Smelly Faith

Some people might say they're not artistic, but art is just using our senses with intention. We’re artistic every day, like when we listen to music or even light a candle. Coming out of the holidays and into Valentine’s Day, you might’ve even lit many candles and enjoyed many smells! 

Yes, using your sense of smell is engaging in art. It’s probably an art unfamiliar to us, but perfume, odor, and smell have over 200 references in the Bible – from ingredients in the garden of Eden to perfume poured over Jesus’ feet.

In fact, when God gave instructions for building the tabernacle (the Israelites’ first place of worship) he had a specific creative vision that included scent recipes. 

One was anointing oil, and the other was incense. The anointing oil was made of myrrh, cinnamon, calamus, and cassia. The incense was made of gum resin, onycha, and galbanum. And anyone who imitated these smells outside of worship would be punished. “It is sacred, and you are to consider it sacred.” Exodus 30:32. 

Sacred! Wow. Why might smell be considered a sacred part of worship?

Scientifically, smell is powerful. It goes directly to the amygdala and hippocampus; in other words, smell, emotion, and memory are stored in the same place. Smell=memory. 

I love candles because of this very reason. When a smell fills the room, I feel transported. Lemon transforms my room into blissful summers. Pine transforms a random day into a history of Christmases. Smell transcends space and time.

But beyond times and places, smell can also identify people.

Consider the dog that meets you first through sniffing – or the fetus who knows its mother because smell is the only fully-developed sense. 

In fact, I realized in college how much I know people by smell. Without even trying, I’d learned the musk of my roommates: so that even when they were out-of-town, standing by their rooms comforted me. I felt their presence even when they weren’t physically there. 

When God created detailed scent recipes, he was intentionally introducing them to his presence. Consider what he might’ve been saying through smell…

…instead of feces and blood from sacrificial animals, he wanted the smell of something spiced. God was not a god of death, but of life.

…instead of sweat from daily labor, he wanted the smell of something fragrant and sweet. God was beyond their ordinary. 

…and instead of ingredients native to Biblical lands (the only one would’ve been galbanum), he asked for expensive scents from distant countries–cinnamon from Sri Lanka, Cassia from China.

…he was a God worth their every resource. He was a God of excessive value, beauty, and mystery. And His presence (heaven) would be unlike any country they’d ever known. 

And with sacred recipes designed only for the tabernacle, He was saying that He would be their one and only. There would be nothing and no one like Him. He was set apart; holy. 

He made himself known through smell. And imagine how potent the worship would’ve been with the anointing oil poured over “the tent of the meeting, the ark of the covenant law, the table and all its articles, the lampstand and its accessories, the later of incense, the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the basin with its stand.” Exodus 30:26-28. 

Imagine knowing God through an all-enveloping smell. Imagine knowing it so well that the teeniest whiff could bring his comforting presence into the room with you! 

How can you incorporate smell into your own worship? When you’re falling asleep at the Bible or dozing in prayer, could a cedar candle wake you to God’s presence? How about rose, or mint, or another smell you love?

Why work against your biology when God intentionally worked WITH it? Official artist or not, we can worship God with our sense of smell