God Loves Our Presence
Did you know God loves to smell you?
It’s true. Walk into the tabernacle in the wilderness with me and you’ll see.
One step through the courtyard gate and our nose collides with the combined smell of stockyard meeting incinerator. The odor of bulls and sheep and birds (alive or aflame) blends its particular piquancy with that of human beings in a crowd.
After a quick stop at the bronze laver to freshen up and receive our priestly anointing oil, we present our offering at the bronze altar. Then we draw aside the curtain and enter the holy place where everything changes. Daylight gives way to lamp light and the bustling noise of the courtyard muffles into silence.
A Spicy Fragrance
Having left the smell of all those bodies behind, our noses can finally distinguish the fragrance of the anointing oil poured over us at the laver. Our olfactory nerves fairly tingle with the spicy perfume of the myrrh, cinnamon, calamus, and cassia permeating our hair and our clothes.
Myrrh, so often used in embalming, adds its piney, balsam smell and reminds us we are living sacrifices to the Lord. Calamus adds the softness of lemongrass to the homey notes of goodness in the similarly flavored cinnamon and cassia. Together, they make us think of Christmas and we approach God like a gift under His tree.
We’re not the only one with fragrance in this holy place. The cloud of God’s personal aroma already fills the room. Stacte, onycha, galbanum and frankincense burn on the golden altar, combining the perfume of something like sweet orange blossoms with the musky, earthy air of a pine forest.
In a moment of nasal overload, we realize we’ve entered an atmosphere found nowhere else on earth—where the scent of our anointing oil and the whiff of God’s presence blend together. The recipes for the two perfumes were strictly guarded. The anointing oil was for sanctifying the priests alone and the holy things they touched. The incense spices were measured and proportioned for use in the holy place alone.
The Scent of Our Perfumes
You may not have imagined yourself as a priest in God’s service, much less as someone fragrant. Yet this is exactly how God has set us apart. “You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9, NKJV). By God’s design, He has made us ministers in His kingdom. By His own hand, He has chosen and mixed the spices which soak into our priestly robes of service. We smell good to Him because He made us so. When we approach Him, our two aromas blend into a perfume found only where we and He meet.
Life doesn’t always smell terrific. In the flurry of activities and stress, we can work up a quite a sweat. All this can make us feel particularly unattractive. It’s in the heat of those moments, however, when we especially need to approach God in prayer, to receive His grace and ask for help in time of need. Isn’t it nice to know when we come to Him direct from the trenches, with all the grime of life upon us, that’s when He says:
“How fair is your love, My sister, my spouse! How much better than wine is your love, and the scent of your perfumes than all spices!” (Song of Solomon 4:10, NKJV).
Read Song of Solomon 4:7-16 and see just how attractive He finds you.