Hi! How are you today? Feeling good? Looking good? Smelling good?
It was a little surprising to me when I saw the Bible describing God in human terms; possessing human qualities. And one of the most surprising qualities is that God can smell! That's right! To Him, a rose is a rose and a skunk is a skunk!
In the Old Testament, God gave Moses the law. The Ten Commandments is the portion of the law that most people have heard about, but the law and the penalties for breaking the law are given in detail in the book of Leviticus. Every sin had to be paid for with a blood sacrifice. After Adam and Eve sinned, they were no longer innocent. They recognized that they were naked and tried to hide themselves with fig leaves. God "...made tunics of skin, and clothed them" (Genesis 3:21). There was a price to pay in getting the skins which were used for their clothing. That was the first blood sacrifice in payment for sin; the blood of the animals which gave their pelts to cover Adam and Eve.
Read just the first chapter of Leviticus. It gives an overall view of the system of blood sacrifice. The chapter ends with, "It is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord" (Lev.1:17b).
You know what he's talking about. Even if you're a vegetarian, when you smell meat roasting, your mouth starts to water.
Mr. Steer says, "Roast? ROAST? That's not very nice of you.
You'd better take that back!"
Well, everything went along fine for awhile, but then the people just started sinning, and then sacrificing, and then sinning, and then - well, you get the picture. That really aggravated God. He had already warned them in Leviticus, chapter 26, that if they didn't get with the program He would slap out flatten them. Well, that's what happened. He saw that their hearts weren't in their sacrifices. Their hearts weren't changed. (You see, God only looks on the inside and their insides were mean.) Now He said the odor of the meat was a stink in His nostrils.
He gave the Hebrews lots of chances to do right and really be His children and return the love He wanted to give them, but they wouldn't. Things would go alright for awhile and then they'd mess up.
But God knew all along it was going to be this way, and He had a plan to make a new covenant with the people. There still had to be a blood sacrifice, but He offered His own precious son, Jesus The Anointed One, to be that blood sacrifice.
That's so awesome. God loved His son so much, but He loved us enough to give His son to pay the blood sacrifice for our sins.
Have you ever held a little child, especially after that child had been out in the sun. You could "smell the sun" in his hair, mixed with his clean little child smell. Well, "...we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing" (II Cor.2:15).
Isn't that something! God can smell His son, Jesus, all over us if we are believers and have accepted His son's death as payment for our sins. When we are out telling our families and friends about God's love and salvation, we smell good to Him. It must be like "Son-shine" in our hair!
Is it any wonder that God has human qualities? It's really us that have God-like qualities. We were made in his image!
God Bless All, Barbara
