“We didn't start the fire” is a 1989 song by Billy Joel that sprang out of argument over who had a harder childhood; 40 year old Joel or his 21 year old friend. They both made the same mistake that almost everyone makes. They thought history started when they were born. Joel turned the argument into a list of headlines about the challenges he faced growing up. Besides being a simplistic expression of his (and our own) narcissism it wasn’t a very good song and spawned many funny parodies. Joel, and his friend, were foolish to think that their lives were harder than others, or that events during their lifetimes were like a fire burning down their world. We would do well to avoid that trap, especially as we watch many of our cities burn during this long hot summer.

Billy Joel didn't start any fire, but Gideon did. 1300 years before Christ Gideon started a fire that burned down his world. Today's Morning Minutes in the Bible on Sensual Service Saturday is a look at the fire started by the reluctant warrior Gideon that would fit right in with today's headlines as he attacked his home town's traditions and institutions.

Yesterday we noted his vocal distrust of Jehovah, but that God was patient and lead him to trust God, to have faith in Yahweh. Fire was involved in that process in two ways.

First was when Gideon prepared a sacrifice for God and, at the angel's command, set it on a rock. The angel touched it with his staff and it was consumed by fire. Then the angel disappeared before his eyes and Gideon finally believed (Judges 6:19-24).

Second, God called on Gideon to trust him even more by cutting down the Asherah (a wooden idol), tearing down its altar, and using the wood for another sacrifice to God. For Gideon, this added to the pressure of hiding from the Midianites because he was starting a fire that could have burned down his own house since the idol was his own father’s. However, his father stood by him and renounced the idol (Judges 6:25-31).

God does not ask or instruct us to literally burn down idols. Mobs and ungodly people do that, as we see on the nightly news. But for those who claim to worship God he does ask us to examine our hearts and burn out any idols we've set up there. Since this is Sensual Service Saturday the main idol I want us all to consider is the one of worshiping God in a way that pleases us instead of him. That's what the people of Gideon's village had done and he had to burn it down for them. And it's what many of us do. I can't burn it down for you so are you willing to start the fire by burning down your worship idols?