"And there went out a fire from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. And there came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offerings--which, when the people saw, they shouted and fell on their faces."
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."
"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.
"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."
Here there was no delusive manifestation, but the actual _flame of fire_, ascending upward toward heaven; even to the _Sun_ its original source.
We will now turn to the Book of the Second Kings, and--in our mind's eye--join the prophets "as they walked and talked with Elijah" and witness one of the most sublime scenes the eye of man has ever beheld:
"And it came to pass as they still went on and talked, that behold there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven."