I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.
Matthew 3: 11-12
What is the meaning?
The one who is coming is "mightier" than John the Baptist. Stronger. More pure. Capable of fulfilling the law of the wrath of God. Therefore, embodying Geburah.
He will baptize you with 1) the Holy Spirit and 2) the fire. Both will purify you - the righteous and the evil doers alike. This is the highest dichotomy of Wisdom and Understanding - Light (Fire) and the Spirit. Both stand ready to bring forth the separation.
What is the separation? The separation from the wheat from the chaff. Another aspect of Geburah. The separation of the righteous from the wicked ones - because that time is quick approaching. And what will happen to the chaff? It will "burn with unquenchable fire."
We might rumenate here on the different types of fire - to the ancients there were many. Here are two. One for the "wheat" and one for the "chaff." Both are purifying, but the fire made ready for the wicked ones is unquenchable. Because they'll have no transcendence from that flame.
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