It’s quite a statement when you stop and think about it—Our God is a consuming fire.

The verses preceding this line speak of things that can be shaken (the temporal aspects of this world), and the very few things that remain unshaken. God removes the unstable, the profane, and the shoddy. He burns away the rot.

What remains after the fire sweeps through?

Only the city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem; innumerable angels; the assembly of those enrolled in heaven; God himself and Jesus his Son.

God’s fire excoriates. Most of what I consider valuable and worth pursuing curls black at the edges and burns to dust. Only my investments in things on the heart of God remain. As a result, the author encourages us to respond with deference when holy fire sweeps through the detritus of life:

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe.

Hebrews 12:18-29

Photo by Piermanuele Sberni