God Can Smell You!
God tells us much about Himself using images familiar to humans. He shares that He is a Spirit, but we are given many examples to show that God has feelings. For example, God distinguishes between good and bad craftsmanship, just as we do. He is pleased with some actions, while others bring Him sorrow. God laughs, rejoices, and delights. In this chapter we’ll consider God’s olfactory senses. Some scents wafting across God’s nostrils are pleasant, while others reek. God can smell us, and our deeds, motives, and attitudes are either refreshing to Him or cause Him to react as we do when something pungent invades our air space.
Chemical Valley – An Unpleasant Odor
I grew up in West Virginia’s Kanawha Valley aptly nicknamed Chemical Valley. Though several names have changed as companies merged and disappeared, the list once included Union Carbide, DuPont, Monsanto, FMC Corporation, Diamond Shamrock, Allied Chemical, and Fike Chemical. The chemical plants dotted thirty miles of the narrow flat lands bordering the Kanawha river. Smoke-belching stacks, unpleasant odors, and at times hazardous leaks marked the daily lives of those who lived nearby. Local residents maintained, “You’ll get used to it!” I never did.
Gardens of Grace – Mixed Fragrances
Now I have a new olfactory experience. Shawn and I are creating Gardens of Grace atop a hill south of Raleigh in North Carolina. The briers, vines and fallen trees on our one acre habitat have been replaced with informal but groomed gardens that we tour almost daily—looking, sniffing, and marveling over God’s ability to bring so many beautiful plants out of the same soil.
North Carolina State University’s Lake Wheeler Road Field Laboratory is just down the hill to the southwest. That facility supports research and education in a host of agricultural arenas including Animal and Poultry Waste Management, Aquaculture, Dairy, Poultry and Swine. Howling Cow Creamery produces ice cream that is out of this world though the cows generate a familiar ambiance which graces our gardens from time to time.
About 1000 feet north of our garden, across the fields from the dairy, sits NC State’s Composting facility. The output of the cow herd is mixed with food scraps and other biodegradable substances from the sprawling campus to make compost for the campus landscaping. If the wind blows north to south the odor from that facility slips up the hill, and on some days that invisible cloud brings a nauseating stench. Folks, when a compost pile needs oxygenated, that stink is ferocious.
Oh, and did I mention that liquid from the various research operations is captured in ponds and piped to industrial-sized sprinklers? These monstrosities launch brown water, laced with the bouquet one would expect from such operations, skyward to rain down on the hay fields. I guess I’m out in the gardens enough that I’m getting used to it. It’s organic at least!
A Soothing Aroma
While neither of the previous scenarios generated fragrances that one might find pleasant, the books of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers include multiple references describing a “soothing aroma.” Grab a concordance and dig in to discover that people who came to worship God had detailed instructions to follow. Acknowledge Him as sovereign and do things His way, and your sacrifice became a soothing aroma to God. Imagine that. A human being taking action in a way that God experiences it as a soothing aroma.
Nauseating Stenches
Sadly, God also describes nauseating stenches that offend Him deeply. Israel moved into the land of Canaan, but they were not faithful to God and His instructions. Altars erected to offer sacrifices, not to God, but to the idols of the surrounding people groups, triggered another feeling in God.
An unknown psalmist shared God’s take on idols and the value they add to life.
Their idols are silver and gold, The work of man’s hands. They have mouths, but they cannot speak; They have eyes, but they cannot see; They have ears, but they cannot hear; They have noses, but they cannot smell; They have hands, but they cannot feel; They have feet, but they cannot walk; They cannot make a sound with their throat. Psalms 115:4-7 NASB
God abhorred idolatry and the associated practices. He still does. Lest we forget, abhor means to detest or loathe. God pronounced judgment on the altars and those who supported them.
‘I then will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and heap your remains on the remains of your idols, for My soul shall abhor you. Leviticus 26:30 NASB
What’s my scent?
You may be thinking, “But that’s Old Testament. We’re not under the law anymore!” Consider these words penned by the Apostle Paul and note the olfactory phrases: sweet aroma, fragrance, and aroma [2 times].
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 NASB
God changes us when we join His family and manifests through us a sweet aroma that permeates our space. Christians are supposed to bring a pleasant fragrance to the landscape. The idea is that folks who do not know God will catch a whiff of our attitudes, hope, joy, and way of life and ask, “What is that delightful bouquet?” Evangelism one sniff at a time!
The Ultimate Fragrance
The ultimate fragrant aroma to God the Father comes from His son, Jesus Christ. Jesus paid the full price of our sins in a sacrificial act that changed everything.
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. Ephesians 5:1-2 NASB
So what does this mean for me?
God can smell us. God can smell our motives and attitudes. Are we working to produce a soothing aroma that pleases Him. Or am I doing life my own way, ignoring his instruction Book, and making a stinking mess? We need to give attention to these weighty matters.
My granddaughter, Fern, created this image. The young man is holding his heart before God and perhaps, like David, he’s asking God to take a look, examine every nook and cranny, and point out the stinky parts.
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. Psalms 19:14 NLT
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life. Psalms 139:23-24 NLT
Do I have that level of courage? Am I willing to ask perfect God to shine the spotlight of His examination on my innards and point out needed changes? God can smell us. He has the power to clean things up nicely, and quite often the only way to remove the stench is to take a shower!
