Smoke in the Nostrils

  2nd Sunday after Pentecost – C (Proper 7)                                                   LSB #’s 562, 744, 570
Text – Isaiah 65:5b
 
These are a smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all the day.
 
SMOKE IN THE NOSTRILS
 
 
“…we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.  For He says, ‘In a favorable time I listened to you,  & in a day of salvation I have helped you.’  Behold,  now is the favorable time; behold,  now  is the day  of salvation.”  (2 Corinthians 6:2 ESV)    As Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, he perfectly summarized the reading from the OT.   Now  is the day of salvation! 
The people in Isaiah’s day  were very much like our people in the United States.   God had blessed them tremendously,  but in that blessing   His people felt  like they no longer needed Him.  They had taken Yahweh’s blessings so  for granted   that they just assumed  those gifts would always be there.   They lost sight of the Giver  because of the gift. 
 It’s just the nature of the beast.   Sin has corrupted the human race  beyond all human comprehension.   As a result,  our sinful nature constantly turns a blind eye  to the blessings the heavenly Father bestows upon us.   And not only do we forget the true God,  we also worship things  that are no god at all.   Isaiah records  the Lord’s complaint:
“A people who provoke me to my face continually,  sacrificing in gardens & making offerings on bricks; who sit in tombs, & spend the night in secret places; who eat pig’s flesh,  & broth of tainted meat is in their vessels.”  (65:3-4 ESV)   Those verses describe practices associated with trying to speak to the dead.  
Rather, we should be submitting ourselves in prayer to the Creator of all things – our heavenly Father.  Everything that human beings do,  of their own accord,  leads them away from salvation,  & we are oblivious to the danger of it.   The root of the human problem  is that we are incapable of recognizing  that we have a problem.  The sinful human heart  is incurably sick  & is a smoke in the nostrils of God.   Sinful creatures cannot help  but take the blessings of God for granted  & also  twist them into use for evil.   Topping it off,  people enmeshed in idolatry of the most vile sort  will promote themselves as holy people of the highest order, as Isaiah describes, “Keep to yourself, do not come near me,  for I am too holy for you.”  (65:5a ESV) 
Sinful creatures  cannot recognize how sinful they are.   As a result,  they also cannot recognize the danger they are in,  but our Lord & Savior sees that  all too well.  With heat index predictions over 100 degrees,  today  some human beings will recognize that danger  even while totally discounting  the spiritual danger they are in.    Now  is the day of salvation! 
Our unbelief  creates a stench  that is like smoke in the nostrils of God.   Only one thing is able to cover that stench  & it is the blood of Jesus Christ.   Our Creator  wants us to be saved from the fires of hell,  but until our hearts are changed  we cannot see the danger.  Once God has changed your heart,  in this life  you are still in constant danger from your sinful nature. 
It’s because of that,  that every Sunday we turn to our Lord in confession,  as we did earlier with the words, “…let us first consider our unworthiness  & confess before God & one another  that we have sinned in thought, word & deed,  & that we cannot free ourselves from our sinful condition.”  (Lutheran Service Book, page 203) 
Repenting of our sins,  & receiving the forgiveness of them,   is a constant practice for anyone whose heart has been changed by the Holy Trinity.   As we recognize the gravity of our sins,  God’s forgiveness of them  is the only way  we can experience true peace  of heart & mind. 
Now is the day of salvation,  & confession & absolution is one way  in which you & I receive that salvation.   God’s perfect law reveals our sin to us.   Then,  the Good News of Christ’s death as payment for our sins  enables us to repent of them,  & it also enables us to believe that Yahweh truly has forgiven & erased them. 
In the OT reading, there is an intense Law-Gospel interaction at work, between a God who has “held out my hands all day long” (v. 2) & a people whom God “will indeed repay into their laps their iniquities” (vs. 6–7).   Fortunately, God’s loving kindness has the final word:
“…As the new wine is found in the cluster, & they say, ‘Do not destroy it, for there is a blessing in it,’ so I will do for my servants’ sake,  & not destroy them all.”  (Isaiah 65:8 ESV)  Though the people of God had become a stench to Him,  under His discipline,  some would repent  & He would save them.   He is still at work in our day  trying to save some of us. 
What can appear to be hopeless & dead,  the heavenly Father is able to save.  To make this very point, Jesus raised Lazarus back to life after he’d been physically dead & buried.  God is able to do miraculous things,  nevertheless,  now  is the day of salvation.   There is no reason for any of us to continue being a smoke in the nostrils of God,  or to fuel His wrath. 
None of us know which day  will bring our end.  During Isaiah’s time, the great mass of God’s people scornfully & obstinately resisted the grace which had been so long & incessantly offered to them.  We see,  & at times feel,  the same thing in our day.   Now  is the day of salvation  because there is no guarantee of a tomorrow  for any of us. 
This message of the urgency of God’s love  is just as important as the message of the forgiveness for our sins.  These last two chapters of Isaiah are the Lord’s response to Isaiah’s cry out of the depths in the two previous chapters.  For example:
“There is no one who calls on your name, or attempts to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us,  & have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.”  (64:7)   God’s answer forms the grand finale of the book of Isaiah, a finale that anticipates the everlasting future of God’s reign  that we call heaven.  (65:17, 66:22–23) 
The ultimate answer, a few verses later in chapter 65, informs us of “the new heavens &
the new earth” that are to come.  Heaven will not be just someplace where we float around on the clouds.  It will be a real life, real in a way we can’t begin to imagine with our current mind which is corrupted by sin.  It is our current nature to take all God’s blessings for granted,  yet,  now is the day of salvation.  You or I  may never have another day to receive or share God’s love. 
What an eternal waste it would be  to miss that opportunity because we were preoccupied with the vastly inferior things & experiences of this life.  In Isaiah, God warns us that He will not abide by the smoke in His nostrils forever.  The text shows a side of Yahweh that does make our sinful nature  nervous.   That’s why the chapter begins with the Good News:
“I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me.  I said, ‘Here I am, here I am,’ to a nation that was not called by my name.”  (Isaiah 65:1 ESV)  This provides a picture of how the Lord seeks us out even when we are helplessly lost, with no ability to seek Him on our own,  or even know that He exists. 
In the last two chapters of Isaiah, unbelievers are banished from the holy city to rot forever (66:24), while believers enjoy the new Heaven & new Earth  forever.  (65:17-25; 66:22) What joy we can know because of the Good News that heaven awaits us.  Leaning upon Jesus’ righteousness  is how we fend off Satan  as he constantly tries to steal that joy from us.  Amen.
 
 
 
Amazing grace – how sweet the sound – that saved a wretch like me!  I once was lost  but now am found,  was blind  but now I see!       The Lord has promised good to me,  His Word  my hope secures;  He will my shield & portion be  as long as life endures.        Through many dangers, toils & snares   I have already come;  He grace has brought me safe thus far,  His grace will lead me home.  Amen.  LSB 744:1-3.