Who can dwell with the consuming fire?

My daily reading took me to Isaiah 33:14-17 today. There’s much to think about in this short passage…

(14) “Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?” This refers, of course, to God Himself, though that may seem strange. Hell is supposed to be a place of everlasting burning, right? But God is also a consuming fire. (Heb. 12:29) This speaks of His absolute purity, His holiness, and the impossibility of anything impure or sinful or out of alignment with His will dwelling in His presence.

Often in the scriptures, God points us to the created universe as a way of comprehending something of His nature. I learned this while taking a graduate course on Isaiah. The commentators said that God gets us to look at the immensity, the awesomeness of the heavens and earth, because that is the only thing in our experience that comes close to His immensity, His infinity, His power and awesomeness. (Is. 40:26) Of course, since He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, God is even greater than anything we can see in nature, even the enormous stars and far-flung galaxies!

But as an illustration of what a consuming fire and everlasting burning could be like, I thought of the stars, or even our own medium-sized star, the sun. These spheres are large beyond our comprehension, and they burn with an atomic fire hotter than anything we’ve ever experienced. Today where I live, it will be around 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The sun’s rays will scorch the earth, and even the sidewalks and walls of our buildings will radiate a fierce heat. Yet we are some 93 million miles from this burning atomic fireball. Not only is it hot beyond imagination, it is thousands of times larger than even this enormous earth on which we live, and, to top it off, it has been burning for eons and will continue to do so as long as God wills! The expenditure of energy and the output of the power of the sun is beyond our comprehension, yet, as I said, it is but a medium-sized and “mediocre” star!

Can we even begin to get an inkling of what the Creator of all the billions of stars, in fact, billions upon billions of galaxies, each containing untold billions of stars, could be like, in terms of His power?! His power is infinite! And He is eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, all-wise, intelligent beyond imagination!

He is a loving God, a father to the fatherless, the Great Shepherd of the sheep, who cares for us and guides us and provides for us. Yet He is also a consuming fire, and let us never forget that! He is not Santa Claus or “diosito,” (little god), our buddy, a supernatural friend who just kind of tags along with us. Our God is a consuming fire, and the beginning of wisdom is to recognize that and live in holy fear, reverential awe of Him. (Ps. 111:10)

Now Isaiah asks, who can live with this kind of God? Who can dwell with Him? David asks a similar question in Ps. 15, about the ones who can ascend the “holy hill,” the holy presence of God. The answer is the same in each case. It is the person who walks righteously and speaks what is right. It is those who reject corrupting influences, greed, extortion, accepting bribes, contemplating evil, plotting wrongdoing or harm to others.

The message of scripture is consistent throughout. God is love, but God is also holy. Those who would dwell with Him, be in relationship with Him, are those who have recognized His holiness, have received His gift of righteousness by faith in Christ, and who consistently do what the Bible tells us to do in Ro. 8:13 – 14 – put to death the evil tendencies of our fallen nature and walk according to the Spirit’s guidance and will for us.

This in fact is what it means to be led of the Spirit. (Ro. 8:14) It’s what it means to “abide in Christ,” (John 15:1-8), to “keep ourselves in the love of God,” (Jude 21) or to “walk in the Spirit,” (Gal. 5:16 – 25)

Really, it’s what it means to have a relationship with God and live in such a relationship. It’s what it means to “take my yoke upon you and learn of me.” (Matt. 11:29) It’s the same thing taught in Psalm 1 about those who are blessed. They don’t walk in the counsel of the ungodly or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of the scornful. Rather, their delight is in the law of the Lord and in His law they meditate day and night.

Ps. 1 tells of the blessings that will come to such people. Isaiah 33 does as well. They/we will dwell on the heights (be blessed with God’s presence in this life, and in the next, dwell in glory forever), our refuge will be the mountain fortresses – in other words, God will protect us, save us, keep us forever. Our bread will be supplied and water will not fail us. In other words, those who fear God and walk with Him will eat the bread of life and drink the living water. Both our physical and spiritual needs will always be supplied. We need not fear, God will take care of us!

I love Is. 33:17 – You eyes will see the King in His beauty, and view a land that stretches far. What a promise! We shall see our glorious King! If you think the universe is beautiful, guess what? He’s the Creator of it! He is more beautiful still! And if we receive His grace, we are promised we will be able to dwell with Him, see His beauty, and see a “land that stretches far.” Isn’t that inspiring? You don’t want to miss it!

To draw near to the consuming fire and the everlasting burning (to God Most High) in a state of rebellion against God, of uncleanness and sin, to come before the Judge of the whole earth in a state of unpreparedness, simply will not “fly.” Unfortunately, so many will find this out too late. They have not even considered God their Creator, in this life. They haven’t sought to find out what He requires. They don’t realize how awesome He is, how high His standards of holiness really are. For such people, to come into God’s presence will be a terrifying thing, a horrendous thing! (Heb. 10:31) No one will be able to survive it in their natural human state. Not one of us is holy enough, pure enough.

But thank God, He invites us to receive His free gift of righteousness by faith in the work of His Son on the cross. He invites us to submit to Him now, before it’s too late. Oh, for those who do, the consuming fire will not burn; it will only cleanse and enlighten. We can walk in the midst of that everlasting burning and only experience holiness and brilliance beyond our imagination! Lord, we long to dwell with you! How thankful we are for the gospel, which has made it possible!