For as long as I can remember, I have found fire to be absolutely fascinating. It is wildly powerful; yet with great caution and respect, it’s raw power can be corralled, even harnessed and put to good use. Obvious examples are wood stoves, fireplaces and furnaces. In a very controlled way, they each put fire to good use. Another example, though not as common, is a simple fifty-five gallon steel drum, a “burn barrel.” I use several to burn up dry brush from the woods. I’m amazed at how much brush I can burn in one barrel. If I get the fire hot enough, a load of brush is burned up by the time I gather the next load to burn. Very large brush piles that accumulated from a summer’s worth of pruning and windstorms disappear in no time at all. Well, they really don’t disappear. Rather, they are reduced to a pile of ashes. So instead of having to deal with large piles of dead wood, I only need to deal with small piles of ashes. To get rid of the ashes, I spread them around the woods and let the rain wash them into the ground; or sometimes I’ll just find a spot and bury them. It’s a much quicker way to put the ashes out of sight.
Just the other day, while emptying some ashes from one of the barrels, the Holy Spirit gave me a wonderful new perspective and picture about how God has dealt with sin. I had thought about it being similar to the process of burning and reducing the dead wood into ashes. I had the picture of my sin as the dead wood, and through the sacrifice of Jesus, my sins were burned up and reduced to ashes. Then in a spiritual sense, God spread them around for the rain to wash them into the ground; or, more expediently, He just buried them. They were out of sight. My analogy, though on the right track, fell far short of the truth of how God has dealt with my sins through Jesus’ sacrifice.
God recently reintroduced me to a word I have seen, heard, and even used many times before. It is found in Acts 3:19, where the Apostle Peter tells a crowd in the Temple to turn back to God so their sins could be cleansed, blotted out, obliterated.
OBLITERATED!
This very word itself obliterated what was in my mind’s eye when it came to this matter. If burning up dead wood (sin) into ashes fails to describe what God has accomplished, then I wanted a better picture to describe the obliteration of sin.
God pointed me to an account recorded in the Old Testament book of 1Kings, chapter 18, which was an event the crowd Peter addressed in the Temple would have been very familiar with. It was a contest which took place on Mount Carmel between God’s Prophet Elijah and the prophets of Baal to see who’s god was the real God. They were to prepare a sacrifice, place it on an altar, and summon their god to burn it up. Whichever god brought down fire and burned up the offering was the one true God. The prophets of Baal went first, and after many hours with no results, it was then Elijah’s turn. With the sacrifice placed on the altar, at about the time of the evening (3:00 p.m.) sacrifice, Elijah prayed that the people would know that the Lord is God, and that He would bring the people back to Himself. Immediately, the fire of the Lord flashed from heaven and burned the young bull sacrifice, the wood, the stone altar, the dust (ashes), and even the water that was in the ditch around the altar! There was nothing left; the whole thing was obliterated. God dealt with the matter quickly, decisively and completely.
Through this story, the Holy Spirit showed me how God’s wildly powerful fire, harnessed through the sacrifice of Christ, burned up my sins so completely that there is nothing left of them. There is nothing for the rain to wash away or anything left to bury. Even the altar was consumed, as a sign that it is no longer needed. God dealt with the matter quickly, decisively and completely.
Now, in my mind’s eye, I have a newer, better picture of how God has dealt with sin. I hope you do too.
Grace to you.
Dave Paukner
nice...
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