Leviticus 6: 8-13, “8 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt offering: It is the burnt offering, because of the burning upon the altar all night unto the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be burning in it. And the priest shall put on his linen garment, and his linen breeches shall he put upon his flesh, and take up the ashes which the fire hath consumed with the burnt offering on the altar, and he shall put them beside the altar. And he shall put off his garments, and put on other garments, and carry forth the ashes without the camp unto a clean place. And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it; it shall not be put out: and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order upon it; and he shall burn thereon the fat of the peace offerings. The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out.”
The burnt offering was a on offering that was given on a daily basis. However, it is impossible to burn anything entirely without leaving some residue. It is possible, under the right circumstances, to use extreme heat to burn something entirely but this is an expensive process and was not available to Israel while they were in the desert after the Exodus. In order to remove the residue, so that the process could continue on a regular basis, the priest had to follow the proper procedure. Before he could approach the altar, he had to put on special clothes to keep his clean body away from the ashes. They he would collect the ashes and put them away from the altar. After that he would change out of those clothes and take the ashes away to a place that had not been defiled but death in any way and leave them there. Even while the priest was involved in this process the fire had to be kept burning because the fire was never to go out. This was to show that Israel understood that their God was alive at all times and He didn’t ever lose focus as far as caring for them was concerned. (Compare 1 Kings 18: 27, “And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.”)
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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