Fire, Holiness, and Obedience

The house was filled with glory, and no priest could enter. Justin recalls this same terror of holiness: "and Moses himself could not enter into the tabernacle which he had erected, when it was filled with the glory of God;" The Lord is not approached lightly. When He answers Solomon by fire, He also binds His people to a way of life: humble yourselves, pray, seek His face, turn from wicked ways. The promise of hearing is joined to the command of repentance.

Peter speaks the same pattern in fuller light. We have been chosen not for idleness, but "unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." The blood that cleanses also consecrates. Therefore the Christian life cannot be careless. If we call on the Father, we must pass our sojourning in fear, not the fear of slaves, but the reverent fear of those redeemed at great cost.

So trials are not signs that God has abandoned His people. They are the furnace in which obedience is proved. Clement says, "that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than that of gold which perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and honour, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ;" The same God who sent fire upon the sacrifice permits fire upon His saints, that they may be made fit for His house.

Let us then be holy in conduct, steady in prayer, and quick to turn from sin. God’s dwelling is not kept by outward splendor, but by a people who repent, endure, and walk in the fear of the Lord until the revelation of Jesus Christ.