Fuel 🔥

“[We] cast lots for the wood offering.” Nehemiah 10:34

The animals are prepared, the priests are ready, and the altar is waiting. But we need something else before we begin. What are we missing? Fire. To bring the bulls and the goats, or the wine and the grain, is a good duty. But someone has to bring the wood, and that doesn’t seem so special. In times old the Gibeonites brought it (Josh 9:27). Now they cast lots for it.

Fire needs fuel. The Lord Jesus gave himself as fuel for God’s judgment on our sin. Just as Abraham laid the firewood on Isaac’s back as they walked to the mountain, so the Lord Jesus brought the judgment wood to the hill when he carried his own tree. He was the vessel of fire and satisfaction, “who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God” (Hebrews 9:14).

The Spirit ignites the fires of God upon the free offering. We need that fire to be living sacrifices to our Heavenly Father. We have our doctrine squared away; we are walking in his ways. But where is the power? Maybe we’re holding our hearts back from God, not really trusting him. When we entrust ourselves to our kind and faithful Creator, the winds of his Spirit will fan the spark of Christ’s love in our hearts, and our lives will become brilliant for God.