlighten the mind and purify the heart, and man, therefore, cannot become so lost in sin and blinded by error, that God's grace cannot enlighten and save him that it is absolutely impossible for God to restore his moral perceptions, quicken his understanding and reclaim him from his iniquity. The disciples of Christ, even after they had been enlightened and tasted the heavenly gift, fell away from the truth, and yet they were renewed again to repentance. One denied the Savior, and another betrayed him, and all forsook him and fled; they