John Calvin Commentary Leviticus 6:9

"Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt-offering: the burnt-offering shall be on the hearth upon the altar all night unto the morning; and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning thereon." — Leviticus 6:9 (ASV)

Command Aaron and his sons. He more clearly explains what might have seemed to be omitted. It is with good reason that he carefully enters into these full details, for since God prefers obedience to all sacrifices, He was unwilling for anything to remain doubtful concerning the external rites, which were not otherwise of great importance. This was so that they might learn to observe precisely, and with the most exact care, whatever the Law commanded, and that they should not impose anything of their own, since the purity of the holy things was corrupted by the smallest human invention. Therefore, He would leave nothing to the people’s judgment, but directed them by a fixed rule even in the most trivial matters.

Concerning the burnt offerings, He commands that they should not be taken away from the altar until they were consumed by the fire. After they were put on, He commands them to be burned in a constant fire until the next day. For this reason, He expressly says that the fire should be kept burning on the altar all night, since the sacrifices would not have been reduced to ashes without adding fuel.

Secondly, He commands the priest, clothed in the linen garment and breeches as he was accustomed to be in the performance of his sacred duties, to go to the altar, take away the ashes, and put them beside the altar or at some part of it. But when he has gone away from the altar, He instructs him to take off his holy garments and carry the ashes out of the camp to a clean place.

What He had previously briefly mentioned concerning the supply of wood, He now declares more fully: it was so the fire would not go out. Again, He assigns to the priest the task of arranging the wood every morning. Because in the peace offerings²⁷⁵ the Law commanded only the fat to be burned, Moses now adds (Leviticus 6:12) that the fat was to be burned on the same fire. It is worthy of particular observation that He finally adds a command about keeping the fire burning so that it never goes out.

The purpose of this perpetuity was that the offerings should be burned with heavenly fire. For on the day that Aaron was consecrated, the sacrifice was reduced to ashes not by human means but miraculously, as a sign of approval. It is true that God did not choose daily to exert this power; but He involved human hands and labor in such a way that the origin of the sacred fire would still be from heaven.

The same thing afterwards happened at the dedication of Solomon’s temple, because that alteration of the divine decree demanded a sign (tesseram,) so that no one would think it was at man's will that the splendor of the temple should surpass the tabernacle. Finally, Elijah’s sacrifice was graced by the same privilege when he restored the abolished legal service; then also God upheld what He had ordained in His Law, in opposition to all corrupt and degenerate rites.

Meanwhile, to prevent any adulterations, He chose to have the fire continually burning on the altar day and night, nor was it permissible to take it from elsewhere. Indeed, there was a perpetual fire among the Persians²⁷⁶ and also at Rome under the guardianship of the Vestal virgins;²⁷⁷ and it may be that in foolish mimicry they adopted for themselves the custom they had heard was observed by the Jews.

For in this way, to deceive unbelievers, the devil often falsely pretends to something divine and imitates God just as an ape imitates a man. But God’s purpose in rejecting strange fire was to keep the people in His own genuine ordinance prescribed by the Law, so that no human inventions should creep in. The prohibition of strange fire was equivalent to forbidding men to introduce anything of their own, to add to the pure doctrine of the Law, or to deviate from its rule.

Meanwhile, since God had once testified—as if by stretching out His hand from heaven (to receive them,²⁷⁸)—that the sacrifices were acceptable to Him, believers were confirmed in their confidence of this by the pledge of the perpetual fire.

²⁷⁵ Or peace-offerings, vide supra, p. 105.p. 105.

²⁷⁶ “The Persians regarded with reverence the sun and every kind of fire. The fire continually kept alive in their temples, was considered as sacred. It had been kindled from fire, which Zoroaster pretended to have brought down from heaven. It was fed by a particular kind of wood, and was supposed to be polluted even by the breath of those who approached it.” — Hill’s Essays on Ancient Greece, Essay 20. The sacred fire was kept alive even in their marches. — Curt, 3 3; Ammian Marcel., 23:6.

²⁷⁷ “Virgines Vestales in urbe custodiunto ignem loci publici sempiternum.” — Cicero de Legg. 2:8..” — Cicero de Legg. 2:8.

²⁷⁸ Added from Fr.