Consuming fire and the prophetic

Jesus said, “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled.” Imagine him going through the countryside announcing “The Kingdom of God is near you!” in words like this.

“Am I a God near by,” says the Lord, “and not a God far off? ...Do I not fill the heavens?” The Kingdom of God is at hand. Literally it is in the air we breathe. God goes on: “Is not my word like fire,” says the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” This kingdom at hand, near as the skin on our bodies, and nearer still, is the Kingdom of the consuming fire! The Psalmist declares that he will judge the world and pleads with him to do it. “Rise up, O God, judge the earth; for all the nations belong to you.”

Jesus came to start a fire. The kingdom of God has come to men. Will that kingdom smooth things over? No! The kingdom of God has always been one to turn the world upside-down or rather upside-right. Hebrews gives us the roll call of faith—faith that saw the kingdom from a far off and lived in it as though it were their very own. Quixotic and in love with their God who promised, they lived in his kingdom and brought it into the world around them.

By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted to do so they were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had received the spies in peace. And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead by resurrection.

This kingdom of God is subversive and counter to the system of the world. Those who would become its citizens would forever be separated from the world, sin, and by extension all who stand against this Kingdom. They would know the loneliness of Jeremiah, and also the fire he had shut up in his bones. They would be seen as a threat to the world system. They would live a life that would bring them ridicule, hate, and persecution. This is the way it has always been. Those who live by faith in a kingdom not of this world commit high treason to this world's system. Hebrews continues with their roll.

Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented—of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

Jesus finishes saying that we know how to tell when the seasons are changing, how is it then that we miss the God-season that is upon us. He is here! He surrounds us like the air, he is near and a far off, there is no hiding, there is no escape from his loving gaze. We are surrounded by a cloud of faithful witnesses who have entered the kingdom by ruthless faith and reckless abandon. The sensible thing to do is to enter into the kingdom among us and be consumed by his fire.