Aroma in the Tabernacle

Christmas is, among other things, a time of fragrance. Turkey roasting in the oven. Cinnamon and ginger in the air. The smell of apples mulled into cider or baked in pies. How appropriate then, to speak of the wonderful aroma in the tabernacle at such a time as this.

Exodus 30 described two recipes that enhanced the atmosphere in the inner rooms. One addressed the holy incense burning on the golden altar. The other drifted in with the anointing oil permeating the clothing of the high priest and his sons.

Fragrance at the Altar

The first aroma in the tabernacle rose from the golden altar of incense. Four spices were kept smoldering in its embers. These were stacte, onycha, galbanum, and pure frankincense.

If that doesn’t get your olfactory nerves buzzing with anticipation then maybe we can create a bit of imaginary memory.

Stacte (stack-tee) probably referred to a spice coming from the styrax plant–what some of us might recognize as a snowball or snowball bush. Its white spring flowers smell something like orange blossoms.

Onycha (on-ee-ka) most likely came from the resin of a rock rose. This tough evergreen ground cover has aromatic leaves that add a musky, almost medicinal smell to the incense.

Galbanum (gal-bah-num) comes from the same plant family as parsley, fennel, or carrots. Think “green” for this aroma—something like freshly snapped green peas.

The final ingredient was frankincense. Collected as tears dripping from the slashed bark of the Boswellia tree, it offered an earthy balsamic aroma that was at once soft, sweet, and citrusy.

Mixed together and tossed onto burning coals, it made for a fragrance that was rich, sweet, healing, homey, comforting, and calming. There was only one place where you could smell this aroma—in front of the Holy of Holies where God and man had sweet communion. The priests were required to keep the incense burning at all times–the aroma in the tabernacle representing, you might say, the presence of God in fragrance form.

Once upon a time, only Levitical priests could enter the cloud. Today, we approach on the coattails of Jesus. He has become our Great High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek and we are kings and priests after his likeness. When we offer our prayers at his incense altar, we walk into the fragrance of his presence—the heady balm of his healing and comfort, the sweet, welcoming scent of home.

Fragrance on the Priests

But something else is in the air when we come to him—the aroma we bring in with us. Now that may not sound appealing at first. Our righteous robes may be woven of great good works, but they’re also besmirched with the smell of failure, error, and disgrace.

Fortunately, he has not only prepared his incense to welcome us, he has given us a perfume of our own that mixes with it perfectly. This fragrance in the tabernacle was reserved for priests and was made with four other spices–myrrh, cinnamon, cassia, and calamus.

Myrrh came from an aromatic gum collected by slashing the bark of a balsam tree. While it was used as a perfume or a healing balm, it was also employed in embalming ¹ and so carried with it an aroma of death.

Cinnamon too came by slicing open the bark of a tree. This exposed the fragrant inner layer that was peeled off in strips as a spice or perfume additive.

Calamus was a tallish grass living in marshy ground. Its name came from an unused word meaning a stalk, reed, or branch.² It was also known as sweet cane and is related to a more familiar species we know as lemon-grass or ginger-grass. To get its sweetness out, the stalk was first cut and dried and then pounded.³

The final spice, cassia, came from a tree related to cinnamon. It is harvested in a similar way, by stripping away the outer bark to access the fragrant inner bark. But where cinnamon was a subtle and refined flavor, cassia was more like the red hot candies of Christmas.⁴

What do these spices say about the priests who are anointed with it? Pierced, peeled, crushed, and pounded, they hint at sweet victory over tribulation. In spite of the trouble endured during production, a rich and glorious fragrance rises from it. The perfume is so precious to God, he allows no one to inhale and appreciate it but himself. He knows the cost of the aroma that “diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.” He recognizes the “fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.”⁵

Aroma in the Tabernacle

When we enter his presence as priests, we bear the anointing oil he has poured over us. We carry in the sweet remembrance of our cinnamon and bear the deadly weight of our myrrh. Then we enter the piney goodness of his incense and the healing balm of his goodness envelopes us, our separate spice mixtures blend into a new and incomparable aroma. One found nowhere else except where we meet with him in prayer.

1. Balfour, J. H. (1885). The Plants of the Bible (pp. 121–122). London; Edinburgh; New York: T. Nelson and Sons.
2. Thomas, R. L. (1998). New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek dictionaries: updated edition. Anaheim: Foundation Publications, Inc.
3. Easton, M. G. (1893). In Easton’s Bible dictionary. New York: Harper & Brothers.
4. Balfour, J. H. (1885). The Plants of the Bible (pp. 30–33). London; Edinburgh; New York: T. Nelson and Sons.
5. 2 Corinthians 2:14–15