PASSES

WORD OF WISDOM
Fire ~ Figuratively, fire is a symbol of Jehovah's presence and the instrument of His power (Exodus 14:19; Number 11:1, 3; Judges 13:20; 1 Kings 18:38; 2 Kings 1:10, 12; 2:11; Isaiah 6:4; Ezek 1:4; Revelation 1:14).

God's word is also likened unto fire (Jeremiah 23:29). It is refered to as an emblem of severe trials or misfortunes (Zechariah 12:6; Luke 12:49; 1 Corinthians 3:13, 15; 1 Peter 1:7), and of eternal punishment (Matthew 5:22; Mark 9:44; Revelation 14:10; 21:8).

The influence of the Holy Ghost is likened unto fire (Matthew 3:11). His descent was denoted by the appearance of tongues as of fire (Acts 2:3).

Isa 43:2 When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

By water and fire He means all kinds of trouble and peril. True believers are precious in God's sight, His delight is in them, above any people. Though they went as through fire and water, yet, while they had God with them, they need fear no evil; they should be born up, and brought out. .

“When thou goest through the rivers,”—those mountain torrents which with terrific force are often sufficient to carry a man away. This expresses the force of trouble, the power with which it sometimes lifts a man from the foothold of his stability, and carries him before it.

But going through the fire expresses not so much the overwhelming character and the upsetting power of trouble as the actual consuming and destructive power of trouble and temptation.

It is not written, "I will save thee from the fire," but "I will save thee in the fire," not "I will quench the coals," but "they shall not burn thee," not "I will put out the furnace," but "the flames shall not kindle upon thee." Write it down and expect it to come ture, that in this world thou shalt have tribulation. Only follow they glorious leader, be it trough follod or flame.

The Lord hath not redeemed you that you might enjoy pleasures and luxuries, or that you might abandon yourself to ease and indolence, but rather that thou should be prepared for enduring every of evils.

This, when thou shalt pass through the waters, is an anticipation by which He declares that they who rely on God's immediate assistance have no reason for sinking under adversity. By fire and water He means every kind of miseries to which we are liable in this life; for we must contend not with clamities of one kind only, but with infinitely diversfied calamites.

Our faith needs to be put to the trial in many ways; for it often happens that he who has been victorious in one combat has been baffled by another kind of temptation. We are therefore tried by afflictions, but are at length delivered; we are baffled by the billows, but are not swallowed up; we are even scorched by the flames, but are not consumed. We have, as born again believers, the same feeling of pain as other men, but we are supported by the Grace of God, and fortified by the Spirit of patience, that we may faint not and at length He will stretch out His hand and lift us up on high.

There must always be preserved a deadly feud, to let it be seen that the world must hate God’s people, and must harass them and seek to hunt them out, while they, on the other hand, must steadily pursue their onward march through the midst of billows of fire till they come at last to their eternal rest.

God's Blessings to each of you,
LJG/rECj