Fire from heaven has got to be an incredible sight to behold. Can you imagine? What was it, physically? Just a bolt of lightning? That's ok, I suppose. There's a certain power in lightning, but real honest fire from heaven? I imagine just a steady column of flame roaring down from the sky, deafening. Brilliant white flame, some touches of orange, a few feet across...I don't know. I could speculate all day long on what that might have looked like. But it was enough fire to consume the ridiculous amount of sacrifices the people had brought.
It was an amazing time of celebration. The trumpets were blowing, people were singing. Emotions had to be running high. Two weeks this party went on. I can only handle being around my fellow congregants at church for a few hours a week.
Back behind the scenes though, God confers with Solomon.
God tells Solomon that, yes, He will be a God of deliverance, of forgiveness, and will establish Solomon's kingdom. Conditional on keeping the covenant. So the big celebration and the song and dance going on is all well and good, but God's decrees must be kept. Otherwise the deliverance will turn to captivity. Forgiveness will turn to culpability. And the kingdom of Israel will be short-lived.
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