God’s Nostrils
2 Samuel 22:7-16
Bob Rakestraw
May 1, 2014
“The New Benediction Project”
God does not have a nose. At least, there is no mention of
one in the Bible. But the Bible does speak of God’s nostrils and God’s
smelling.
If anyone wonders how God can have nostrils without a nose
(try picturing that!), it is helpful to keep in mind that God’s “body parts”
mentioned in the Bible are not physical. The Bible writers often used
figurative language to try to picture God, because is actually “indescribable.”
As recorded in the book of Exodus, God divided the Red Sea
and then closed it up, drowning the entire Egyptian army that pursued the
escaping Israelites (14:21-31). Moses and his sister Miriam sang a song of
praise to God for this miracle. Here is part of that song.
By the blast of your nostrils
the waters piled up.
The surging waters stood up
like a wall….
The enemy boasted,
“I will pursue, I will overtake
them.…”
But you blew with your breath,
and the sea covered them
(15:8-10).
The only time you and I blow from our nostrils is to clean
them for better breathing. But at the Red Sea, God used a “blast from [his]
nostrils” to part the waters (also in Psalm 18:15). It may be that one reason
the Bible writer uses “nostrils” here instead of “mouth” is to show how
effortlessly God delivered his people.
The most we can move by blowing air from our nostrils—unless
we block one side—is perhaps a thin piece of paper or a feather. We can move
more by blowing from our mouth. But for God, his nostrils are all that he
needed to divide the impassible waters. As human beings, the “mighty things” we
accomplish are due to the strength of our arms, shoulders and legs. God blew
the Red Sea apart with his nostrils!
The Bible also refers to smoke in relation to God’s
nostrils. Sometimes smoke goes into his nostrils. Concerning his own chosen
people who engaged in pagan rituals, God said, “Such people are smoke in my
nostrils, a fire that keeps burning all day” (Isa. 65:5).
Sometimes smoke comes out of God’s nostrils. At times, when
God chooses to rescue his chosen people, he goes after their enemies like an
angry, raging bull.
Smoke rose from his nostrils;
consuming fire came from his
mouth.
burning coals blazed out of it….
The valleys of the sea were exposed
and the foundations of the earth
laid bare
at the rebuke of the LORD,
at the blast of breath from his
nostrils (2 Sam. 22:9, 16).
Foul-smelling
smoke goes into God’s nostrils when his people persist in rebellion against
him. Angry smoke comes from God’s
nostrils when he pursues our enemies.
Sometimes, however, pleasant-smelling smoke goes into his nostrils, as when Noah, after the great flood, sacrificed burnt offerings to God. “The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart” that he would never again curse the ground nor destroy all living things with a flood (Gen. 8:21; 9:11; 15-16).
Every time we see a rainbow we do well to remember that it
is God’s verification of this promise—a promise he made just after the pleasant
aroma entered his nostrils.
Smells other than those from burning sacrifices may give
pleasure to God. Concerning certain material gifts the Philippian church sent
to Paul, the apostle wrote, “They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable
sacrifice, pleasing to God. And my God will meet all your needs according to
the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:18-19). Have you ever thought
that, at the moment you give your offerings to God’s work and God’s servants, a
pleasant fragrance may be entering his nostrils?
One glorious truth remains: as devoted followers (captives)
of Jesus Christ, we ourselves—in our very being—are a pleasing aroma to God!
“We are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ” and this pleasing aroma is
also—remarkably—“among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.
To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that
brings life” (2 Cor. 2:14-16). God actually, and always, “ leads us as captives
in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses
us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere” (v. 14).
Simply by being who we are as captives of Christ—walking,
talking, working, worshipping, serving—we are spreading an aroma. This is the
“pleasing aroma of Christ” to fellow believers and even to those who are
perishing and smelling this “pleasing aroma” as “an aroma that brings death!”
If we are faithful Christians, even many nonbelievers will
notice something “pleasing” about our presence. Our employers will often value
us for our work ethic and our ability to work smoothly with others. Our
neighbors—often but not always—will detect this pleasing aroma of Christ.
If “those who are perishing” respond to the grace of God
calling them to himself through us, they will become “those who are being
saved.” We who were formerly “an aroma that brings death” to certain people
(because of their rejection of the Lord of life and death within us) will then
be—to such ones who come to believe—“an aroma that brings life.”
If we are faithful followers of Christ we do not have to
“try hard” to leave a pleasing aroma of Christ. We are “the pleasing aroma of Christ”—to God and to others. And we do
not have to “try hard” to ensure that God will protect us from our enemies: God
will use a blast from his nostrils to do that!
We are privileged as captives of Jesus Christ to be living
sacrifices and faithful givers to his work. In these ways you and I will
radiate a pleasing fragrance to God and to the thousands of people we will
encounter during the course of our lives here on earth.
