Fire Fall Down

This post is a little more devotional than provocative, I think, but I really felt that I should share this.  Nothing earth-shattering, just a thought that came to me during our worship service this Sunday morning.

One of the songs we sang during worship was named "Fire Fall Down," by Hillsong.  The chorus is a plea to God for his "fire" to fall down on us.  I don't really think this is really what the rest of the song is about, but when I was singing, I got this picture in my head of when Elijah was doing his "Battle of the Dieties" with the prophets of Baal.  You know the story....the Baal guys built an altar, put the offering on it, and prayed for Baal to send fire from heaven to consume the offering. They wailed and gnashed and danced and cut themselves, all to no avail. 

After they finally gave up, Elijah built his altar and put the meat on it.  Then he had the wood on the altar doused with many gallons of water so there was no way it could possibly burn.  Then he simply prayed that God would answer. 

I have a picture in my mind of Elijah finishing his prayer and then just turning around to walk away from the altar so he wouldn't get burned.....not even looking back to see what was going to happen, so great was his faith in his God.  I think he wasn't at all surprised when the fire fell from Heaven and consumed not only the meat on the altar, but the wood, the rocks, and all the water that had been poured out. 


Then I thought about how much Elijah's offering was like the offering we give God.  And this isn't the typical guilt trip about how we give God our second best or our leftovers and how much better we need to do.  Elijah killed a perfect ox, which was exactly what God told him to do and it was a perfectly acceptable offering.  But that ox wasn't nearly enough to pay the debt Elijah and the people of Israel owed God, just like the very best we can give God.....our money, our time, our devotion, even our very lives....isn't nearly enough to pay the debt we owe to him.  The ox was just a symbol for the ultimate sacrifice that would eventually be made and it was an act of obedience to show Elijah's faith in God.

And the altar Elijah made....?  Sure, he rebuilt the altar of the Lord that was made according to God's instructions, but then he doused everything with water so that there was no way any offering, no matter how perfect, could be burned there.  Our altars are just the same.  We use the best we have to build them, to try to make our pathetic sacrifices acceptable to God, but all we have is a pile of rocks, some green soggy wood, and a pack of wet matches.  Our very best offering on our very best altar ends up being nothing but a soggy mess.  We can't even get the fire started, and pretty soon the meat is spoiled and isn't good for anything anyway.


So where does that leave us?  Just exactly where Elijah was; in total dependence on his Father.  God knew our offering would never be good enough.  He knew we'd never be able to build a decent altar or even get the fire started, just like Elijah.  We hear all the time that Jesus finished the work of salvation on the cross, but then the next thing we know, we're out somewhere working ourselves to death to try to please God or feeling like a failure because we are confronted by the fact that we just don't measure up.  That our offering just wasn't good enough.  We wonder if maybe we're too far gone to really be saved or maybe too messed up for God to use.  Don't lie and tell me you've never had those thoughts, or that they've never kept you from just trusting God and being obedient. 

Let me assure you of one thing:  your offering isn't good enough!  It's not and it never will be.  Only when you realize that and figure out how to trust the work Jesus FINISHED on the cross will you ever have the peace that Elijah had when he prayed for God to let his fire fall down from Heaven and consume his offering.  Jesus completely saved you when he died on the cross.  Jesus made you completely holy when he died on the cross.  The Christian life is about recognizing that, if you are a Christian, you are perfect before God, no matter what struggles you have with the flesh.  I have fought with my human nature for a long time, trying to figure out how to "get better," only to realize I can't push myself to do it because I'm not strong enough.  I'm finally beginning to understand that the only way I can grow in Christ is to fully appreciate the gift God gave me when he replaced my puny sacrifice with his own, when he let his holy wrath toward me be satisfied with the perfect sacrifice of his own son.  Only when you realize what God has done for you will you be able to, not with a spirit of fear or duty, but of with a spirit of gratitude, allow God to draw you along the path he has laid out for you.  And know that this journey will take a lifetime and that you'll mess up plenty along the way, but that his grace is sufficient to keep you when your own faithfulness is not.

He did the work.  He built the perfect altar, He provided the perfect sacrifice, He consumed it and found it worthy.  Accept his Gift, his Grace, and rest in it.  Trust God to do for you what you could never do for yourself.  Be obedient; give him your best offering on your best altar, but do it out of gratitude, not guilt; knowing it's not enough, trusting that the whole debt has already been paid.