Genesis 8:20-21
Then Noah built an
altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he
sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The
Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: "Never again will I
curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is
evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I
have done.
How Do You Smell?
Smell has the unique ability to serve as a trigger
within the heart. It registers deeply
within us and locates memories long forgotten or buried and drags them to the
conscious mind. The sudden whiff of a
pot roast, coffee, a gardenia or a type of perfume can take us back to when we
were young. Scent is important to our relationship
with God. Smell and the use of odors
were key parts of how the Israelites were to worship the Lord. From the use of prescribed concoctions of
incense in the Temple to the burning of sheep and goats on the altars, the
smell of sacrifices pleased God. As
noted above, God was happy to smell the burnt sacrifices Noah offered following
the flood. The Lord smelled the
pleasing aroma and said in his heart: "Never again will I curse the ground
because of man… (Genesis 8: 21a NIV)
The Temple, which was the central location for worship in Israel, at
least in the beginning, produced a flood of smells that overwhelmed the
nostrils. The odors of blood, cinnamon,
cooking meat, salt and smoking fire pits nearly took one’s breath away. When Solomon dedicated the Temple, the smoke from
cooking sacrifices and burning incense was so thick you could barely see. Imagine the overworking of salivary glands as
one entered into the Temple grounds and the odor of barbecuing beef and mutton
reached you.
We find in the Scripture that all the smells of the
Temple were to establish in the hearts of God’s people something of critical
importance to God. In Psalm 141:2 we get
a hint of what God was doing through all the sacrifices and incense
burning. May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my
hands be like the evening sacrifice. (NIV) The connection between all those smells and
God’s people praying was intentionally created by the Lord. In the book of Revelation the link between
the two is spelled out for us. Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been
slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures
and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits
of God sent out into all the earth. He
came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And when he had taken it, the four living
creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a
harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers
of the saints. (Revelation 5:6-8 NIV) Then later in Revelation 8: 4
this is reiterated. The smoke of the incense, together with the
prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand. (NIV)
If you went into the Temple, whether just the outer courts
or deeper into its center, there were to be two senses that captivated you:
sight with the simple beauty of the gold and woodwork and smell with the all
the smoke and cooking. The gold was to
remind everyone of the majesty of God but the smells were to stir up within all
who came to the Temple the call to prayer.
In speaking of the work God would soon do in bringing non-Jews into His
Kingdom, Isaiah the prophet announced, “…these
I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be
accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all
nations." (Isaiah 56:7 NIV)
The smell of the burnt offerings coalesced with the prayers of the
people producing a sweet perfume for God.
The house of incense and cooking meat was to be God’s house of prayer
and not just for Jews but for all humanity who came to Him. Jesus’ fury was directed toward those who
destroyed that plan. Jesus entered the temple area and drove out
all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money
changers and the benches of those selling doves. "It is written," he said to them,
"'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a 'den
of robbers.'" (Matthew 21:12-13 NIV)
What we discover as we turn to the New Testament
again is that just as the odor of the incense and the cooking sacrifices
represented the prayers of the people and were to be a continual call to
prayer, so too we find out that the Temple itself was a representation of something
greater than wood and stone. One of the
most misapplied verses in the entire Bible is Paul’s admonition in 2
Corinthians. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is
in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought
at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NIV) The Temple built in Jerusalem was a
foreshadowing of what God would do with all people who came to Him in
faith. They were going to be “houses of
prayer”. Every last one of us are built
by God to be a prayer center. When
prayers are not emanating from us like the smell of incense rising into the
wind, then we wreck the sanctuary of our lives.
If Christ could beat out the money changers and vendors from the Temple for
taking apart the prayer of the place, how much more so does our Lord demand
that as the Temple of the Holy Spirit we are to be centers of prayer!
Consider just a couple of examples to make clear how
important our praying is to God. When
the ancient king Abimelech mistakenly took Abraham’s wife Sarah into his harem
because Abraham had told the king that Sarah was his sister, God’s wrath broke
out against Abimelech and his subjects.
The Lord warned Abimelech in a dream that He was about to kill him for
taking Sarah from Abraham. But, God gave
Abimelech a chance at life. “Now return the man's wife, for he is a
prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return
her, you may be sure that you and all yours will die." (Genesis
20:7 NIV) God would wait on deciding
Abimelech’s fate until he heard from Abraham in prayer. Consider the high place of prayer and its
exalted status. The prayer of one man
would decide the fate of another.
We see a similar situation in Job. Job’s friends who were critical of Job and
accused him of terrible sinning also found themselves under the wrath of
God. "I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not
spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” (Job 42:7 NIV) But the Lord was willing to be merciful,
depending on how Job responded. “My servant Job will pray for you and I will
accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly.” (Job 42:8b
NIV) If Job prayed for his friends, the
Lord would be merciful to them. Ponder
how great a responsibility that is! One
person’s praying determined how God would act.
We have in James 5: 16 the sort of odor we are to
produce in this world. Therefore confess your sins to each other
and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous
man is powerful and effective. Elijah
was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did
not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain,
and the earth produced its crops. (James 5:16-18 NIV) If you are not obsessed with praying for
others, then you have no idea who you are in Christ and what He wants you to
be. As the Temple of the Holy Spirit,
the Lord is a part of your personality and He operates in you and through
you. The more aware you are of God, the
more He will pray through you and your prayers will become His prayers. You are not a righteous person because of
what you are on your own. Your
righteousness is the righteousness of Christ which comes to your through Christ
crucified and resurrected. Therefore,
the effectiveness of your praying is not dependent upon you but upon God living
in you and through you. You make
yourself a sweet odor to God and to all around you by offering prayers to God for
every person God brings to your mind night and day. The smell that God loves above all is the
praying of His people and like Job and Abraham, you can change the course of
history by praying.