It is strange, yet very significant, that the glory of the Lord was like that! It would have been easier to comprehend if it was written that the anger of the Lord was like that. The glory of the Lord consists of all His virtues; for example, His love, mercy, righteousness, and truthfulness. Thus we understand that all this might appear like a consuming fire in the eyes of sinful people. His fervent, pure, impartial love burns like a consuming fire against all our self-love and against all our assumed, false semblance of love, against all our hypocrisy and playacting, also against all our mercilessness when it was in our power to help, but we neglected to do so! And His fervent, flaming, precise righteousness burns like a consuming fire against all unrighteousness, first and foremost in money matters, against all sloppiness and indifference when it concerns quickly repaying what you owe. This also applies to the spiritual realm. Let everyone take Romans 13, especially verses 7 and 8, thoroughly and firmly to heart!!! What a consuming fire God’s truthfulness is against people’s deception, exaggerations, fabrications, inaccuracies, and all the careless words that proceed from our mouths! Yet He does not want to consume us, but the sin that so easily ensnares us. Heb. 12:1. You stay far away from God and godly people if you do not want to get rid of your sin. On the other hand, if you desire to be rid of it, you stay more or less close to His glory where it can be found. It is very good that both God and godly people are also full of grace so they do not let the fire and light shine more than a person can bear, but they are judicious stewards of their glory, so that people do not suffer injury but are helped instead, everyone according to his receptivity. The Father be highly praised for His fatherly care for every one of us because He, the Almighty and All-Good and All-Wise Father does as much as possible and the best possible in each one of us and with each one of us! Therefore He is worthy of being worshiped to the utmost degree and in the deepest sense!Elias Aslaksen