At the dedication of the tabernacle, fire fell from heaven to consume the sacrifices on the altar (Leviticus 9:24). This was the fire of which Leviticus 6:13 says: “The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out.”

When Abram prepared a sacrifice to God, recorded in Genesis 15, a fire passed through the midst of the sacrifice. When Gideon prepared a sacrifice, Judges 6:21, the angel of the Lord touched it with his staff and fire rosde up out of the rock to consume the sacrifice. In Judges 13 an angel comes to Manoah and his wife to tell them they would have a son, named Samson. They prepared an offering, laid it upon a rock. Them fire rose up to consume the offering and the angel ascended in the flame. In 1 Chronicles 21, David placed an offering on the threshing floor of Ornan and fire descended from heaven to consume the offering.

At the dedication of the temple, we read in in 2 Chronicles 7:1, “Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the LORD filled the house.”

There is one more very memorable example in the Old Testament, the time when Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal: “the God that answereth by fire, let him be God.” The prophets of Baal got no response from their god, but when Elijah prayed, “Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.”

When Cain and Abel offered sacrifices to God in Genesis 4, we are not told how God showed his acceptance of Abel’s sacrifice. From all the examples above thje logical conclusion would be that God sent fire to consume Abel’s sacrifice and that Cain’s sacrifice just sat there and nothing happened.

At the dedication of the tabernacle, two of Aaron’s sons brought fire from their tents to offer before the lord and were consumed by fire from God. God’s message was that strange fire was not an acceptable form of worship. Only the fire that God gives can be used to worship Him.

The equivalent in the New Testament is the baptism of the Holy Spirit which is given to every one who is truly born again, exemplified by the tongues of fire on the day of Pentecost. Revelation 13 describes a beast that arises out of the earth and say, “And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,” In other words, it appears to people to be fire from heaven.

Saul of Tarsus was serving God with fervent zeal, or so he thought. Then one day as he was traveling to Damascus, “suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven.” When you or I, or anyone else, seems to be on fire for the Lord, it is important to discern whether this fervency actually comes from God. Or is it strange fire?