Throughout Scripture, fire is the most recurrent symbol of God’s presence. It is a symbol of power, light, glory, holiness, purification and judgement. In Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost, tongues of fire came to rest upon each person present. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and that is true of this manifestation of the divine presence wherever it appears in the Bible. Recall how God appeared to Moses in a bush that burned and yet was not consumed by the flames (Exodus 3:2). This was a sign of a yet impossible promise: sinful people filled with the Holy Spirit and yet not destroyed. The same symbolism is present in the altar of burnt offering in the tabernacle and temple. When Paul exhorts us in Romans 12:1 to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, he has the burnt offering in mind. It was a picture of total surrender to God’s ownership. This is why, in the case of the burnt offering, the sacrificial animal was burnt up on the altar, converted to smoke, to become “an aroma pleasing to the Lord”. The very first time Aaron put the prescribed sacrifice on the altar “fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the burnt offering” (Leviticus 9:24). This was a sign of divine favour. God was accepting and fully appropriating the sacrifice. This prefigured what happened at Pentecost. God was accepting the sacrifice of these disciples, appropriating them fully to serve the world and taking everything for himself in a supreme act of divine love and favour.
Surrender yourself, your plans, goals and ambitions to God.
Read Exodus 3:1-6. Leviticus 1 and 9:22-24.
