“Now I will rise,” says the Lord;“Now I will be exalted,Now I will lift Myself up.You shall conceive chaff,You shall bring forth stubble;Your breath, as fire, shall devour you.And the people shall be like the burnings of lime;Like thorns cut up they shall be burned in the fire.Hear, you who are afar off, what I have done;And you who are near, acknowledge My might.”The sinners in Zion are afraid;Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites:“Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire?Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?”

Isaiah 33:10-14

This is one of several chapters in Isaiah where the prophet proclaims God’s word to the Assyrian king, Sennacharib, who was laying siege to Judah and planned to attack. In the first twelve verses, Isaiah warns Assyria of God’s coming judgment upon them. Then, in v. 13, the prophet turns the fear of judgment upon the hypocrites in Jerusalem, warning them also of the wrath to come. He says the sinners in Zion are filled with fear, then asks the question, “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?”

Fire is a mysterious, mesmerizing force, claimed by Heraclitus to be the universal element that unites all things. From the first command, “Let there be light,” fire has existed in this terrestrial world. It gives warmth and light, while refining or even consuming whatever it touches. All fires, that is, except One. Abraham first glimpsed that fire in his vision of a torch that passed down the middle of a the divided animals, when Yahweh made a covenant with him. The fire came in judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah, when they refused to abandon their sexual deviance and defiantly pursued their carnal lusts. Moses met that fire in the backside of desert when Yahweh spoke to him in the burning bush. The same fire reigned upon the Egyptians in the seventh plague. The Fire led Israel out of bondage, protected them from the Egyptian armies, and surrounded the holy mountain. When Moses returned from God’s presence, His face was so bright with radiant glory that he had to veil himself. No man can look upon God and live, for our God is a consuming fire. This fire consumes sacrifices and slays men, yet preserves His people. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego met the Angel of God in the fire the killed their guards.

Fire descended upon the tabernacle when it was inaugurated, and later the temple. The burning candles in the tabernacle and later the temple symbolized His presence. The fire going out is a symbol that His presence is gone, as when the churches in Revelation are told that He would “remove their lampstand.”

Isaiah here prophesies that Yahweh’s exaltation (v. 10) means destruction for Assyria (v. 11-12, “your breath as fire, shall devour you. And the people shall be as the burnings of lime, as thorns cup up shall they be burned in the fire.”). Yet this warning extends beyond the pagans to God’s people. (“The sinners in Zion are afraid…Who can stand the devouring fire, the everlasting burnings?”)

Here we must acknowledge something, an unpopular truth taught by our fathers for thousands of years – everlasting fire is real. It’s not just the fire of temporary judgment on Assyria, but on all who refuse to bow before God. Jesus teaches it in Matthew 25:31-46, the last parable told before His crucifixion, “Then he shall say unto them on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels’” (v. 41)…and these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (v. 46). Jesus did not preach a relaxation of God’s standards in the New Covenant. The expectation of eternal judgment upon sin, evil, and all those who cling to it remains.

At this point you may ask, “How is this good news?” Because the fire of God is also what refines the works of the saints. Paul says 1 Corinthians 3:11-15, “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” Before we fully come into God’s new creation, we face the consuming fire of God’s presence and our works will be tried. For all who are built on Christ, they will stand on that day. For those who are not, they will face destruction.

This coming fire is a necessity. You can’t have the final resurrection while evil remains. There can be no New Heavens and New Earth unless the fire of God comes. All our longings for wholeness, beauty, and everlasting delight will only be realized through Yahweh’s coming in full force.

These are hard words. When you look at the lives of people, especially those we love, it’s hard to imagine eternal punishment. But though they may reject the light, they can’t extinguish it. The light so many refuse throughout their lives shines and can draw even those at the point of death. In the words of the apostle Peter (2 Peter 3:9), “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” On the day of resurrection when the God divides the righteous from the unrighteous, no one can say, “If I had one more chance, I would have turned.”

In that same passage Peter goes on to say that one day the fire of God will fill the earth, dissolving what is dead and dying and renewing everything else. He doesn’t just pour lighter fluid on us, toss in a lit match and say, “I’m glad that’s over with.” His promise to restore all things is fulfilled through His coming. What began as a lamp come down from heaven will one day engulf the world. The question is, do you receive the fire now, or do you defiantly spit at and curse the fire until you are consumed?

That raises the question, “What keeps us all from being consumed?” Isaiah answers that question in v. 15. The one who honors God will be protected. That doesn’t mean the fire will not come, but the one who stands as His lamp, testifying to the righteous standards of God will be preserved (I Pet. 1:7). He sends His servants to proclaim the coming light, as He sent John the Baptist to foretell the coming light. In time Christ, the brightness of God’s glory and expressed image of His person, came. After His death and ascension, He sent the Pentecostal fire of the Holy Spirit, and now all the saints are miniature lights, filled with the fire of God. And through our suffering, the glory resting upon us better manifests the glory of our Father. This is how the brilliant mathematician, Blaise Pascal, could utter the words in a vision late on a November night, “FIRE. GOD of Abraham, GOD of Isaac, GOD of Jacob not of the philosophers and of the learned. Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy. Peace. GOD of Jesus Christ.” We serve the God whose fire not only fills our minds and hearts but overcomes them with everlasting radiance.

The fire of judgment came upon Jerusalem, and consumed the Assyrians. God’s people, though they suffered, again saw their king, Hezekiah, in royal attire as Isaiah prophesied in v. 17. But for us, the good news of everlasting fire is glimpsed in v. 17, “Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty, they shall behold the land that is very far off.” We need God’s everlasting fire to come, for without it, there is no hope of final restoration. Then, when all things are renewed, we will need no veil to protect us. And the King and His land that have so earnestly longed for will no longer be far off, but it will be our home eternally.

Matt Carpenter is the Associate Pastor at Trinity Reformed Church. He taught history for fifteen years and has served in pastoral ministry for twelve years. He is married to Amanda and they have four children: Phoebe, Simeon, Emmaline, and Olivia. In his spare time he enjoys cooking, reading, hiking, and fishing.