Blood and Fire
There is no casually entering into the dwelling place of God. There must be blood and we must pass through fire.
The Scriptures are filled with blood and fire and we should pay attention when we see them, particularly when we see them together:
1 - In Genesis 3 as Adam and Eve rebel against the commands of God they are promised the coming of this new horror: death. It is the enemy that will devour their lives and the lives of their children. But even as God spells out the ways that death will mark their lives, he offers a promise and what will be the mark of his covenant presence with his people. An animal is slaughtered and they are clothed with its skin. Blood is spilled and their sins are covered. Death will drive them from the Garden Sanctuary of Eden, and a flaming sword is set at its entrance. They can only return to God’s Sanctuary with blood and fire.
2 - In Exodus, as Israel gathers at the foot of Mount Sinai to meet with God, Moses is invited into God’s sanctuary at the top of the mountain- the place where God will meet him. As God establishes his covenant with God’s people, blood is spilt and fire descends onto the mountain (Exodus 24-25). Here as God’s people are bound to him in his presence, there is blood and there is fire.
3 - In Leviticus, God gives detailed instructions as to how the priestly representatives of God’s people are to approach his presence in the sanctuary. And what it immediately evident is the presence of blood and fire. There is no casually entering into the dwelling place of God. There must be blood and we must pass through fire.
4- In the coming of Jesus, his sacrifice on the cross and the outpouring of his Spirit at Pentecost there is again, blood and fire. Jesus’ own blood now speaks a better word than that of bulls and goats - but it is blood that we must have to cover our sin and bind us in covenant to our God. And the Spirit fills the disciples marking them with the fire of his presence as “tongues of fire” rest on each of them. The sanctuary has moved from a garden to a mountain to a tent to a temple to a people, but the only way into this sanctuary is through blood and fire.
When we gather as the church each Sunday, we gather in God’s sanctuary. We come by the blood of the new covenant as we drink wine, and we come through fire as God’s Spirit has promised to attend to our worship. Fire and Blood.
