God, who is a consuming fire, and
vehemently jealous, can only be endured by those protected by baptism. The fire beneath the flood (both judgments
combined) is a compound judgment: a judgment unto condemnation for any residue
or lingering sin not put to death, not repented of, and a condemnation unto
victory to the whole of those who are dead, but resurrected (a flame beneath a
flood, a fire with nothing more to consume; this is the picture of a Christian
walking in the Spirit, walking in resurrection life). Flesh was condemned to a watery grave at the
flood; spirit is the fire which cannot be quenched by floods.
For the wicked and unrepentant it is
like this:
“Just as the darnel (weeds resembling
wheat) is gathered and burned with fire, so it will be at the close of
the age” (Matthew 13: 40; Amp.). “Those who are fencing me in raise their heads; may the mischief of
their own lips and the very things they desire for me come upon them.
Let burning coals fall upon them; let
them be cast into the fire, into floods of water or deep water pits,
from which they shall not rise. Let
not a man of slanderous tongue be established in the earth; let evil hunt the
violent man to overthrow him [let calamity follow his evildoings]” (Psalm 140:
9-11; Amp.). “He has bent His bow
like an enemy; He has stood with His right hand [Jesus Christ] set like a foe
and has slain all the delights and pride of the eye [carnality]; on and
in the tent of the Daughter of Zion He has poured out His wrath like fire [He loves us with a jealous love, and
that love has the effect of being angry at our outerman to condemnation while
being happy at our inner man to victory at the same time with the very flame of
who He is by His intrinsic nature]” (Lamentations 2: 4, additions mine; Amp.).
For the
righteous and repentant, contradistinctively, it is like this:
Because the…commandment was
urgent and the furnace exceedingly hot, the flame and sparks from the
fire killed those men who handled Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men…fell down bound into the
burning fiery furnace. Then
Nebuchadnezzar [saw] four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they
[were] not hurt! And the form of the fourth is like a son of the gods! And the satraps, the deputies, the governors,
and the king’s counselors gathered around together and saw these men—that the
fire had no power upon their bodies, nor was the hair of their head singed;
neither were their garments scorched or changed in color or condition,
nor had even the smell of smoke clung to them.
(Daniel 3: 22-27; additions and subtractions mine; Amp.).
Just
like the flood came from both heaven and earth, so shall the fire be. It will be thrown down from above (“And the
fourth angel poured out his bowl upon
the sun; and it was given to it to scorch men with fire”—Revelations 16: 8) and
erupt from beneath (those ministers of His walking in Holy Ghost and Fire upon
the earth); God and His ministers both will be
fire, and will be walking about like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the
“fourth” one within, and upon this furnace-of-affliction earth. We, along with our God, will be judging
mankind by simply being who we are. Our
God is a consuming fire; we are too. Finally,
But the day of the Lord will
come like a thief, and then the heavens will vanish (pass away) with a
thunderous crash, and the [material] elements [of the universe] will be
dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be
burned up. Since all these things are
thus in the process of being dissolved, what kind of person ought [each of] you
to be [in the meanwhile] in consecrated and holy behavior and devout and
godly qualities, while you wait and earnestly long for (expect and hasten) the
coming of the day of God by reason of which the flaming heavens will be
dissolved, and the [material] elements [of the universe] will flare and
melt with fire? (2 Peter 3: 10-12).
Amen! Lord may be we be found worthy to escape these things that come.
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