Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 94 · April 4
Wood Every Morning
“The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out.”
A man in linen, in the dark, with a shovel.
That is where Leviticus 6 starts the day. The priest dresses in his linen garment and his linen breeches, and then: take up the ashes which the fire hath consumed with the burnt offering on the altar, and he shall put them beside the altar. Then he changes clothes and carries the ashes out of the camp to a clean place. Then, back at the altar: the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order upon it.
The verse everyone knows comes at the end of that roster. The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out. It is the third time in five verses the chapter has said it, which is what instructions look like when they are addressed to men on a rota.
Now the way it usually gets preached, because it is worth naming. The line is handed to people as a charge to keep their spiritual fervour alight, with the burden of the flame placed on them. Look at where the fire on that altar came from. There came a fire out from before the LORD, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat. God lit it. No priest in Israel ever struck that light.
Which leaves the sons of Aaron a smaller and far more possible job. Somebody had to be there at first light with an armful of wood, and somebody had to shovel out yesterday's ash. Those two chores, done by tired men in rotation, are the whole of what kept that fire burning for generations.
Leviticus is describing a literal altar in a courtyard, and it is Hebrews that moves the language onto us: By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. Which brings back the man with the shovel. Your part was never the flame. It is the wood, and the ash, and being there in the dark when it is your turn.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 94 is Forgotten on Purpose (Hebrews 10:17).