For our God is a consuming fire.
] Either God personally considered, God in the person of Christ;
so the Shechinah, with the Jews, is called a consuming fire
F14. Christ is truly God, and he is our
God and Lord; and though he is full of grace and mercy, yet he
will appear in great wrath to his enemies, who will not have him
to reign over them: or rather God essentially considered; whose
God he is, and in what sense, and how he comes to be so, (See
Gill on Hebrews
8:10), what is here said of him, that he is a consuming
fire, may be understood of his jealousy in matters of worship, (
Deuteronomy 4:23
Deuteronomy 4:24 ) ,
and so carries in it a reason why he is to be served acceptably,
with reverence and godly fear. God, and he only, is to be
worshipped; and he is to be worshipped in a way suitable to
himself; and he has the sole right of fixing the manner of
worship, both as to the external and internal parts of it: under
the legal dispensation, he was worshipped in a way he then
pitched upon, and suitable to it; and under the Gospel
dispensation he is to be worshipped in an evangelical way; and he
is to have all the glory in every part of worship; and the
ordinances of Gospel worship are immovable; nor are they to be
altered, or others put in their room, without recurring his
displeasure. Moreover, this phrase may be expressive of the
preservation of his people, and of the destruction of their
enemies, ( Deuteronomy
9:1-3 ) . We commonly say, that God out of Christ is a
consuming fire; meaning, that God, as an absolute God, is full of
wrath and vengeance; and it is a truth, but not the truth of this
text; for here it is our God, our covenant God, our God in
Christ; not that he is so to the saints, or to them that are in
Christ: he is indeed as a wall of fire in his providences, to
protect and defend them, and as fire in his word to enlighten and
warm them, to guide and direct them, but not a consuming fire to
them; this he is to their enemies, who are as thorns, and briers,
and stubble before him: and so the Jews interpret ( Deuteronomy
4:24 ) of a fire consuming fire F15; and observe, that
Moses says, thy God, and not our God F16; but the apostle here
uses the latter phrase.