The Fragrance of Life

Fragrances or aromas are a beautiful part of natural life. The Creator, our Heavenly Father, created us with an affinity for pleasant and enhancing smells. A wonderful smell can evoke great pleasure in our physical senses. It can make us extremely hungry for a delicious gourmet meal. Mating between husband and wife can be elevated greatly by the proper fragrance. Fragrance can also be used unnaturally to create unnatural appetites. Like every gift of God, the enemy has often perverted the pure to promote that which is impure.

The height of all great aromas was attributed to the promised Messiah throughout the First Testament. Every sacrifice offered to the Father embodied the Messianic Hope. Moses, speaking by the Holy Ghost, stated, "And when any will offer a meat offering unto the LORD, his offering shall be of fine flour; and he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon:" (Lev. 2:1) The Song of Solomon is the ultimate example of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, prophetically portrayed with the language of fragrance. Solomon cried forth, " Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?" (Song of Solomon 3:6) Over and over Solomon, by the Holy Spirit, used every conceivable aroma to describe the One more lovely than all human language can describe. He proclaimed, "Thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee." (Song of Solomon 1:3)

He alone is our "Fragrance of Life." In ways that my mind does not quite grasp, His death upon the tree – the cross – is depicted by the aromas of natural life. The heart of our Father was deeply wounded by the sin and disobedience of His human family. The prophetic words of the First Testament testifies that His death would send Heaven-ward sweet incenses of cleansing and forgiveness and the FatherÂ’s heart would be satisfied to pardon sin. The Prophet Isaiah said it powerfully. "Yet it pleased the Lord (the Father) to bruise Him (His Son); He (The Father) hath put Him (The Son) to grief: He (the Father) shall see the travail of His (the Son) soul, and shall be satisfied." (Isaiah 53:10-11a)

This aroma of sweet incense does not just reach Heaven-ward to the Heart of God but waffles its fragrance throughout His garden (the church) to renew, cleanse and flood with Divine life. David cried forth by the Spirit, " It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even AaronÂ’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore." (Psalm 133:2-3)

Now we understand the sinner woman who came to the House of a Pharisee where Jesus sat to eat. The Gospel says, "And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the PhariseeÂ’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment." (St. Luke 7:37-38) After Jesus had taught a lesson on forgiveness and the miracle of a changed life, He turned to the woman and said to Simon, "Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.

Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven." (St. Luke 7:44-48)

This example is the pattern for the worship of all His forgiven saints. What would happen in His church (Solomon called it "His Garden") if this kind of radical worship and the pouring out of our praise to Him, would swallow us up? IÂ’m not talking about wild emotions and physical calisthenics but "Worship of Him". Solomon portrays us as His garden where His aromas of grace combine with our aromas of praise, and glory fills the garden. He said by the Spirit, " A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse (Bride); a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard, Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices: A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon." (Song of Solomon 4:12-15) When He alone is our fragrance, we will become "His fragrance" back to Him but out to a world desperate for something besides the distorted aromas of our sin-sick world.