Also I gave them My Sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, so that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them. (v. 12)

Christ, the Lord of Sabbath, saved us from the life of slavery by shedding His blood on the cross. And the Passover symbolizes the saving work of Christ according to the Father’s will. God who justifies also sanctifies people. And yet, many people in the Protestant churches deny this truth. There are people, including ministers and theologians, who think they can sanctify themselves by works. I believe the Puritanism has done much harm to the Protestant churches. Because people deny God, He announces judgements on them. These people, who think they can sanctify themselves by works, are considered as evildoers because they do not have the true knowledge of God given by the Holy Spirit.

But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not walk in My statutes and they rejected My ordinances, which, if a person follows them, then he will live by them; and they greatly profaned My Sabbaths. Then I resolved to pour out My wrath on them in the wilderness, to annihilate them.(v.13)

Therefore, God will send fire on the world.

and say to the forest of the Negev, ‘Hear the word of the Lord: this is what the Lord God says: “Behold, I am going to kindle a fire in you, and it will consume every green tree in you, as well as every dry tree; the blazing flame will not go out and the entire surface from south to north will be scorched by it. And all mankind will see that I, the Lord, have kindled it; it will not go out.”’” Then I said, “Oh, Lord God! They are saying of me, ‘Is he not just speaking in riddles?’” (v. 47-49)

The first sounded, and there was hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled to the earth; and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. (Revelation 8:7)

Revelation 8 talks about the seventh seal and the first, the second, the third, and the fourth trumpet. Sealing of the saints happens between the sixth and the seventh seal. The first trumpet talks about burning of the third of the earth. In a similar pattern, sealing of God’s people who lament over idolatrous acts done in the temple happens in Ezekiel 9:4. Ezekiel 20 talks about the burning of trees witnessed by all mankind. God describes Himself as a consuming fire. But God does not burn everything as we read Exodus 3:2.

For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. (Deuteronomy 4:24; see also Hebrews 12:29)

Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not being consumed. (Exodus 3:2)

A tree can be interpreted as a man, a church, or a nation in the Bible. There are trees that do not burn. Those trees who are united with Christ (Word) cannot be consumed by fire.

each one’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each one’s work. (1 Cor 3:13)

The words of the LORD are pure words; Like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, filtered seven times. (Psalm 12:6)

If anyone puts faith in their own works and speaks against God’s words, their works will be consumed by fire at the end. When men built the tower of Babel, they put much work into it. But God made it impossible for them to carry out their plans.

They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” (Genesis 11:3-7)

It may appear to some that God judges like men do. There is a big difference between human judges and God. That is God sees the heart of every person. The Bible says that the heart produces evil (Matthew 15:19). The works reveal what is truly in one’s heart. Only God is the true and righteous judge because He judges people by their heart. People judge only by what they see and by their traditions and laws. Church leaders act like they have divine authority to judge other Christians. But they must rely on God and must not focus on people. Anyone who does not receive the Holy Spirit will be rejected by God and be consumed by fire because God judges by one’s works that come from the heart.

While I was in a Reformed church, I came to know that the church leaders judge people by their own interpretations of the Bible. The leaders say they follow their church orders and the Confessions. But they fail to see what the real problem was. The problem was that they were merciful to people who love evil deeds and were harsh to those who want to live according to God’s words. They did not realize that they needed to repent. In a dream, even before their deeds were revealed to me, all seven elders laughed at me. One of them was on a wheelchair, which means he was spiritually disabled. They laughed at me because I tried to expel excrement. I mentioned before that I was the church in my dream. On the outside, my wounds were bad but not life-threatening. But then I realized that the wounds were bigger and deeper than I initially thought.

Christ often referred Himself as bread. He is Truth and Word of God. When Truth comes and lives with a person, the person naturally expel excrement just as we eat food and then expel stools and urine later. People know that they will die if they stop eating. But they don’t realize that they die when they stop expelling stools and urine. When we come to know God by the Holy Spirit through the words of God, we naturally repent of our sins and turn away from evil. What churches around the world do not realize is that they need repentance. They boast that they know God and yet, rely on men and seek after fame and popularity. Therefore, they cannot repent. Even if they try to repent, their prayers are not accepted because their repentance is not from God, and most importantly because they do not accept the fact that repentance is initiated and completed by God alone. If anyone claims that people can repent and earn God’s grace by their own initiatives, he/she is an idolater. When the Holy Spirit comes, one realizes his/her own foolishness and idolatrous acts. There are people who will never receive the Holy Spirit. God lets them do what they want to do – living a falsely pious life, relying on their works, and rejecting the Spirit. Yet, the entire house of true Israel, the invisible church, will be saved because Christ has bought them with a price of His own blood according to the Father’s will. And the church lives by faith in God.

“As for you, house of Israel,” this is what the Lord God says: “Go, serve, everyone of you his idols; but later you will certainly listen to Me, and My holy name you will no longer defile with your gifts and your idols. For on My holy mountain, on the high mountain of Israel,” declares the Lord God, “there the entire house of Israel, all of them, will serve Me in the land; there I will accept them and there I will demand your contributions and the choicest of your gifts, with all your holy things. As a soothing aroma I will accept you when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered; and I will show Myself to be holy among you in the sight of the nations. And you will know that I am the Lord, when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the land which I swore to give to your forefathers. And there you will remember your ways and all your deeds by which you have defiled yourselves; and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for all the evil things that you have done. Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I have dealt with you in behalf of My name, not according to your evil ways or according to your corrupt deeds, house of Israel,” declares the Lord God.’” (v. 39-44)

for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:20)

But false prophets also appeared among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. (2 Peter 2:1)