AROMA THEOLOGY

In today’s reading we cover the second half of what might be described as an ancient ‘multi-sensory worship manual’ and the featured sense is that of smell. Candidly, the smell of perfume in church is distracting to me. Why do they have to wear so much of that stuff? In the tent of meeting, however, the perfumer was an important member of the worship team and strong aromas were a noticeable feature of the service. Why?

We find two answers in the text. The first is the recipe and instructions for making the anointing oil and incense, both of which would have created a powerful smell. On a practical level, perhaps the extravagant perfume would counteract the smells of animal sacrifice, but a second and more significant theme emerges when we consider the following words woven into the chapter: consecrate, sacred, holy. The strong perfume signaled the holiness of God and therefore the reason for worshipping him. By engaging the sense of smell, God was providing the worshippers with an unforgettable reminder of that fact.

There’s even more going on here, however, because anointing oil (vs 25,31) was also a symbol of a person receiving the Holy Spirit.2 In our church after someone is baptized, the priest anoints their forehead with oil and says, ‘You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever’. When our children and grandchildren were small enough to hold in my arms, I’d sometimes look them in the eyes and mark their foreheads with the sign of the cross as a way of reminding their little hearts who they really belong to and who loves them most of all. For the Israelites, the anointing oil and perfume were two more reminders that their Heavenly Father wanted to meet with them (v 36).

In prayer, imagine you are still a child and your Heavenly Father is holding you. Imagine him looking you in the eyes, smiling and holding you even closer.