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.”
It is still dark when a priest in linen clothes picks up a shovel. That is how Leviticus 6 begins the day at the altar.
The priest puts on "his linen garment" and his linen breeches. Then he must "take up the ashes which the fire hath consumed with the burnt offering on the altar, and he shall put them beside the altar." After that he changes his clothes and carries the ashes outside 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 many people know comes at the end of that list of duties: "The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out." It is the third time in five verses that the chapter says so. That is how instructions sound when they are written for men who take turns on a work schedule.
This verse is often preached in a way worth looking at. People are told it is a command to keep their own spiritual fire burning, and so the whole weight of the flame is put on them. Yet 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 sent that fire on the day the altar's service began, and the priests' task was to keep it going, not to start it.
That leaves the sons of Aaron a smaller job, and one they could actually do. Somebody had to be there at first light with an armful of wood, and somebody had to shovel out yesterday's ash. Those two plain chores, done by tired men taking turns, kept that fire burning year after year.
Leviticus is describing a real altar in a real courtyard. It is the book of Hebrews that brings the language over to us: "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually." And that brings us back to the priest with the shovel. The flame was never yours to make, because God gives it. Your part is the wood and the ash, and being there in the dark when it is your turn, trusting Him to keep the fire alive.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 94 is Forgotten on Purpose (Hebrews 10:17).