Fire blazed forth from the Lord’s presence and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When the people saw this, they shouted with joy and fell face down on the ground. [Leviticus 9.24]
It appears that the commencement of the first actual sacrifices and offerings detailed in today's reading were cumulative in their presence on the altar. There was apparently no fire on the altar and each offering then progressively added 'more to the pile.'
It was not until all the prescribed offerings had been committed to the altar, and, after Moses and Aaron had subsequently gone into the Tabernacle and returned, that the LORD sent fire to consume all the offerings that had accumulated on the altar.
It must have been an amazing sight. It was the LORD's way of showing acceptance and approval of their offering and sacrifice.
Fast forward to the remarkable Day of Pentecost following Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. Instead of fire coming from within or above the Tabernacle to consume the offerings, "flames of fire" were present upon each of the people present there. It would appear that the Sacrifice, Jesus, had been presented in a different way, and, once accepted, God revealed His presence and pleasure with the Offering, once again by fire, but instead of being in the Tabernacle, it was now in the people!
It was necessary that fire be miraculously present in order for the people to understand that God was in it.
There is so much more here that could be analyzed for comparison, but the picture of Christ found in the offerings of the Old Testament is truly brilliant.
I would interject here, if perhaps a non-believer is reading this particular post - and that even if he or she feels the Bible is a complete sham, that the Bible's theme (fictional as it may be supposed) remains consistent throughout the entirety of its pages. According to its story, God had a plan for redemption from the very beginning! The detail of Old Covenant protocol was designed to point to the Advent of the Messiah.
Many Bible-doubters cannot just back off and "let the supposed fiction prove itself wrong" though. Consequently, rantings against the Bible are unknowingly proof positive that the book has control over the ranters - drawn like insects to light - intent on arrogantly refuting its message. Ironically enough, these reactions to the Bible are predicted in its pages.
It is worth pondering that, even if the entire Bible is a fictional novel written by an individual or conniving group of individuals, the intricacy of the main literary theme of the collection is on par with absolutely no other work historical or contemporary! No other book has ever attained such volume of publication. No other book has ever been at the center of so much worldwide attention. No other book has ever affected so many people. No other book has ever inspired so much hope or ignited so much fury. No other book has ever been loved or hated as much. These facts alone make the Bible the most famous, if not important work in all of history. And yet, it is doubted...
Of all Bible-doubters, those of the scientific fields decry the Bible's message most feverishly. Consideration is ignored that the Bible's message is not one of "how things work" as much as "how things participate" in the overall story.
The Bible presents circumstances and events that took place in the narrative of a message of God's interaction with mankind. Science is privileged (and dare I say, tasked) to discover how those circumstances and events took place. However, just because science fails to initially understand how something Biblical took place should not give it all authority to refute the Bible! The study and knowledge of all things 'scientific' rarely recalls its own humble beginnings, "the earth is flat!" Similarly, much was the case in the refuted ability of the bumblebee to fly (1930's Germany). There was an instant, if not a period of time, that at least one aerodynamics expert concluded that the bumblebee was incapable of flight. Instead of demanding that sufficient evidence of bumblebee flight was wrong and that the bumblebee must surely be merely jumping from flower to flower, the scientist(s) further explored the known and accepted phenomenon of bumblebee flight to discover that their premise of flight was not at all based on "airplane" aerodynamics, but upon "helicopter" aerodynamics. "Flight" was known and accepted and never questioned - it just took a little further review to explain what was already known!
In the course of business with chemicals, it becomes necessary to perform tests of certain chemicals to show how, when applied, they act upon another given set of chemicals or circumstances. It has been proven more often than not, that the predisposition of a lab technician highly affects the reported outcome of the test. No matter what evidence is shown by the most highly-controlled test, that test is still subject to the analysis and report of a technician. Furthermore, none are likely to admit it for themselves (but quick to point out for others) that "proven, lab-tested" advantages of a given chemical (ironically "proven" by the manufacturer of that particular chemical) fail to duplicate themselves when tested in another lab using the same "industry standard" test procedures.
Predisposition is, at best, unacceptable in the world of science. At worst, predisposition is downright dangerous!
The message of science, by its own acclimation, remains in a constant state of flux as it discovers new data every day. The Bible's message however has never changed. This merit alone warrants consideration of the Bible as truth allowing science to "catch up" as it learns more. Scientific testing without a control group is useless. The Bible should be that control group. The redemptive message alone of the Bible should at least give cause to consider its story and circumstances as factual.
How might science and the Bible agree if science's general predisposition against the Bible was removed?
The problem is not one of science then, but really, one of the heart. Ironically, the Bible is all about the heart and not science anyway.
Father, I remain grateful for the message of the Bible. As I read it, it becomes alive in my spirit. No science can explain my spirit, but I know it is real because I experience it every day. Oh that You would give me the words to put the doubting mind at rest - that You would allow me to humbly love the world as You love the world.
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