For example: when God appeared on Mount
Sinai (Exod. xix, 18) ``The Lord descended
upon it in fire.'' Moses, repeating this history,
said: ``The Lord spake unto you out of the
midst of fire'' (Deut. iv, 12). Again, when
the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses out
of the flaming bush, ``the bush burned with
fire and the bush was not consumed'' (Exod.
iii, 3). Fire from the Lord consumed the
burnt offering of Aaron (Lev. ix, 24), the
sacrifice of Gideon (Judg. vi, 21), the burnt
offering of David (1 Chron. xxxi, 26), and
that at the dedication of King Solomon's
temple (Chron. vii, 1). And when Elijah made
his sacrifice to prove that Baal was not God,
``the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the
burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones,
and the dust and the water that was in the
trench.'' (1 Kings, xviii, 38.)

Since sacrifice had from the earliest days
been considered as food offered to the gods,
it was quite logical to argue that when fire
from Heaven fell upon the offering, God himself
was present and consumed His own. Thus
the Paracelsists and other fire believers sought,
and as they believed found, high authority for
continuing a part of the fire worship of the
early tribes.