Deal With Your Skunk

Something Smells!

Have you ever smelled an odor you had trouble tracking down?

Maybe something died. Maybe it’s still alive. But the smell is lingering and driving you crazy.

We men, we stink. Used socks in the basket. We live in a forest. We have wild animals, both alive a dead all around us.

A few weeks ago we realized we had skunk living under the blue container behind the church. Steve set up a trail cam and got video of him. They are nocturnal. When we were out there, he’d be asleep. We weren’t too concerned about him coming out during the day. But, we planned fellowship lunch out there. VBS did their snacks out there. It’s not real appetizing to smell a skunk.

Steve set a trap. After a few hits and false alarms, he got him. He and Ren took him out deep into the forest and let him go.

We thought there my have been more than one, Pepe had a family. Or, maybe Pepe returned. Skunks are homing. They are nocturnal and practically blind. But they can find their way back to where they had their nest. We’ve been watching. But, for a day or two, we were still smelling.

But, fortunately, the smell has gone away. We thing we’ve dealt w/ the skunk, and Pepe is gone for good.

Some friends of ours had a similar problem. They are from our time in Minot. He was Air Force. They had a home just north of town. It was a double-wide on a 5-acre lot. It was nice. Kind of rustic. Kind of exposed to the N. Dak. weather. On the highway between town and the base. They had a nice garden. It rich farmland up there.

One day they started noticing a skunk smell. It was there for a while. They’d burn candles, cover the odor, spray air freshener. They looked all over the property. No skunks.

They lived on the highway, skunks get hit all the time. One of the issues we used to have w/ our post office here, before they put skirting around the base, an animal would get hit on I-17, crawl under the building and die. And the odor would make it hard to go and get our mail.

Our friends, for a while, smelled a skunk. But after a few days, they didn’t notice the smell anymore. It seemed to go away. But my friend would go to work on the AF base, and his co-workers would sniff, and ask, “Do you smell a skunk?”

My friend didn’t. But everyone did.

They’d go to church. Same thing. They didn’t smell it. The ppl around them did.

Finally, my friend had heard that enough. He was going to figure out if there was a skunk somewhere on their property. He looked everywhere, nothing. No dead animal. Culvert up by the highway, still nothing.

The original owner had dug out a small storm cellar. Built the walls w/ cinder block. Put a light up. Then, set the double wide over it. The storm cellar was not water tight. Minot gets a lot of snow. And there is a lot of underground water, aquifers that the farmers pump their irrigation out of. So, winter and spring, between the snowmelt and rain, their cellar would take in water. Not a huge deal. They didn’t use it for much. There was some electrical down there so they avoided it during that time.

This was late winter/early spring, still well below freezing in N.Dak. Trying to find the source of the skunk odor, he checked and rechecked the storm cellar. It was dark, they had cut the power to the light for the winter b/c of the water. He could see there was a layer of ice where water had penetrated the cellar and frozen. In fact, there was about 3’ of water and the top few inches had frozen solid. He could have had an indoor skating rink down there.

It was a little dangerous, still power lines down there. But he was committed to getting to the bottom of the skunk smell. So, he got down there w/ a flashlight and waded into the icy water. And, sure enough, a skunk had found its way in, drowned in the water, and was embedded, frozen in the ice.

Fresh frozen, it hadn’t decomposed at all. It had been there so long, the odor had penetrated their house. The odor saturated everything. It was in their clothes in their closet. In their furniture and carpeting. But they couldn’t smell it any more b/c they had gotten used to it.

He got down there w/ a pick axe, sledge hammer, and chisel; and pried that dead animal out of the ice. He carried it up the stairs and out to the end of their property and let it thaw and decompose there.

Imagine the scene, my friend w/ a block of ice and Pepe’s little stubby legs and tail frozen solid sticking out of the block of ice while he carried it out. It was a real skunk-cicle.

How did he keep from losing his lunch all over it? IDK.

To get the smell to go away, they had to go thru a deep cleansing of everything in their house. Every piece of fabric needed to be steamed out and de-odorized. Finally, after a lot of work, the smell was gone for good.

That ever happen to you? Maybe not a literal skunk.

If you have a bad habit, maybe made a poor decision, or tried a little foolishness; we can end up allowing a skunk to get into our basement where it can become embedded. We can stink up our lives pretty good.

After a little time, we don’t notice the stink any more b/c we got used to it. Maybe we try to light a candle, spray a little air freshener, or try a distraction; but the stink keeps coming back. We can’t smell it, but the ppl around us do.

If you have a little stink in your life because of a skunk embedded in your basement, then the only way to clear it up is to get rid of it. And Jesus is the only One who can do that. You’d be wise to let Him.

He will get rid of you skunk and clean you up so the smell will eventually go away for good.

He only offers. We’ve got to take him up on it.

The passage we are studying today is in Matthew 12. There was a group of ppl who got so used to their odor they didn’t notice it anymore even though those around them did. They missed the obvious. We can learn from their foolishness.

They Don’t Realize

Matthew 12:38–39 NIV

Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

The request was insulting. They were insulting Him and exposing their own arrogance and foolishness. There was a stink surrounding them.

By this time, Jesus was well over a year into his 3-year ministry. The Pharisees and teachers knew He claimed to be the promised Messiah. They were aware of his miracles. They had probably witnessed many themselves.

They wanted another sign. As if they hadn’t seen enough already. They wanted control. They wanted to be able to tell Jesus what to do and when to do it. If they couldn’t, then they just couldn’t believe in Him.

Moment of honesty, we all struggle at least a little bit in our prayer lives b/c on some level we want to be able to tell Jesus what to do especially when we want a miracle. And, when He doesn’t do what we ask, we struggle in our faith just a little bit.

We all do it a little.

These religious leaders did it a lot.

They wanted a sign. And the wanted it on demand. This was really just an excuse not to believe. Their request, demand, was not out of faith, but disbelief. They wanted another bad reason not to believe. If Jesus couldn’t do what they demanded when they demanded it, then they couldn’t humor Him w/ their faith.

But, He could have. But, He didn’t answer to them. They should have understood they answered to Him.

He called them out. Wicked, sinful. Remember, these guys are the leaders. They are supposed to be the best of the best obedient example setters. But, they weren’t. The ppl weren’t following them. What they represented was impersonal and impossible. Rules, rites, and rituals. It stunk to everyone but them.

Jesus called them adulterous. They had other gods, other kings, other lords into the areas of their lives that had been reserved only for Jesus, the One God, King, Lord. They had long since removed him from the throne of their live and allowed someone or something else to sit there.

In many ways, it was simple humanism. They bel’d they were capable of being authoritative over God. They were their own God. They were good enough, smart enough, strong enough to be their own god.

This generation Jesus is speaking to had a distinct advantage over every generation that came before them. Jesus was right there. They had Him, personally. Still, they rejected Him.

Jesus is patient man, but he has his limit. He has a line and they just crossed it. No more. No more signs, for them.

He had already given them enough to see and hear to be able to believe.

As we have studied his life and ministry, I’ve already taught thru 12 of his 35 miracles recorded in the bible to this point. He performed many others. Nobody wrote about all of them.

There are still 23 more we will study. Each miracle is an illustration, object lesson for the message that He’s teaching at that time.

He’s not done teaching or performing miracles or saving ppl. But, he’s done w/ them. All the messages and miracles yet to come will be for everyone else, not them.

He has one more sign for them. He called it the Sign of Jonah. Something is going to happen that they should be able to recognize that is similar to Jonah’s experience so many years ago.

By comparing his life to Jonah, Jesus is clear that He knows where this rejection is heading. He’s going to be in a dark place for 3 days at some point in his future.

Also, by referring to Jonah, Jesus is confirming the facts of the experiences of Jonah’s life. Many question whether or not Jonah is factual reality or just an analogy that never literally happened.

Jesus would not have referenced Jonah if he was only a figure of speech.

Jonah was no perfect prophet. To those listening at this time, they may have believed Jonah may not have been the best choice to compare himself to.

But for Jesus, it was a perfect comparison. Something smelled. Something smelled then. And something smelled back with Jonah.

Something Smells

Matthew 12:40–41 NIV

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here.

Jonah has a book in your OT. It’s probably one of the more famous stories. You can read the book later. But for now, I’m going to summarize it for you.

Jonah was a prophet. A prophet is a preacher who preaches powerful sermons, usually warnings to change ways or else, that produces results in the lives of the listeners. You’ll see this later when Jonah preaches to the Nivevites.

But first, God called out Jonah, and told him to go up to Nineveh and tell them if they don’t repent, admit what they are doing is making God mad and change their ways, then God is going to destroy them. He’ll do it in an ugly way.

Go up. It was uphill to the capital of Assyria from where he was at the time.

Instead of going up to Nineveh, Jonah when down to Tarshish, and farther down to Joppa which was a port city on the Sea. He boarded a ship and went down into the hold and crew’s quarters and went down to bed and down to sleep.

You get the gist, God said go up. Jonah went about as far the other way as he could thinking he could run from God and run from what God called him to do.

He didn’t want to go to Nineveh. They were a nasty ppl. They had developed some very creative and cruel ways to torture their enemies. If you made them mad, they made sport of you. And you ended up in pieces, literally. There was no Geneva convention and the ethical and humane treatment of prisoners.

Jonah didn’t want to go. He was afraid. He loathed them. So he ran.

The ship set sail. And God sent a storm.

It was more than a 3-hour tour, but picture Gilligan and the Skipper. The ship was going down. The sailors threw everything overboard that was not nailed down. Their situ was still dire. The Skipper called Jonah out to cry out to his God to save them. They were crying out to every god hoping one would answer.

Jonah fessed up. It’s me. It’s my fault. He was running from God and God was punishing him for it.

What are you doing?!

So Jonah falls on his sword, tells them to throw him overboard. What he’s doing is cowardly. He’s not asking them to turn around so he can return to shore and obey God.

He’s committing suicide. The storm is violent. The waves are huge. He plans to drown and die out there rather than do what God told Him to do.

They throw him overboard. He goes DOWN into the sea.

Immediately the storm relents. The winds die down. The waves calm down.

He’s treading water as the ship sails away. It’s dark. Imagine him saying, “It can’t get any worse than this.”

Then, God sent a big fish and it swallowed him. He went down into the fish’s stomach and the fish carried him down, into deep water.

3 days he spent inside the fish.

A word about 3 days and comparison to Jesus. We know Jesus was crux’d on Friday and rose from the dead on Sunday. To us, that’s only 2 days; Saturday then Sunday.

But in that culture, both Jonah’s and Jesus’s, zero had not been invented as a math term, yet. And day 1 was the day whatever happened. Friday was day 1, Sat. day 2, Sunday day 3.

3 days inside the fish.

Imagine what it was like inside the fish. It was pitch black. Dark. Not Geppetto looking for Pinocchio lighting a lamp.

The sounds. The gurgling of the air bubbles as the fish swam and breathed.

The stinging of the stomach acids in his eyes and any open wounds that would be breaking down the plankton and little fish accompanying Jonah in the belly of the fish.

And the smells. The fish itself and the rotting flesh that he’d eaten around picking up Jonah.

Jonah would have been even more certain he was going die. But, he didn’t. And after 3 days he finally relented and repented. He owned up to his disobedience and asked God to forgive him and give him a second chance.

God did. He commanded the fish and it vomited him up on the shore. The fish carried him back to Joppa, then spewed him, up chucked, projectiled him out.

Immediately, Jonah obeyed God and went to Nineveh and said what God told him to say.

Imagine, walking around Nineveh, reeking of fish vomit, in his hair, on his clothes, in his breath, and all over him. He probably can’t smell it b/c he’d grown accustom to it. But the Ninevites certainly could smell him coming a mile away.

But, that confirmed his otherwise unbelievable story of spending the previous 3 days in the belly of a fish. And the Nivevites would have understood God was the only explanation who could do that therefore he must be from God and his message must be heeded. The miracle of a man surviving the fish story confirmed his message from God. They repented and God relented and did not destroy them.

When they believed the message, once again they could smell odor God smelled from their sin that they had previously grown accustom to. Since they repented and believed, God relented and removed the stink of the guilt from them. They believed and were saved at that time.

The rest of the story is Jonah was mad at God for not destroying them. He thought he deserved a front row seat while God went all Sodom and Gomorrah on them. It didn’t happen, until years later. Future generations of Ninevites returned to their ancestors’ creative and cruel ways and then God did not relent.

Jesus’s point in using this story is when Israel realizes Jesus was buried for 3 days after his crux then came out of his tomb like Jonah came out of the fish, they could be certain Jesus came from God. It is the only possible explanation. His miracle resurrection would confirm his message that He is the Messiah who came from God to take the stink of their guilt away and save them.

And Jonah’s generation of Ninevites will condemn Jesus’s generation of Pharisees b/c they believed it but the religious leaders didn’t.

Jesus is pointing out the foolishness of the the Jewish leadership for rejecting him. That’s why he brought up the Queen of the South. This is a story that comes from 1 Kings 10 about the Queen of Sheba and her interaction w/ Solomon.

She discovered first hand the wisdom of Solomon that could only have come from God.

Just like Jonah was not a perfect prophet, Solomon was not the obvious choice to inherit David’s throne. But, when God worked through Him, it turned out he was the perfect heir.

Wise to Let Him

Matthew 12:42 NIV

The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now something greater than Solomon is here.

Culturally, the eldest son was to inherit the position of his father. Solomon wasn’t even close. He was the 4th son of David’s 7th wife. Buried somewhere deep in the depth chart of heirs to the throne, Solomon rose to reign.

His mother, the 7th wife of David, was Bathsheba. Yes. That Bathsheba. Another famous story in your OT.

David’s army had gone off to battle. It was spring and that’s what armies did. But, kings were supposed to go, too. But this time, David stayed behind.

One evening, he was up on his roof, enjoying the spring weather. He looked down the hill below. He saw a beautiful woman bathing on her roof. He never should have been there. She was doing nothing wrong.

He sent his servant to invite her into his palace. No one says no to the king. They slept together, she conceived, then they conspired.

She was married to a man named Uriah. He was off w/ the army, where David should have been. They schemed to have him come home for a weekend leave thinking he would sleep w/ his wife and be none the wiser who the father of her baby was.

But, he wouldn’t sleep w/ his wife while his brothers in arms were locked in a battle. So David schemed to have him killed. Conspiracy is just as bad as the act itself. David and Bathsheba were guilty.

He was killed. David took Bathsheba as a wife. This first son died as a consequence of their sin. Then, their 4th son rose to take David’s throne.

Solomon became the wealthiest and wisest man in history.

The Queen of Sheba heard of him and his reputation. She came to see for herself. She quizzed him. She saw his kingdom, his palace, and all his wealth.

Then, this is what she said,

1 Kings 10:6–9 NIV

She said to the king, “The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true. But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard. How happy your people must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king to maintain justice and righteousness.”

A family situ that grew out of foolishness and sin. There was no obvious reason why Solomon would become this man. The disfunction of David’s wives and sons, their sibling rivalry rooted in jealousy that lead to bloodshed in no way indicated the success of the succession of Solomon.

The only plausible explanation for his wisdom and wealth was God. Anybody who cared to pay attention and see for themselves could draw no other conclusion.

Jesus’s point in raising this comparison is the only possible explanation for Solomon’s wisdom, and Jesus’s wisdom, and the Queen’s wisdom to recognize Solomon’s wisdom, and everyone’s wisdom to recognize the wisdom of Jesus and to choose to believe in Jesus could only be from God.

The wisest decision anyone can make is to believe in accept His wisdom and accept his work on the cross as our own punishment for the stink we’ve put on.

The Ninevites had Jonah.

The Queen of Sheba had Solomon.

The Pharisees, teachers, and us; we have Jesus. And, Jesus is the greatest of the 3.

The wisest decision we will ever make is to accept Jesus and let Him take the stink of the guilt of our sin away. We may be accustom to it and not even know it’s there. But everyone else seems to know.

Then, He will provide all the wisdom we need to make the best choices in life.

We may not have a literal skunk embedded in our basement. But whatever poor decisions we make may as well be the same b/c the stink is just as bad.

And Jesus is the only one who can take it away.

Applications

Want wisdom?

The wisest decision you could ever make is to accept the wisdom of Jesus and accept Him as your Savior.

Then, James wrote, that if we lack wisdom for whatever situ we’re in, all we must do is ask and God will give it in abundance.

He may not give us the answer we’re looking for. But He will give us the resources to come up w/ the best answer.

If you need it, ask for it. Believe in Jesus and believe He’ll give you what you need to answer your toughest questions.

What do you need wisdom for today?

Something stink?

You knew you stank. Have you grown accustom to it?

You can’t cover it up. The only way to get rid of the stink is to get rid of the skunk. Only Jesus can do that.

We must admit we’re responsible for the skunk getting in in the first place. We are responsible for the stink, and we must surrender what led us to let the skunk in.

Everyone else knows. Maybe they’re just being nice by not pointing it out to you.

Do everyone a favor. Let Jesus deal w/ your skunk so your stink goes away permanently.

Can’t run from God

Jonah learned the hard way. Jesus loves you more that maybe you wish He did right now. B/C, if you’re running away from Him, He won’t let you get away. He won’t leave you alone.

Grace. You don’t deserve t/b chased down. But, He’s doing it.

Stop running.

Fish vomit is consequence enough. Your fish will vomit you out, consequences and all. But you’re better off obeying God w/ your consequences than continuing to run.

Stop running away. Run to God. He will welcome you.

The Ninevites had Jonah.

The Queen of Sheba had Solomon.

The Pharisees, teachers, and us; we have Jesus. And, Jesus is the greatest of the 3.

This ever happen to you? Maybe not a literal skunk.

If you have a bad habit, maybe made a poor decision, or tried a little foolishness; we can end up allowing a skunk to get into our basement where it can become embedded. We can stink up our lives pretty good.

After a little time, we don’t notice the stink any more b/c we got used to it. Maybe we try to light a candle, spray a little air freshener, or try a distraction; but the stink keeps coming back. We can’t smell it, but the ppl around us do.

If you have a little stink in your life because of a skunk embedded in your basement, then the only way to clear it up is to get rid of it. And Jesus is the only One who can do that. You’d be wise to let Him.

He will get rid of you skunk and clean you up so the smell will eventually go away for good.

He only offers. We’ve got to take him up on it.