Wickedness Burns Like Fire

Isaiah 9:18: "Surely wickedness burns like a fire; it consumes briers and thorns, it sets the forest thickets ablaze, so that it rolls upward in a column of smoke."

The imagery of a wildfire is an effective analogy presented by Scripture to help us appreciate the severity of impact that a rebellious, wicked spirit can have in our lives. Many of us have had the opportunity of seeing on television a breaking newscast of an uncontained fire, racing across an arid landscape. Hopeless are the faces of the people who live in the path of the blaze, wanting to find protection for their property from the approaching inferno, but being helpless to stop its advances.

I think that we can learn several things through the Scriptural analogy of wickedness and fire:

First, we can see that the fire "consumes briers and thorns . . . (setting) the forest thickets ablaze." One thing that a fire needs is fuel to burn; it feeds on any dry vegetation in its path in order to spread itself as far as it can. When combustible materials are absent, the fire loses its ability to endure and eventually burns itself out. We must remember that God calls us to live lives of obedience and submission to Him. Therefore, what we must do is remove anything in our midst that could be used as a fuel source for wickedness. That source may be an enticing temptation; a negative disposition toward the Lord, others, and/or our circumstances; or it may be a general lack of faith in God and His promises. Nonetheless, we must remove those ingredients that would fuel the flames of wickedness in our lives.

Also, we can observe that a fire "consumes" everything in its path. It is overwhelming for those called to assess the utter destruction of a fire after the blaze has passed through an area; nothing is left but the charred remains of those things that once were beautiful and precious. We can see a similar impact of a rebellious spirit, for such a spirit scorches all persons and opportunities that are in its path. The losses can be quite severe: lost marriages, neglected children, abused friends, lost dreams, loss of God's blessing, painful consequences, et al.

We can see in Isaiah 9 that the wickedness of the Israelites brought such a level of calamity upon their people, that they would not soon recover from the devastation. These Israelites would see the invasion of their land by their ruthless enemies (9:11); they would see the death of many of their people (9:17); and they would be deprived of many of the necessities of life (9:20). God chose to remove His Divine blessing from His people because they forsook their allegiance to Him as their Lord and Savior. Their wickedness ultimately burned up the blessings of the Lord.

God's Word is very intentional at teaching us of the perils of a disobedient spirit against the One True God. Now that we know the utter destruction that comes from such a disposition, we would do well to avoid such a path of wickedness and rather surrender our wills to the One who loves us beyond our comprehension and desires to shower us with the rains of His blessing . . . It is the Lord who provides us with protection from the destruction of wickedness, and it is the Lord who can take our scorched lives and restore them again to the beauty they once were .