Smell & Fragrance

Children learn to recognize familiar smells even before they can see. An unfamiliar smell can bring fear, while a familiar smell can soothe. The Word of God uses smells and fragrances in texts to design them for children. For example,

Genesis 8:20 And Noah builded an altar unto Yehovah. And he took of every clean beast and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21And Yehovah smelled a sweet savour. And Yehovah said in His heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake.”

The text connects Yehovah’s decision with His smelling the sweet savour. Children sometimes make decisions when they smell certain smells, so they can understand this.

Exodus 30:34 And Yehovah said unto Moses, “Take unto thee sweet spices—stacte and onycha and galbanum, these sweet spices with pure frankincense. Of each shall there be a like weight. 35And thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary tempered together, pure and holy. 36And thou shalt beat some of it very small and put of it before the testimony in the Tent of Appointment where I will meet with thee. It shall be unto you most holy. 37And as for the perfume which thou shalt make, ye shall not make to yourselves according to the composition thereof. It shall be unto thee holy for Yehovah. 38Whosoever shall make like unto that to smell thereto shall even be cut off from his people.

Yehovah commanded the death penalty for any perfume formula imitator!

Breastfeeding children learn to recognize their own parents by smell. Yehovah formulated His perfume, and no one else is allowed to imitate His smell.

I heard of a mother sheep that lost its baby, and a baby sheep that lost its mother at the same time. The mother that had lost its baby would have nothing to do with the baby that had lost its mother. The shepherd skinned the dead lamb and covered the living with the skin, and the mother thought it was her own by smell, thus letting it suckle. Older children in shepherd and farm cultures are aware of such things.

Imitators of God attempt to fool others by smell. Some major religious groups, for example, use frankincense in their rituals to duplicate Yehovah’s command to the Levitical Priesthood. They see their priests as Levites over the “new Israel of God”. They just don’t smell right.

The way to identify Messiah Himself is by smell:

Isaiah 11:1 [literally] And a shoot shall go-out from the stem of Jesse. And a branch from his roots will be fruitful. 2And the Spirit of Yehovah shall rest upon him, the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding, the Spirit of Counsel and Valiance, the Spirit of Knowledge and Fear of Yehovah. 3And His fragrance is in the Fear of Yehovah. And not to the appearance of His eyes will He judge, and not to the hearkening of His ears will He correct.

The same word translated smell/fragrance in the above texts is another form of the commonly used word, spirit. Discerning a spirit is discerning a smell. Some of the English expressions demonstrate this: “I smell a rat!” A child who smells the breath (spirit) of an alcoholic soon learns to avoid danger by smell. Folks carry spirits (fragrances) with them, besides the spirits with which Bible readers are more familiar (sometimes referring to angels or demons, sometimes referring to characteristics like jealousy, as in ‘the spirit of jealousy’).

Children in all cultures learn to use their sense of smell to determine many things. What fragrance describes you? Do you smell like a friend to the Jews, or would you prefer to stay away? Most of ‘Christianity’ would rather avoid the Jews and everything pertaining to them, ignoring the majority of Biblical texts.