Let us contemplate, for a moment, the sacrilege of the attempt at using this element—during the old dispensation—to the consuming of an offering or sacrifice to any other than the one true and living God. Turn to the Book of Numbers, and read,
"When the people offered incense upon the strange altar, there came down fire from the Lord and consumed the two hundred and fifty who offered the incense. And Nahab and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire before the Lord."
Second Kings, vi. 17:
"Elisha said, they that be for us are more than they that are against us; he prayed, and God opened the young man's eyes, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha."
Thus we see that this element—in its destructive form—is the ready manifestation of God's displeasure.
Turn to Exodus, and read,—
"And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him (Moses), in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush, and he looked, and behold the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed." Again, "The cloud of the Lord was upon the Tabernacle by day, and a fire was upon it by night in sight of all the house of Israel." Again, "And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire upon the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel."
Now let us consider this element in its offices when controlled by the Great Jehovah.
"For it came to pass when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar."