God smells!

Or, rather, he is able to smell and loves certain odors.

In Philippians 4: 18, the gifts of the Philippian church to Paul were described as “an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God.

In Ephesians 5:2, when Jesus, in love, gave himself for us as a sacrifice to God and an offering–it was a sweet-smelling odor to God.

In 2 Corinthians 2:15,16, for we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, and a savour of life unto life in them that are saved.

In John 12:3-8 Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this.

He gave a very specific formula for the incense in the tabernacle and struck Levi’s sons dead when they came up with a mixture that they preferred. Leviticus 10:1

And you will make it an oil of holy ointment; anointment compound after the art of the apothecary: it shall be a holy anointing oil. Exodus 30:45

And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground. Genesis 8:21

Sweet savours before the Lord: sacrificed rams, oil and bread, wine, flour oil and frankincense, animal fat

In Psalm 115:6, God points out that man-made gods have noses that can’t smell

When upset with the Israelites, he refused to smell their offerings (Leviticus 26:31

In Amos 5: 21,22 God says, ” I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.

Smell is a very special sense. Unlike sight and sound, when smells are picked up, they go directly to the identification brain and then to the memory and emotion, but bypass the amygdala. They are retained and last longer than other sensory perceptions. They are very powerful at bringing back memories.

We used to have an adult smell a box of crayons, and then they would be flooded with memories from their childhood. (Now the composition has changed, and children play with videos rather than create with crayons)

Proverbs 27:9 says, Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart

Being disgusted by certain smells is important for identifying and motivating us to deal with danger such as mold, corpses, poop, and general rottenness. God hates the stench of disobedience, self-will, fashioning and worshiping our own gods, etc.

We can become desensitized to bad smells and quit dealing with their source. God wants us to be passionately disgusted with the stench of sin and love the smell of righteousness. Amos 4:10 I, God, have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me.

So may we live so that our lives are a sweet savour to the Lord and to those around us. May we pause and “Smell the roses,” remembering to worship God not just for visual beauty and for music but for the wonderful gift of smell that we share with him.