Idols have noses, but can’t smell (Psalm 115).
That means, for starters, they can’t breathe in the aroma of sacrifice. So what’s the point of turning animals to smoke?
It also means that they are not to be feared. If their noses don’t breathe in, they can’t breathe out either. Yahweh can breathe life into Adam; idols can’t. Yahweh’s nose burns against disobedient Israel; idols noses can’t burn, nor can they breathe out smoke and fire.
Therefore: Do not fear them.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Notes on Anosmia
One morning several years ago, as my wife, Wendy, and I were having breakfast together, I had…
Empire of Unreality
Shiva Naipaul (1945–1985) was the author of three novels and two books of mordant dispatches from places…
The Dreadful Christ of Pär Lagerkvist
It’s dangerous to meet a god,” says the disgraced Pythia in Pär Lagerkvist’s The Sibyl. Her observation…
