In verse fifteen of Isaiah thirty-three, we get the question, “Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire?” I thought that was an interesting question.

Scripture tells us that God is a consuming fire. Believers are baptized by fire. It’s a cleansing. The three Hebrew boys of faith walk in the fire and are not consumed. The bush where God appears to Moses is not consumed.

God’s not the one out to destroy. He does destroy, but only what is destroying us. He’s not out to get us, but to get what’s keeping us from Him.

If God is a consuming fire, and you want to be with Him, to dwell in His presence, then you must submit to His fire.

The chapter gives us an answer to who can dwell in the consuming fire.

You can dwell with the consuming fire if you are one who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who despises gain from oppression or bribes, who won’t listen to talk of bloodshed, and closes his eyes to keep from looking at evil.

When we have all the muck cleansed away, we find ourselves living in the kingdom, the land of promise. It’s where the Rock is our defense and we’re nourished from God’s word and His Spirit is a spring of waters in us that will not fail.

In our place of purity, having been cleansed, we’ll see the King in all His beauty. It’s the pure in heart who see God.

His majesty will be for us. He will be our judge, lawgiver, and king.

Dwelling in the consuming fire means we’ll be untroubled, immovable, because our heart will be steadfast, trusting in the Lord, submitted to His workings in us, bringing us through the flame unscorched, forgiven, pure, and in the presence of God.