God started the fire on the altar for the burnt offering. It was then to burn continuously. It was for acknowledgment of their sin nature and their request for a renewed relationship with God.

While the fire could be imitated, it could never be duplicated. No one except God can create fire from heaven.

No human on their own would EVER be able or has EVER been able to offer a sacrifice that would make them acceptable to God. It makes me think of Saul just going ahead and making offerings. You can’t just do that.

God is holy. Chapter 10 says that people must learn to distinguish between the holy and the common, between the clean and unclean.

There is still a holy God. In this day and age of talk of being friends with Jesus and wearing ripped jeans to church with tattoos showing, we’ve lost a sense of the holy, a sense of reverence.

Holiness was never found in wearing our Sunday best. But holiness is understanding that God is apart from man and we have to be set apart to Him. We can’t be in both worlds. There’s no such thing as the best of both worlds. We are in God’s kingdom or Satan’s. We love God or the world. Loving the one makes us an enemy of the other. They cannot and will never go hand in hand.

He demands all of you. Because He loves you. God doesn’t desire sacrifice; He desires obedience. Why? Because obedience means we love Him, we believe His Word. Obedience means we desire Him. Obedience means we’re safe, and we’re helping others and not harming them.

Any loving parent wants their child to be obedient to good and right rules that are there for their own good and well-being. Anyone who loves someone wants them to be protected and safe.

God knows we are only protected and safe when we are with Him, so He has done everything to allow us to be with Him and to keep us close.