The reason I said that the people seemed to be impatient was that they were anxious for God to bring judgment on their enemies and restore the glory and power of their nation. But Malachi points the finger at them and says that they themselves need to be cleansed. The Messiah, announced by the "messenger" of verse 1, will be like a "refiner's fire", He will purify the people.

The New Testament picks up this same theme when the next prophet who comes on the scene, the very "messenger" of Malachi 3:1, predicts that Jesus will "baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire." We may prefer to think about this "baptism in the Holy Spirit" as a glorious religious experience - it was meant to be for the total cleansing of our souls. The truth is, we can accept the fire for cleansing now, or get it later.

There are three places in Scripture where God himself is likened to a particular kind of fire. But this is not your ordinary, calm, contained, romantic fire in the wood stove or fireplace. The Bible proclaims God as a "Consuming Fire".

But before looking at God in this way, I'd like to tell you a story.

Recently, a News Commentator brought back to mind something which had transpired fifty years ago in the western region of our country. The story is interesting not only to those who are old enough to remember, or who happen to be interested in fire fighting. It also carries with it some valuable lessons for us today.

It is the story of the "Mann Gulch Fire", and as one investigator called it, the "Race That Couldn't Be Won."

On August 5, 1949, a very hot and windy day, a wildfire now known as the "Mann Gulch" fire, overran 16 firefighters in Helena National Forest in Montana. The fire was spotted just east of the Missouri River, 20 miles north of Helena, Montana at 12:25 p.m. It had started near the top of a ridge between Meriwether Canyon and Mann Gulch, a minor drainage leading into the Missouri River.

As soon as the fire was discovered, an 18-man smokejumper crew was dispatched from Missoula, Montana, a little over 100 miles west of the fire; they parachuted into a small valley near the fire, completing the jump around 4:00 p.m. Because the twin engine DC-3 encountered heavy turbulence, fire-fighting gear was scattered and the crew's radio was broken.

By the time the jumpers gathered their gear, at nearly 5 p.m., the leader of the crew, R. Wagner Dodge, could see the fire was burning more rapidly than before. An hour and a half earlier, the wind had switched to the south, and was blowing strongly at nearly 20 miles per hour; as the crew proceeded down the gulch, they were walking into a strong headwind. Although at that time they were not worried about safety, Dodge mumbled something about the thicket of ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir they were in, he said it was like being in a death trap.

As the fire fighters continued down the canyon, they suddenly realized that fire was blocking their route to the river. Whirlwinds had sent firebrands from the main fire, starting spot fires in the timber ahead of them. Soon the tree crowns caught fire, and the strong gusty winds pushed the fire through the crowns. A column of black smoke from the burning tree crowns could be seen between them and the Missouri River. At first the spot fires produced a relatively slow-moving fire, but given the strong winds, steep slope, and unstable atmosphere, the fire quickly crowned. Burning up the slope, the wind-driven crown fire spread at a speed of up to 120 feet per minute, and was only 150 to 200 yards away when the crew turned around.

As the crew moved back up the canyon, the timber began to thin, there was more grass and brush, and this lighter fuel produced a faster spreading fire. Other factors were also in the fire's favor. The fire was burning uphill with a following wind. While the uphill grade slowed the crew, it caused the fire to accelerate to about 170 to 280 feet per minute. Traveling through tall dry grass, the crew hurried across the slope along an 18 percent uphill grade - during each successive leg of the journey they went faster. But the fire went even faster.

There was no trail to follow on this slope, which became as steep as 76 percent leading to the ridge on their left. The terrain was broken and littered with loose rock. The river which they had set out to reach was now behind them, and there must have been some confusion about where they were going. It was very hot, and initially they were still carrying packs and tools. As they moved out of the timber into open areas, the crew was more exposed to the wind. When the leader, Dodge, told his crew to discard their heavy tools, most of them realized they were in real trouble - now the fire was only 75 to 100 yards behind them. At the speed the fire was traveling, it would cover that distance in about 1 min.

Emerging from the trees into the grass, Dodge must have realized they could not reach safety, and conceived the idea of burning away a small clearing. This "escape fire", would quickly clear an area where the crew could go after the fine fuels burned away, giving them a chance to escape the flames of the main fire.

Dodge sized up the situation better than most of his crew, who either thought they could outrun the fire or saw no other alternative. Some, if not all of the crew stopped briefly to see what Dodge was doing and listen to his pleas for them to get into the burned-out area he was preparing.

When the main fire was only 50 yards away, Dodge stopped to light his "escape fire" at about 5:55. At that moment, a curious thing happened: Dodge is reported to have lit his fire with book matches, evidence of a momentary period of calm, since such matches are notoriously poor for sustaining a flame in a wind.

Once the crewmembers dropped their tools, they split up, with the majority continuing to run up the canyon. The slowest of the crewmembers only got about 100 yards before being caught by the fire. One man broke his leg while fleeing on the steep, rocky slope.

Since they did not understand why the foreman was setting fire to the grass, no one stayed with him. Three of the men, thinking he had set a fire that would somehow shield them from the main fire, scrambled up the right-hand side of Dodge's fire to the base of the rimrock. (One of the fascinating features of the Rocky Mountains is the rock formation known as "rimrock". It appears as a wall of rock along the rims of canyons or around the top of flat mountains. Rimrock is nearly perpendicular, varying in height - in Mann Gulch the rimrock is 6 to 12 ft high, broken occasionally by crevices.)

Fortunately, two of them found a crevice through which they climbed to the relative safety of the ridge above. As they climbed, one of these two collapsed in a juniper bush, too exhausted to move, but his companion encouraged him on, and they took refuge in a rockslide nearby. The third jumper, who followed the pair to the base of the rimrock, did not go through the crevice to the ridge above; his body was found at the base of the rimrock a few hundred feet away.

Foreman Dodge lay down within the area he had burned off. The grassy slope had quickly burned away, giving him a large area free of fuels to prevent the main fire's flames or radiation from injuring him. Fierce winds lifted him off the ground three times during the few minutes it took the fire to pass over him. After lying there for 15 minutes, he was able to sit up and move about between the pockets of fire that were still burning.

Only three smokejumpers survived uninjured: Dodge in his escape fire, Robert Sallee and Walter Rumsey, who took the shortest but steepest route directly up the slope to the ridge top.

(This story was condensed from a report by Richard C. Rothermel, a research physical scientist stationed at the Intermountain Fire Sciences Laboratory in Missoula, MT. See also the book by Maclean, Norman. 1992. "Young Men and Fire." Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 301 p.)

So what can we learn from this now 50 year old tragic incident? If nothing else, it is this, "Respect the power of the fire. It can out run you, it can destroy you."

That leads us back to the Scriptures which describe God as a fire, a "Consuming Fire".

In one of the places where this expression is found, Moses promised that God would go before them and clear out the land they would soon possess, and He would do this as a "Consuming Fire". "The LORD thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them." (Deuteronomy 9:3)

Of course the people who listened to Moses' speech remembered what had happened just a few years earlier. When Moses went to meet God, and receive the Law, the people were instructed to stay away from the mountain. Earlier in his speech, Moses had mentioned this experience. "You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain while it blazed with fire to the very heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness." (Deuteronomy 4:11)

It was in that same speech that Moses said, "For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God." (Deuteronomy 4:24) Notice that just prior to that, Moses had warned the people not to forget the covenant they had with God, and not to make an idol.

The writer to the Hebrews, who made very frequent mention of the Old Testament, also described God this way, "For our God is a consuming fire." (Hebrews 12:29) Notice what is stated in the previous verse 28, "Since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our 'God is a consuming fire.'"

This takes us right back to Malachi who was concerned about the fact that the people were not worshipping "God acceptably with reverence and awe". Let's make note of just three of the ways the people of his day were not taking serious their relationship with God.

"When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor!" (Malachi 1:8"

"'I hate divorce,' says the LORD God of Israel, 'and I hate a man's covering himself with violence as well as with his garment,' says the LORD Almighty. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith.'" (Malachi 2:16)

"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house." (Malachi 3:10)

There is an acceptable way to worship God, but "Consuming Fire" is reserved for those who do not.

However, it's not all bad news, there is an escape.

The part of the "Mann Gulch Fire" story that grabbed me the most was this. There were only three men who survived the fire - the two who found refuge in the rock, and the foreman who laid down right in the middle of the fire's path. The sad truth is, all of these men could have survived this fire, if only they had listened to and heeded the appeals of their leader. "Come lay down with me. This is the way, if you will follow me, you will be saved."

You see, even while we love to sing the songs about God's great love, we cannot avoid this other truth about God - He is a "Consuming Fire", and no matter how hard we try, we can't outrun God. But listen to the pleading of our Leader. He lays Himself down in the path of the fire, and all who follow Him shall be saved.

Malachi ends his book with another reference to fire; it's a stern warning and a wonderful promise, all in one passage.

"'Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire,' says the LORD Almighty. 'Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall.'" (Malachi 4:1,2)