… ²⁹ for our God is a consuming fire.

Warnings in the book of Hebrews are powered by the character of God. He is not to be trifled with because He is a “consuming fire.” Thus the book of Hebrews does not present suggestions and alternatives, but warnings (see also Hebrews 10:26-27)! He has the ability to completely destroy, like a fire ravaging a home or the crematorium that reduces a body to a charred pile of ashes. This imagery seems to be taken from Deuteronomy 4:24, 9:3 and Isaiah 33:14.

Critics are quick to assert that such descriptions are pre-Christian perspectives of God, but that now through Jesus’ teaching, we see a God of love and self-sacrifice. But, Jesus Himself often spoke of sinners who reject the righteousness of God being consigned to hell. For example, just before His crucifixion, in the Olivet discourse, He spoke of the last judgment, “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels…” (Matt 25:41).

The God of the Old Testament is the one Jesus calls “Father.” The New Testament God is the same as the God of the Old. The imagery of fire denotes His severity towards those who rebel against Him. Jesus did nothing to dispel this. “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb 10:31). And that is why the warnings of Hebrews exist: don’t run from God and invoke His divine displeasure, but run to Him, who because of His love has provided the once-for-all-time sacrifice for your sin.

Speaking of hell and judgment is out of fashion in our times, being cast as fear-mongering or trying to scare people into heaven. The book of Hebrews may be guilty as charged. If someone were about to become infected with an incurable disease, would I not warn them? Would not fear be a proper response and motivator to avoid contamination? How much more proper or appropriate is it to warn people of God’s fierce judgment, the eternal, irreversible consequence of the consuming fires of hell. To those who say that the firey imagery of hell is barbarian, my response is this: there can be no more accurate or fitting way to describe it than with the divinely inspired words—and there can be nothing worse to experience than that which the Bible calls the eternal fires of God’s judgment. In other words, if a fiery hell is not literal, then there is something far worse! We would much rather trust the words of God than the words of man. To the unbeliever, you don’t want to go there. Be warned.

Lord, thank You for saving me from the fires of Judgment. May these truths stir me to warn others to turn from sin to You, the Loving and Living God.