Tend the Flame

Leviticus 6:8–13 CSB

8 The Lord spoke to Moses: 9 “Command Aaron and his sons: This is the law of the burnt offering; the burnt offering itself must remain on the altar’s hearth all night until morning, while the fire of the altar is kept burning on it. 10 The priest is to put on his linen robe and linen undergarments. He is to remove the ashes of the burnt offering the fire has consumed on the altar, and place them beside the altar. 11 Then he will take off his garments, put on other clothes, and bring the ashes outside the camp to a ceremonially clean place. 12 The fire on the altar is to be kept burning; it must not go out. Every morning the priest will burn wood on the fire. He is to arrange the burnt offering on the fire and burn the fat portions from the fellowship offerings on it. 13 Fire must be kept burning on the altar continually; it must not go out.

Altar

There are three elements in this scripture that is clear we must have. We have to have fire, we have to have an altar and a sacrifice. The altar is the place designated for the fire to burn. We can’t have the fire without the altar. The altar represents the structure and the ordinances of God that he has given for worship. The altar is where the fire is contained according to what God has told us is worship. Without the altar, the fire burns wildly. And it’s Nothing but chaos. The worship that we give has to be founded on the scripture. The altar is where we meet with God. It’s the place of worship. It’s the design for worship. Do you have an altar built in your life? Do you have a place where you meet with God within your heart? Do you have a place of relationship with God? Because if you don’t have the altar, but you have a fire and a sacrifice you could be burning for the wrong things. You see other religions, other belief systems back, then built altars to their idols. And so my question about the altar in your life today is what altar are you burning on? Are we living according to God‘s will and burning for him? Are we living our life with the purpose in our heart being to honor him and all that we do? Or are we simply just burning on the altar of our careers, empty relationships, pursuing meaningless things?

see having an altar in your life means you have a place where you meet with God in your life. And I’m not just talking about a physical place. I’m talking about. You have made a place within your heart within your mind within your spirit where you regularly meet with God. A place where you repent so that you can be forgiven and live holy and righteously. A place where you can build relationship with God and you can meet with him. A place where you can hear his voice so you can know the right thing to do and the right direction to go.

Sacrifice

Now today we don’t burn animal sacrifices today we don’t have an altar like they had back then where we have burnt offerings unto God. Jesus in the gospel of John told the woman at the well that there is coming a time where we will worship in spirit and in truth, where the altar of worship flows from our heart Not from a physical structure, where an animal is burning. Instead we are the sacrifice. We are to be living sacrifices according to Romans 12:1

Romans 12:1 ESV

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

God was very clear to his people about the requirements for the sacrifice. It had to be the best available. It had to be prepared properly. It had to be washed properly. It had to be presented before God exactly according to his word, or it would not be accepted by God. I fear in the church today we have gotten to a place where we believe that we can offer ourselves as the living sacrifice anyway we desire. We may not be living in sin, but do we give God our best. Or do we just give him the leftovers? Are we truly walking in the power of the Holy Spirit to live a transformed life to be made holy by him so that we can truly be presented to God as a holy and acceptable sacrifice?

Fire

Fire is the worship and passion and love that burns unto God. when the sacrifice was ignited, it was a statement by the one making the offering that they are surrendering and giving this sacrifice over to God to be accepted for repentance, for worship, and as a symbol of relationship and communion between them and God. The fire represents the activeness of the work of the altar. It is the culmination of having the altar built and the sacrifice prepared and laid before God. The fire cannot be set before the altar is built and the sacrifice is prepared. People often ask and wonder why they don’t feel the “passion” or the “fire” they used to feel. People wonder why worship is such a hard task. Why does a worship leader have to beg people to lift their hands in worship? It is because those people have no altar and no sacrifice in their life. They have limited the worship and time with God to the building they go to on Sunday morning. In other words that is the only time they light the fire. You don’t have to constantly “light the fire” if the fire is constantly burning.

Burn Continually

Over and over again in Leviticus 6:8-13 we see God repeatedly emphasize the need to keep the fire burning. This act of burning for God is not a one time thing. It is not a light the fire and walk away thing. It requires our constant attention. If we really want to burn for the lord we must tend the flames of the altar. You cannot live on the sacrifice of yesterday, in fact the scripture was clear that the ashes of the previous sacrifice had to be removed to make room for the new one. If the old ashes remain to long and continue to build up they will actually suffocate the flames of the new sacrifice. God emphasizes that it should burn “all night” in other words, don’t let yourself fall asleep so that the fire dies out. Don’t get tired of tending the fire. Sometimes it seems tedious but without the fire burning there is know connection with God.