God's Amen in Fire: The Inauguration of True Worship Text: Leviticus 9:22-24
Introduction: The Eighth Day of a New Creation
We live in an age that is allergic to liturgy, terrified of reverence, and deeply suspicious of divine authority. Modern evangelical worship, in its desperate pursuit of relevance and emotional experience, has often become a masterclass in treating God as our casual buddy. We have traded the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom, for a sentimental chumminess that is the beginning of apostasy. We have forgotten that God is a consuming fire, and we think we can approach Him with our strange fire, our man-made worship, and get away with it. The next chapter in Leviticus will show us precisely what happens when that assumption is tested.
But before the warning of chapter 10, God gives us the glorious pattern of true worship in chapter 9. This is not just a dusty record of ancient ritual. This is the formal inauguration of the Tabernacle, the moment when God moves in and publicly endorses the entire system of worship He has commanded. This is the grand opening, and heaven itself cuts the ribbon.
The context is crucial. This all happens on "the eighth day." For seven days, Aaron and his sons had been consecrated, set apart in a period of ordination. Seven is the number of perfection and completion within the old creation. The eighth day, therefore, is the first day of a new week. It is the day of new beginnings, the day of resurrection. It is no accident that circumcision, the sign of the covenant, was performed on the eighth day. It is no accident that our Lord rose from the dead on the first day of the week, the eighth day, inaugurating the new creation. What we are witnessing here in Leviticus 9 is a typological new creation. God is establishing the formal, liturgical pattern by which sinful man can approach a holy God and live. This is the gospel in ceremonial dress.
We must understand this as a direct polemic against the pagan nations. Their worship was a chaotic attempt to manipulate their gods through frenzied, self-centered rituals. Israel's worship is to be the polar opposite: orderly, prescribed, God-centered, and based entirely on God's gracious revelation. What we see here is God publicly stamping His approval on His prescribed way, and in so doing, He is condemning all other ways.
The Text
Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them, and he stepped down after offering the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings.
And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting. Then they came out and blessed the people. And the glory of Yahweh appeared to all the people.
Then fire came out from before Yahweh and consumed the burnt offering and the portions of fat on the altar. And all the people saw it and shouted and fell on their faces.
(Leviticus 9:22-24 LSB)
The Priestly Benediction (v. 22)
We begin with the culmination of Aaron's first official duties as high priest.
"Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them, and he stepped down after offering the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings." (Leviticus 9:22)
Notice the order. Blessing does not come first. The blessing is not the foundation. The foundation is the sacrifices. Aaron has just completed the full sequence of offerings: first the sin offering, then the burnt offering, and finally the peace offerings. This is the non-negotiable grammar of our approach to God. You cannot have communion with God without consecration, and you cannot have consecration without atonement for sin. First, the guilt must be dealt with (sin offering). Second, there must be a total dedication of the person to God (burnt offering, or ascension offering, where the whole animal goes up in smoke). Third, and only then, can there be fellowship and communion (peace offering, where the worshipper shares a meal with God).
Our modern worship services follow this same covenantal structure, or at least they ought to. We begin with confession of sin and assurance of pardon, which is our sin offering. We then have the consecration, the reading and preaching of the Word and the offering of our lives, which is our burnt offering. And finally, we come to the Lord's Table for the peace offering, our communion meal with the living God. To try and have the meal without the atonement is presumption. To try and have the blessing without the blood is to preach a false gospel.
Only after the blood has been shed and the sacrifices completed does Aaron, in his role as mediator, lift his hands to bless the people. This posture of lifted hands is the classic stance of priestly blessing. He is not blessing them out of his own good wishes. He is acting as a conduit for God's grace. The blessing he pronounces is the one God would later specify in Numbers 6, "Yahweh bless you and keep you; Yahweh make his face shine upon you..." This is a declaration that because of the atoning sacrifice, the people can now stand in the favor of God. It is a declaration of peace between God and man, made possible by the substitutionary death of another.
The Final Mediation and the Manifestation of Glory (v. 23)
After Aaron's initial work, something else is required before God responds.
"And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting. Then they came out and blessed the people. And the glory of Yahweh appeared to all the people." (Leviticus 9:23 LSB)
This is a fascinating and crucial detail. Aaron, the new high priest, has done everything according to the pattern. He offered the sacrifices and blessed the people. But the glory of God does not yet appear. One more step is needed. Moses, the great lawgiver and mediator of the covenant, must go with Aaron into the Holy Place. Moses represents the authority of God's direct revelation, the law itself. Aaron represents the newly established priesthood that ministers according to that law. Here we see the two offices, prophet and priest, law and liturgy, coming together.
They go into the tent, into the immediate presence of God, and then they emerge together and bless the people again. This joint blessing signifies the perfect harmony between God's command and God's provision. The law given through Moses makes the demand, and the priesthood established through Aaron provides the means of meeting that demand through sacrifice. When God's Word and God's worship are in perfect alignment, the result is the manifestation of God's glory.
And the glory of Yahweh appeared "to all the people." This was not a private vision or an esoteric experience for the spiritual elite. It was a public, corporate, undeniable manifestation of the presence and power of God. God wants His people to know, without a shadow of a doubt, that He is with them and that He accepts their worship when it is offered according to His Word. This is a foundational principle. When the church today worships God faithfully, biblically, and covenantally, we have every right to expect the glory of the Lord to appear, not in a pillar of fire, but in the powerful presence of His Spirit, in the transformed lives of His people, and in the advancement of His kingdom in the world.
Heaven's "Amen" (v. 24)
God's appearance is not passive. He responds to the offering with a decisive, terrifying, and glorious act.
"Then fire came out from before Yahweh and consumed the burnt offering and the portions of fat on the altar. And all the people saw it and shouted and fell on their faces." (Genesis 9:24 LSB)
This is the divine seal of approval. The sacrifices were placed on the altar in obedience, but man cannot light the fire of true acceptance. That fire must come from God. This is God's "Amen" to the entire proceeding. He is publicly declaring: "This priesthood is My priesthood. These sacrifices are My sacrifices. This way of worship is My way of worship. I accept this." This is the same fire that would later fall on Solomon's temple, signifying the same divine acceptance. This fire, once kindled by God, was to be perpetually maintained by the priests. To offer "strange fire," as Nadab and Abihu are about to do, is to substitute man's enthusiasm and initiative for God's sovereign acceptance. It is the height of arrogance.
The fire consumes the burnt offering and the fat, the richest parts, which were dedicated wholly to God. This consumption by divine fire is a picture of both acceptance and judgment. The offering is accepted on behalf of the people, and the wrath that should have fallen on the people is consumed in the substitute. This is the gospel. On the cross, the fire of God's holy wrath against sin fell upon Jesus Christ, our great High Priest and our perfect sacrifice. He was consumed so that we might be accepted. God demonstrated His acceptance of Christ's sacrifice not with fire from heaven, but by raising Him from the dead on the eighth day, the day of new creation.
Look at the reaction of the people. It is twofold, and it is the only proper reaction to a genuine encounter with the living God: they "shouted and fell on their faces." This is not the quiet, contemplative reverence of a funeral home, nor is it the mindless, chaotic ecstasy of a rock concert. It is both at once. It is loud, joyful, exuberant shouting, and it is prostrate, face-to-the-ground, holy terror. It is the shout of victory and the awe of utter humility. It is "Wow!" and "Woe is me!" simultaneously. This is the paradox of true worship. We shout for joy because the fire fell on the substitute, and we fall on our faces because we know that fire is what we deserved. Any worship that does not contain both of these elements, exuberant joy and profound reverence, is deficient. It has not yet grasped the terror and the mercy of the cross.
Conclusion: The Fire We Carry
This event was the inauguration of the old covenant worship. But it points directly to the inauguration of the new. At Pentecost, what descended upon the disciples? Cloven tongues, as of fire. The fire of God's own presence and approval came down, not to consume a dead animal on a bronze altar, but to indwell living worshippers as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1).
The fire of God's presence now resides in His church by the Holy Spirit. We are the temple. And our worship, when it is offered on the basis of Christ's finished work and according to the pattern of God's Word, is still met with divine fire. It is the fire that purifies our hearts, the fire that empowers our witness, the fire that casts down strongholds and takes every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
We are in a long war against a world that worships itself and offers strange fire on every street corner. Our task is to maintain the true fire of God on the altar of our hearts and in the corporate worship of the church. We must insist on the biblical grammar: atonement, then consecration, then communion. We must come with both joyful shouts and reverent fear. When we do this, when we worship God in spirit and in truth, the glory of the Lord still appears. And as that glory fills His church, it will, according to His promise, one day fill the entire earth, as the waters cover the sea. The fire that fell on that first altar is the same fire that will consume all of Christ's enemies and purify the entire cosmos. Let us therefore worship Him acceptably, with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire.