The old testament talks regularly of burning the pagan cities with fire; of burning the idol worshipers with fire; or destroying all that was bad with fire. The people, like God, go forth often with fire to consume all that lies within their paths. These stories hardly portray the good guys as good. Who wants to hear about woman and children running and screaming as their homes are burned to the ground, meanwhile the “good” guys stand and revel in their victory? We’ve all seen this sort of thing in movies. We’ve read of it in books, in history books in fact. People who play with fire are generally not nice people. Those people are always the villains.
When we look at the old testament stories of conquest literally, there is such heartache there, so much death, and so much destruction. So many lives are lost, for what, that one people might possess a piece of earth which previously belonged to another people? The constant reference to fire destroying evil and enemies is harsh and dark. Many of the verses in the Bible about God consuming with fire almost make God look like a meany head. I looked through the Bible today to find life, to discover power and light in the old testament references to fire, but they each seem so destructive.
Pagan stories of old all intertwine the spiritual with the physical. Historians stand in awe of each ancient epic, but you’ll always hear them say, “These are only stories. We must recognize that there is little validity in them. We cannot take them for fact. We must only view them as a picture of what life may have looked like all those hundreds and thousands of years ago.”
If we were to look at the old testament stories as parables, or as stories, the way in which we are taught to view the pagan tales, well, then I feel we would see a much different picture. The story goes something like this: There is this thing, a God, who created EVERYTHING. He is all powerful, all knowing, and He only desires good. This God created man and He loved man. He only desired good for His creation. However man multiplied and some men decided to follow God, to listen to the creator and to seek out what is good. Other men decided that life would be much more interesting if they ignored God and discovered that there was this awesome intriguing power in serving only themselves and abandoning the idea of unity, all concepts of love, rules, regulations, structure; life is more exciting when you can do anything you want.
This God, this creator, He burns with fire. It is a brilliant, bright, magnificent and powerful fire. It consumes all that it touches. The fire burns off excess, rubbish, waste; the fire refines and purifies. The Creator who burns with fire offered His fire to the men who chose to accept His love, the men who chose to Love the Creator. The fire would consume man but that when God created man He breathed His own breath into their lungs. They are alive because He lives in them. Those who’ve been offered the fire now have the power to consume all that is bad, all that is evil, and all that is contrary to the Creator.
These followers of God, they go forth seeking life, seeking light, seeking beauty, seeking truth, and seeking signs of God here on earth. While they carry the fire they consume with it all the darkness, all the filth and wretchedness, all the lies and perversion that they come across. People who’ve forgotten God, who no longer realize there is a creator they see the fire, it consumes pieces of them which are contrary to the nature of God who created them and it hurts but once they are set free from the darkness and dross which has surrounded them they are called back to the way of truth and of beauty.
I know the old testament stories don’t look quite like this. But this, to me, is the simplified version of the long story. You’re probably saying wow that’s a stretch. Maybe if you think God is a joke you’re saying those people with fire should just leave those other people alone. Who’s to say that light is good and dark is bad? Here’s what I say: If the pagans who told the stories hundreds and thousands of years ago, stories of the underworld, of fairies, giants, banshees, mystical powers, spiritual blessing and spiritual wrath, if they believed so strongly in the spiritual that they could see it manifest in their physical lives then who are we to say they were only telling stories? Who are you to say, if I believe strongly enough, that my God, the creator of everything, didn’t give me fire so that I could discover beauty, light, and truth?
The wrath of the Lord is regularly accompanied by fire. But if good is there, if purity, if pricelessness, then the fire causes that which is pure to be brought forth while anything less is destroyed.
For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. Therefore understand today that the LORD your God is He who goes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you; so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the LORD has said to you. For our God is a consuming fire.
Deu 4:24, Due 9:3, Hbr 12:29
