Leviticus 6:13
Verse
Context
The Burnt Offering
12The fire on the altar shall be kept burning; it must not be extinguished. Every morning the priest is to add wood to the fire, arrange the burnt offering on it, and burn the fat portions of the peace offerings on it.13The fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it must not be extinguished.
Sermons
Herbert McGonigle
R.E. Carroll
G.W. North
Phoebe Palmer
Zac PoonenZac PoonenSummary
Commentary
- Adam Clarke
- Keil-Delitzsch
- John Gill
Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
The fire shall ever be burning - See on Lev 6:9 (note) and Lev 6:20 (note). In imitation of this perpetual fire, the ancient Persian Magi, and their descendants the Parses, kept up a perpetual fire; the latter continue it to the present day. This is strictly enjoined in the Zend Avesta, which is a code of laws as sacred among them as the Pentateuch is among the Jews. A Sagnika Brahmin preserves the fire that was kindled at his investiture with the poita, and never suffers it to go out, using the same fire at his wedding and in all his burnt-offerings, till at length his body is burnt with it - Ward's Customs.
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary
Fire was to be kept constantly burning upon the altar without going out, not in order that the heavenly fire, which proceeded from Jehovah when Aaron and his sons first entered upon the service of the altar after their consecration, and consumed the burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, might never be extinguished (see at Lev 9:24); but that the burnt-offering might never go out, because this was the divinely appointed symbol and visible sign of the uninterrupted worship of Jehovah, which the covenant nation could never suspend either day or night, without being unfaithful to its calling. For the same reason other nations also kept perpetual fire burning upon the altars of their principal gods. (For proofs, see Rosenmller and Knobel ad h. l.)
John Gill Bible Commentary
The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar,.... This was what first fell from heaven, Lev 9:24 and which in after ages was maintained by constant fuel put unto it, there being every day burnt offerings upon it; which was an emblem of the love of Christ to his people, which is ever in a flame and burning, and can never be quenched by the many waters of their sins and iniquities; nor by all the sufferings he underwent to atone for them; nor by all the meanness and afflictions they are attended with; his love is fervent towards them, and always the same: and also of their love to him, which is unquenchable by the persecutions of men, by afflictions by the hand of God, by divine desertions, by Satan's temptations, or their own corruptions: it likewise may be an emblem of the graces of the Spirit of God in the hearts of his people, which have both light and heat in them; and though they are sometimes very low as to exercise, yet are in a wonderful manner preserved amidst great oppositions made unto them from within and from without; and may also be a symbol of the word of God, sometimes compared to fire for its light and heat, and may be signified by the fire on the altar for its perpetuity, which continues and abides, notwithstanding the attempts of men and devils to get it out of the world; and though the ministers of it die, that lives, and has been preserved in the worst of times, and will burn most clearly, and shine most brightly in the end of the world. This perpetual fire may also point at the prayers of saints, the fervency of them, and their perseverance in them; or rather to the efficacy and acceptance of the sacrifice of Christ, which always continues; nor may it be amiss applied to the afflictions of God's people, which constantly attend them in this world, and they must expect to have while in it; and even to the wrath of God on wicked men to all eternity, and which is the fire that cannot be quenched: it shall never go out; as it is highly probable it never did, until the destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar; though the author of second Maccabees states that:"For when our fathers were led into Persia, the priests that were then devout took the fire of the altar privily, and hid it in an hollow place of a pit without water, where they kept it sure, so that the place was unknown to all men.'' 2 Maccabees 1:19)pretends that some devout priests, who were carried captives into Persia, hid the fire of the altar privily in the hollow of a pit, where was no water, and in which it was kept sure and unknown to men, and was found and restored in the times of Nehemiah,"20 Now after many years, when it pleased God, Neemias, being sent from the king of Persia, did send of the posterity of those priests that had hid it to the fire: but when they told us they found no fire, but thick water; 21 Then commanded he them to draw it up, and to bring it; and when the sacrifices were laid on, Neemias commanded the priests to sprinkle the wood and the things laid thereupon with the water. 22 When this was done, and the time came that the sun shone, which afore was hid in the cloud, there was a great fire kindled, so that every man marvelled.'' (2 Maccabees 1)but this is contrary to what the Jews always assert (b), that the fire from heaven was wanting in the second temple; and yet from the account Josephus (c) gives of a festival called "Xylophoria", or the feast of the wood carrying, it seems to have been then in being, and great care was taken to preserve it that it might not go out; for, he says, at that feast it is a custom for all to bring wood to the altar, that so there might never be wanting fuel for the fire, for it always remained unextinguished: as to, what some have observed out of Diodorus Siculus (d), that Antiochus Epiphanes, when he went into the temple, quenched this fire, it appears to be a mistake; for Diodorus does not say that he put out the fire of the altar, but that he extinguished the immortal lamp, as it was called by them (the Jews), which was always burning in the temple; by which he plainly means the lamp in the candlestick, and perhaps what the Jews call the western lamp, which was always burning, and was the middle lamp bending to the west, and to which the rest bent: the Heathens in many places imitated this perpetual fire: the Brahmans among the Indians speak of fire falling from heaven, kept by them on everlasting hearths, or in fire pans (e), for that purpose: the Persians had their perpetual fire, having a great opinion of that element: in the march of Darius against Alexander, it is observed by the historian (f), that the fire which the Persians call sacred and eternal was placed on altars of silver, and he is said to adjure his soldiers by the gods of their country, and by the eternal fire on the altars, &c. to rescue the Persian name and nation from the last degree of reproach (g): the Grecians have many traces of this continual fire on the altar among them: at Mantinia, as Pausanias (h) relates, was a temple of Ceres and Proserpina, where a fire was kindled, and great care taken that it might not be extinguished; and in the temple of Pan, a fire burned which was never quenched: and the same writer says (i), with the Eleans was an altar which had fire continually burning on it night and day: and Aelianus (k) makes mention of an altar of Venus at Eryce in Sicily, which burnt night and day; and of which he says many things wonderful and fabulous: and it is well known that the Romans had their goddess Vesta, whom Velleius Paterculus (l) calls the keeper of the perpetual fires; and there were certain virgins, called the "vestal" virgins, whose business it was to take care that the fire never went out; and is by Virgil (m) called the eternal fire: and Vesta itself is thought by some learned men to be the same with "Esh-jah", the fire of Jehovah: now these were all satanical imitations of the perpetual fire on the altar of God. (b) T. Hieros. Taaniot, fol. 65. 1. T. Bab. Yoma, fol. 21. 2. (c) De Bello Jud. l. 2. c. 17. sect. 6. (d) Eclog. 1. ex l. 34. p. 902. (e) Ammian. Marcellin. l. 23. (f) Curt. Hist. l. 3. c. 3. (g) Curt. Hist. l. 4. c. 14. (h) Arcadica sive, l. 8. p. 469, 516. (i) Eliac. 1. sive, l. 5. p. 316. (k) Hist. Animal. l. 10. c. 50. (l) Hist. l. 2. in fine. (m) "Vos aeterni igneis", &c. Aeneid. l. 2.
Leviticus 6:13
The Burnt Offering
12The fire on the altar shall be kept burning; it must not be extinguished. Every morning the priest is to add wood to the fire, arrange the burnt offering on it, and burn the fat portions of the peace offerings on it.13The fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it must not be extinguished.
- Scripture
- Sermons
- Commentary
A Heart From Sin Set Free
By Herbert McGonigle1.2K57:41Freedom From SinGEN 1:1LEV 6:13MAT 1:1TIT 2:11PHM 1:12JN 1:1In this sermon, the preacher reflects on the television series "Peyton Place" and its clever sales technique of leaving viewers hanging, comparing it to the anticipation of future episodes of his own preaching. He then focuses on the theme of universal redemption and Christian holiness, emphasizing that the invitation to salvation is for all people. The preacher also discusses the witness of the Spirit and the assurance of sins forgiven, drawing from the experiences of John and Charles Wesley. The sermon concludes with a call to seek the truth of God and be filled with the fullness of God as redeemed believers.
The Promise of the Father
By R.E. Carroll68135:07LEV 6:13NUM 14:8DEU 4:1JOL 2:23LUK 3:16LUK 24:49JHN 7:37In this sermon, the speaker discusses the promise of the Father, which is a theme that runs throughout the scriptures. They mention testimonies of people who have experienced wholeness and salvation, but emphasize that there is more to it than just that. The speaker then reads various scriptures that point to this promise, including passages from the Old Testament and the New Testament. They highlight the importance of being baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire, and encourage the listeners to wait in Jerusalem for the power from on high.
Our God Is a Consuming Fire - Part 2
By G.W. North35721:15GodEXO 3:2LEV 6:13MAT 17:2MRK 5:41ACT 2:3REV 1:14REV 3:15In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the fiery nature of Jesus and encourages the listeners to embrace the fire of God in their lives. He urges them to choose between being a flame of God or a flame of the world, emphasizing the importance of being united with God's spirit. The preacher shares his personal belief in the love and sacrifice of Jesus, and calls on the congregation to reject lukewarmness and fully surrender to God. He invites them to respond by standing up and moving towards God, urging them to let God baptize them with his spirit and fire.
The Altar
By Phoebe Palmer0LEV 6:13PSA 51:17MAL 1:7MAT 23:19MRK 12:33ROM 12:1HEB 10:101PE 2:5Phoebe Palmer emphasizes the significance of surrendering all aspects of our lives to God, drawing parallels between the Old Testament altar and sacrifices to the Christian's altar found in Christ. She challenges believers to prioritize the sanctity of the altar, representing Christ, over the gifts they bring, echoing the rebuke of the Scribes and Pharisees who valued their offerings more than the altar itself. Palmer urges individuals to fully surrender their bodies, souls, time, talents, and influence to God, recognizing His infinite holiness and the need for complete devotion to Him.
Lukewarmness
By Zac Poonen0LEV 6:13MAT 21:31LUK 11:24JHN 13:35COL 1:17REV 3:14Zac Poonen preaches on the message to the church in Laodicea, where Jesus reveals Himself as the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, and the Beginning of the creation of God. The church was rebuked for being lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, and for being self-sufficient in their wealth while spiritually poor and blind. Zac emphasizes the importance of having hearts aflame with fervent love for God and others, rather than being lukewarm or spiritually dead, as this is the normal state expected of true disciples of Jesus.
Respectable and Dead
By Zac Poonen0True DiscipleshipSpiritual ZealLEV 6:13MAT 21:31LUK 11:24JHN 13:35REV 3:14Zac Poonen emphasizes the danger of being spiritually lukewarm, as exemplified by the Church at Laodicea, which was morally respectable yet spiritually dead. He argues that true discipleship requires a fervent love for God and others, rather than merely the absence of negative feelings. Poonen warns that a lukewarm Christian can cause more harm to the cause of Christ than a worldly unbeliever, as they misrepresent the faith. He stresses the importance of actively cultivating love in our hearts, as true disciples are known by their love for one another. Ultimately, Poonen challenges believers to examine their spiritual temperature and strive for a passionate relationship with God.
(The Lord and His Church) 10. the Proud Church
By Zac Poonen0LEV 6:13MAT 13:44MAT 21:31LUK 11:24LUK 18:9JHN 13:35COL 1:172TI 2:12HEB 12:82PE 2:21REV 3:14Zac Poonen preaches about the church in Laodicea, highlighting the dangers of being lukewarm in faith, neither fully committed nor completely worldly. He emphasizes the importance of being on fire for God, fervently loving others, and avoiding spiritual deadness and self-righteousness. Poonen urges believers to repent, be zealous, and open their hearts to Jesus, who offers redemption and spiritual riches to those willing to pay the price of surrender. He reminds listeners that discipline from the Lord is a sign of His love and calls for wholehearted repentance and overcoming the world, just as Jesus did.
- Adam Clarke
- Keil-Delitzsch
- John Gill
Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
The fire shall ever be burning - See on Lev 6:9 (note) and Lev 6:20 (note). In imitation of this perpetual fire, the ancient Persian Magi, and their descendants the Parses, kept up a perpetual fire; the latter continue it to the present day. This is strictly enjoined in the Zend Avesta, which is a code of laws as sacred among them as the Pentateuch is among the Jews. A Sagnika Brahmin preserves the fire that was kindled at his investiture with the poita, and never suffers it to go out, using the same fire at his wedding and in all his burnt-offerings, till at length his body is burnt with it - Ward's Customs.
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary
Fire was to be kept constantly burning upon the altar without going out, not in order that the heavenly fire, which proceeded from Jehovah when Aaron and his sons first entered upon the service of the altar after their consecration, and consumed the burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, might never be extinguished (see at Lev 9:24); but that the burnt-offering might never go out, because this was the divinely appointed symbol and visible sign of the uninterrupted worship of Jehovah, which the covenant nation could never suspend either day or night, without being unfaithful to its calling. For the same reason other nations also kept perpetual fire burning upon the altars of their principal gods. (For proofs, see Rosenmller and Knobel ad h. l.)
John Gill Bible Commentary
The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar,.... This was what first fell from heaven, Lev 9:24 and which in after ages was maintained by constant fuel put unto it, there being every day burnt offerings upon it; which was an emblem of the love of Christ to his people, which is ever in a flame and burning, and can never be quenched by the many waters of their sins and iniquities; nor by all the sufferings he underwent to atone for them; nor by all the meanness and afflictions they are attended with; his love is fervent towards them, and always the same: and also of their love to him, which is unquenchable by the persecutions of men, by afflictions by the hand of God, by divine desertions, by Satan's temptations, or their own corruptions: it likewise may be an emblem of the graces of the Spirit of God in the hearts of his people, which have both light and heat in them; and though they are sometimes very low as to exercise, yet are in a wonderful manner preserved amidst great oppositions made unto them from within and from without; and may also be a symbol of the word of God, sometimes compared to fire for its light and heat, and may be signified by the fire on the altar for its perpetuity, which continues and abides, notwithstanding the attempts of men and devils to get it out of the world; and though the ministers of it die, that lives, and has been preserved in the worst of times, and will burn most clearly, and shine most brightly in the end of the world. This perpetual fire may also point at the prayers of saints, the fervency of them, and their perseverance in them; or rather to the efficacy and acceptance of the sacrifice of Christ, which always continues; nor may it be amiss applied to the afflictions of God's people, which constantly attend them in this world, and they must expect to have while in it; and even to the wrath of God on wicked men to all eternity, and which is the fire that cannot be quenched: it shall never go out; as it is highly probable it never did, until the destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar; though the author of second Maccabees states that:"For when our fathers were led into Persia, the priests that were then devout took the fire of the altar privily, and hid it in an hollow place of a pit without water, where they kept it sure, so that the place was unknown to all men.'' 2 Maccabees 1:19)pretends that some devout priests, who were carried captives into Persia, hid the fire of the altar privily in the hollow of a pit, where was no water, and in which it was kept sure and unknown to men, and was found and restored in the times of Nehemiah,"20 Now after many years, when it pleased God, Neemias, being sent from the king of Persia, did send of the posterity of those priests that had hid it to the fire: but when they told us they found no fire, but thick water; 21 Then commanded he them to draw it up, and to bring it; and when the sacrifices were laid on, Neemias commanded the priests to sprinkle the wood and the things laid thereupon with the water. 22 When this was done, and the time came that the sun shone, which afore was hid in the cloud, there was a great fire kindled, so that every man marvelled.'' (2 Maccabees 1)but this is contrary to what the Jews always assert (b), that the fire from heaven was wanting in the second temple; and yet from the account Josephus (c) gives of a festival called "Xylophoria", or the feast of the wood carrying, it seems to have been then in being, and great care was taken to preserve it that it might not go out; for, he says, at that feast it is a custom for all to bring wood to the altar, that so there might never be wanting fuel for the fire, for it always remained unextinguished: as to, what some have observed out of Diodorus Siculus (d), that Antiochus Epiphanes, when he went into the temple, quenched this fire, it appears to be a mistake; for Diodorus does not say that he put out the fire of the altar, but that he extinguished the immortal lamp, as it was called by them (the Jews), which was always burning in the temple; by which he plainly means the lamp in the candlestick, and perhaps what the Jews call the western lamp, which was always burning, and was the middle lamp bending to the west, and to which the rest bent: the Heathens in many places imitated this perpetual fire: the Brahmans among the Indians speak of fire falling from heaven, kept by them on everlasting hearths, or in fire pans (e), for that purpose: the Persians had their perpetual fire, having a great opinion of that element: in the march of Darius against Alexander, it is observed by the historian (f), that the fire which the Persians call sacred and eternal was placed on altars of silver, and he is said to adjure his soldiers by the gods of their country, and by the eternal fire on the altars, &c. to rescue the Persian name and nation from the last degree of reproach (g): the Grecians have many traces of this continual fire on the altar among them: at Mantinia, as Pausanias (h) relates, was a temple of Ceres and Proserpina, where a fire was kindled, and great care taken that it might not be extinguished; and in the temple of Pan, a fire burned which was never quenched: and the same writer says (i), with the Eleans was an altar which had fire continually burning on it night and day: and Aelianus (k) makes mention of an altar of Venus at Eryce in Sicily, which burnt night and day; and of which he says many things wonderful and fabulous: and it is well known that the Romans had their goddess Vesta, whom Velleius Paterculus (l) calls the keeper of the perpetual fires; and there were certain virgins, called the "vestal" virgins, whose business it was to take care that the fire never went out; and is by Virgil (m) called the eternal fire: and Vesta itself is thought by some learned men to be the same with "Esh-jah", the fire of Jehovah: now these were all satanical imitations of the perpetual fire on the altar of God. (b) T. Hieros. Taaniot, fol. 65. 1. T. Bab. Yoma, fol. 21. 2. (c) De Bello Jud. l. 2. c. 17. sect. 6. (d) Eclog. 1. ex l. 34. p. 902. (e) Ammian. Marcellin. l. 23. (f) Curt. Hist. l. 3. c. 3. (g) Curt. Hist. l. 4. c. 14. (h) Arcadica sive, l. 8. p. 469, 516. (i) Eliac. 1. sive, l. 5. p. 316. (k) Hist. Animal. l. 10. c. 50. (l) Hist. l. 2. in fine. (m) "Vos aeterni igneis", &c. Aeneid. l. 2.