This quote is part of the Bible’s earliest record of God. The Hebrew people leaving Egypt understood God as a devouring fire (Exodus 24:17), especially when Moses entered the mist on top of Mount Sinai to receive God’s commandments. Moses spoke of God as a devouring fire (Deuteronomy 4:24) when he explained to the people why he, their leader for forty years, could not enter the promised land with them.