“A fire shall always be burning on the altar; it shall never go out.” (Lev 6:13, NKJV)
In the last teaching we learnt that with his at-one-ment Yeshua filled the hollow, empty bronze altar with his fullness. John 1:16 explains how He gave this fullness of his Being, how He emptied himself, for the sake of humanity: “And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.” By this act of being emptied our POTENTIAL was filled with grace. This happened typologically at the altar of burnt offering. And then this has the implication, according to Col 2:9 (ASV), that “in Him we are made full”. Although this happened, it is alas not the reality of our life. His fullness, which was supposed to lead to our life and abundance (John 10:10), is often lacking. We quoted Blackenby, who said that, “Our problem is one of belief. We haven’t yet grasped the truth that God accomplished all … in the cross.” But it is more than merely knowledge and faith – there is a particular process of transmutation (we will explain this concept at a later stage) which needs to take place at the cross before we can experience “the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power” (Eph 1:19, Amp). This mystery is nestled in the fire of the bronze altar.
In Lev 1:7 Yahweh makes the following request – “The sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar, and lay the wood in order on the fire.” (Also see Lev 3:5). Later, in Lev 6:12-13 this is qualified further: “And the fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it; it shall not be put out. And the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order on it; and he shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings. A fire shall always be burning on the altar; it shall never go out.”
Outside of the fire which had to be made with priestly intervention, God also actively takes part of the process by ‘answering’ the sacrifice – again, with fire! Lev 9:24 explains it: “and fire came out from before the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar”. The word “answer” is specifically used, as this is how God’s action in 1 Chr 21:26 is described: “And David built there an altar to the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called on the LORD; and He answered him from heaven by fire on the altar of burnt offering.” Because David knew that God answered sacrifices, which had pleased him, with fire, he could pray in Ps 20:3 – “May He remember all your offerings, and accept your burnt sacrifice. Selah.” (The selah asks that we also think wider and more in-depth about this specific act.)
But what would these two types of fire – the fire from a human hand, and the fire from God’s hand in heaven – then mean in typological terms? Before we attempt to give an answer about this, we first need to examine the phenomenon of Theophany.
- Selah: Ponder the word ‘theophany’;.
- Read: Jer 34-36
- Examine how this has been fulfilled: In Jer 35:19 a particular promise is made to Jonadab, whose name means, Jehovah presents spontaneously. How does this, and the promise made to him, link to this teaching?
