– In biblical language means the holiness of God. It was part of the scene of total power, magnificence and awe with which the presence of God was perceived:
Gen 28:16-17 : Jacob, waking up from his sleep, exclaimed: “Indeed, the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it!”.
Ex 3,1-7 : One day when he had led the flock across the desert, he came to the mountain of God, Horeb.
Ex 13:21 : The Lord went before them: […] and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light.
Ex 19:18 : All of Mount Sinai was in smoke, because the Lord had descended on it in the midst of flames.
Ex 40,38 : The cloud of the Lord hovered over the tabernacle […] during the night, there was a fire in the cloud.
Jos 5,15 : Joshua prostrated himself with his face to the ground and said to him: “What does my Lord command his servant?”.
– Signified God’s acceptance of the sacrifices offered to him:
Leviticus 9:24 : Fire came out from before the Lord and devoured the burnt offering and the fat on the altar:
Judg 6:21 : The angel of the Lord stretched out the tip of the staff that he had in his hand […] and immediately fire gushed from the rock.
1 Kings 18:38 : Suddenly the fire of the Lord came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering.
1Ch 21,26 : He invoked the Lord who answered him by sending fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offerings.
2Ch 7,1 : When Solomon ended this prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the holocaust.
– Or disgust:
Gen 19:24 : The Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of heaven.
Exodus 9:23 : Moses stretched out his rod towards the sky, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire from heaven fell to the earth.
Leviticus 10:2 : Then a fire came out from before the Lord, which devoured them, and they died in the presence of the Lord.
Num 11 :1 : The fire of the Lord kindled among them and devoured the edge of the camp.
2 Kings 1:10 : Elijah replied: “If I am a man of God, let fire come from heaven and devour you, you and your fifty men”.
– The meats of the bloody sacrifices were to be burned on the altar:
Gen 22:7 : We have fire and wood here, but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?
Leviticus 1 : 7 : The sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar and pile the wood on it.
Leviticus 4:12 : He will take it outside the camp to a clean place where the ashes are thrown, and he will burn it on wood.
– The Holy Spirit descended on the apostles and Mary Most Holy in tongues of fire:
Acts 2 : 3 : Then there appeared to them a kind of tongues of fire, which divided and came to rest on each of them.
– In Semitic language, fire is associated with the judgment of the Lord:
Mt 5:22 : But I say to you, everyone who is angry with his brother will be punished by the judges.
Mt 13:42 : And they will cast them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Mt 18:8: Therefore, if your hand or your foot causes you to fall into sin, cut them off and throw them away from you.
Mt 25:41 : Depart from me, you cursed ones! Go into the eternal fire destined for the devil and his angels.
Mk 9,43-49 : It is better for you to enter life crippled than […] to go into […] the unquenchable fire.
Lc 16,24 : In order to cool my tongue, for I am cruelly tormented in these flames.
– See GEENA.
