What does Tribe teach about consuming fire?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At Tribe, the teaching on this starts with a definition Brian Hunter introduced in the series: the God of the Bible is a consuming fire who will never compromise holiness for love. He will not make exceptions, and he cannot make exceptions, because a less-than-perfect God would not be God at all. Brian drew that definition from two fire events that sit on the same page in Leviticus, one where fire from God produced worship, and one where fire from the same God killed two priests on their first day on the job. The point was not to make people afraid of God but to take his holiness seriously, because the stakes of getting that wrong are real.
Brian acknowledged that the first honest human response to those moments is to ask why. He gave people permission to sit with that question, but pressed on it as the most productive question available. God, he said, does not owe anyone an explanation for anything he does, ever. A more useful posture is the one a woman named Michelle put forward in the room: asking God what he wants you to learn about him in a hard situation. That question moves toward relationship rather than looping in frustration, and Brian said God delights in giving understanding even though he owes none.
All of that builds toward the reason Jesus matters. Because God will not compromise his holiness and all people have fallen short of it, a genuine dilemma exists that cannot be resolved by simply deciding to overlook sin. Brian says, "The most incredible dilemma in the history of the universe required the most brilliant solution ever conceived." That solution is what Leviticus, read rightly, is pointing toward. The sacrificial system is not a set of arbitrary rules. It is a blueprint showing the extraordinary lengths God goes to in order to dwell with his people, and it lands on Jesus, who Brian described as laying down his life as an offering for sin, not to cover over mistakes, but to erase them.
Taught from Leviticus 9:18-24 · Leviticus 10:1-6 · Hebrews 9:27-28 · Psalm 2 · Luke 12:47-48
“God does not owe me an answer at all. There's no pleading with him.”
From A Consuming Fire
The passage taught · Hebrews 9:27-28
27 Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment,
28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, without sin, to those who are eagerly waiting for him for salvation.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- February 24, 2025 A Consuming Fire Brian Hunter explores Leviticus 9-10 and Hebrews 9 to ask how a holy God can love sinful people without compromise, and why Jesus is the only answer.
- February 23, 2025 Finding Jesus in Leviticus A pastor and congregation wrestle with Leviticus 9-10 and Hebrews 9 to ask how a holy, consuming God can love sinful people without ever compromising his holiness.