Fire Will Not Go Out

Leviticus6:8-13

Staring out the window. Gaze only met by steely grey heavens. Frost-speckled glass separates. Bowed down by prayer-burdens, shoulders sink lower than the matte heavy clouds outside.

“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt offering. The burnt offering shall be on the hearth on the altar all night until the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning on it…. Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it shall not go out’” (Lev. 6:8-9, 13).

Into the matte grey winter days, into our feelings of distance, into our separation, into our burdened wearies comes the voice of the Lord. “This is the law of the burnt offering….” Hope in Leviticus? The chiastic structure of Leviticus 6:8-13 clearly shows the emphasis: “The fire shall not go out.” The fire shall not go out. Brilliance sparkles into the matte grey winter day.

The fire, the burnt offering, as well as the instructions about the linen garment and the care of the ashes all speak to the holiness of God. Holy. Separate. Pure from all that is not perfect. And we find ourselves on the other side of the clouds, separated, alienated, unclean, unholy.

But God so loved the world that he sent fire. That is, he made a way to atone for sin. Burnt offerings, linen garments, instructions about ashes may seem a strange and a distant way to worship God. A distant way for God to show his love. But dare we forget he is holy?

Note—the fire would come from the Lord himself. “And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar, and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces” (Lev. 9:24). His own holy fire.  His own bridge to himself. He came down.

And he commands that the fire will not go out. There is a continual way to access the Father. A continual form of intercession for continual sinners like us. The perpetuity of his own original fire shows his continual desire to be with us, to allow us to come before him.

That perpetual fire of the Lord still burns. Still? But no temple? No altar? No burnt offerings in our churches? Yes, but lift your eyes to the true temple in the heavenlies. God gave Moses exact instructions to mirror the true temple in the heavens. The earthly was but a shadow of the heaven (Heb. 8:5; 10:1).  And we have a High Priest who entered the heavenly temple and made a perfect burnt offering once for all (Heb. 10:19-21). And he remains, interceding for his people as our high priest (Heb. 4:17; Heb. 7:25). Perpetual Priest. Perpetual intercession. Perpetual presence. The fire will not go out, the fire from his own holy lips.

“…he always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25).

The matte grey sky no longer looks as bleak. It is not a steely chasm. For God so loved the world that he sent his Son. He made a way for us to come to him, much closer than through burnt offerings. So close, no longer do we worry about holy linen garments, but can run to him. And the clouds no longer seem so heavy, and prayer burdens are lighter. For Christ himself is praying for us, interceding for us. The fire will not go out. And as priests being renewed in the image of our High Priest, we all lift up our voices. The fire will not go out.