Leviticus 10:2

2. Fire from the Lord The sacred fire which these priests had slighted had “come out from before the Lord.” Leviticus 9:24. “Fire had just consumed the burnt-offering and the fat upon the altar in token of divine complacency and sacred nearness, and the acceptance of human worship, and that same fire went out from the Lord and devoured the audacious priests the sacerdotal blasphemers ate them up as if they had been common bones! The Lord has never been negligent of his own altar.” Joseph Parker. By a species of poetical justice, fire from the same source is the instrument of their punishment. “Our God is a consuming fire.” This fearful exhibition of wrath and power indicates his real presence where his name is. “A saint, when asked, ‘What is the most dangerous doctrine?’ replied, ‘God’s own truth held carnally, and to exalt self.’ For his light may blind, his ark destroy, his sanctuary smite, his table be damnation. And a truth perverted may be the firmest chain to hold and bind and blind us for ever.” Jukes.

Devoured them Literally, ate them up. But this strong word is used metaphorically for slew, since neither their bodies nor even their garments were consumed. The stroke was like a deadly flash of lightning issuing from the most holy place, the abode of the invisible Jehovah. Here we find another parallel between the opening of the dispensation of shadows and the beginning of the official work of the Holy Ghost. Two persons are struck dead at the inauguration of each dispensation, amid the displays of omnipotent power, and the rejoicings of the people at the tokens of Jehovah’s presence and favor. See Acts 5:1-11. In both these passages we have the double action of the same fire, which consumes the burnt offering and baptizes the believer with fire in token of acceptance, and smites the sinning priest and the lying Ananias in token of judgment. “God is love.” “God is a consuming fire.” His anger against sin burns most intensely around his own altars. “Poetical justice might have closed the book of Leviticus with chap. 9. It would have been a glorious close Aaron moved to feeling; Moses giving way to emotion; the Lord’s fire consuming the offering upon the altar; the people singing, shouting, and falling down in adoration! Why did not the history close there? That would have been Canaan enough for any nation, paradise enough for any people. But there is another chapter.”