Why would the aroma of a sacrifice be important to God?

On the sixth day of creation God beheld all His works that He had made, and "behold they were very good." Perfect they all were, for nothing short of perfection could come from His hands. Beautiful must His works have been when Adam first surveyed them; and beautiful must that new world have been, as Noah cast his eyes over a scene full of freshness and life. But neither the works of creation, nor the world as it appeared after the flood, caused a sweet savour to rise up before God. For great, wonderful, and beautiful as are His works in creation, no mention is made of a sweet savour rising up before Him till Noah's altar was reared, and the burnt-offerings, foreshadowing the Lord's death on the cross, were consumed before Him. Then the sweet savour was smelt, and the fact is noted. And wherein, it may be asked, consisted the sweetness? Noah did nothing to sweeten it. No fragrant herbs, no incense imparted a sweetness to it in God's eyes. The sacrifice itself was, and is, a sweet savour. Man could add nothing to its fragrance. The obedience to death of God's own Son has glorified Him, and enabled Him righteously to act in blessing to sinners.

We have here the propitiatory character of the sweet savour of Christ's sacrifice. It was not a sin-offering, bearing, and putting sin away, but one which met the mind of God, as to His sense of sin, by the perfectness of the sacrifice - a reyakh hannikhoakh (odour of the rest) to Him; so Jehovah said el-lib-bo (in his heart).

The word as to the curse is this - Noah was to comfort man concerning the work of his hands, because of the ground which the Lord had cursed; it does not say the curse was gone, but there was comfort in labour as to it. But further, there was to be no repetition of the curse, or the Lord might have been always at it, for all the imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil and that continually. But there was this on the ground of sacrifice, "the Lord smelled a sweet savour, and the Lord said in his heart, I will no more again curse," neither would He smite the earth with a flood. He would not again act as He had done. And the effect of this sweet savour is very striking, not in changing God's mind, but in revealing what He is - the source of peace.

In Noah's sacrifice we have the third type of the death of Christ. The first type, in Genesis 3, set it forth as providing a covering for the guilty sinner. The second, Abel's offering in Genesis 4, as the basis of approach to God. Now we have it as presenting a "sweet savour," or, "a savour of rest," to God — that in which He finds His rest and delight, in the excellence of which the offerer finds the ground of his acceptance. The term, burnt offering, occurs here for the first time, the particular significance of which we discover when we come to the book of Leviticus.

It is not difficult to discern an orderly progression in these three types. When awakened to our sinful state, the first thing we were conscious of needing was a covering — the root meaning of atonement — before the eye of a holy God. That was good, but we could not endure to be permanently at a distance. We must have a basis of approach to God. And even more than this; we must be in full acceptance to be thoroughly at rest there. If God finds a savour of rest in the death of Christ, we find there our rest too.

A sweet savour! This is the first time we meet with such an expression. From earth it ascended to God. Surveying an undefiled world prepared for man, God pronounced all that He had made to be very good. (Gen. 1:31.) When He brought Noah out of the ark into a newly-ordered scene, we read of the sweet savour of the sacrifice. This earth was defiled; but what ascended to Him from the altar of Noah spoke of the pure and spotless death of the Son of His love. In that He could take delight, though man was a fallen creature, and this world was defiled by sin. But who could have told us what that sacrifice was in His sight? None but God Himself. So He acquaints us with this; first by revealing the thoughts of His heart in consequence of it, and next by recounting what He did, and what He said to Noah and to his sons. For all that we know of that day's proceedings are detailed only in the written Word. No tradition yet discovered has preserved any account of them.

Because these offerings are all typical of the matchless sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, God smelled a sweet savor, and for this reason purposed that He would not again curse the ground for man's sake. The basis of this purpose is really the sacrifice of Christ pictured in the offerings, the only refuge for man. It is interesting too that, while in Genesis 6:5 we see that the reason for the flood was that “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,” yet this same fact becomes a reason that God would not curse the earth again (v. 21). Since the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, God would not again curse the earth or destroy every living thing out of it. The reason for this is that in the sacrifice of Christ there is a remedy for the evil nature of man. This is only implied here, whereas in the New Testament this marvelous truth is seen in the actual death of the Lord Jesus and the subsequent teachings as to all of its wonderful value.

The victim was flayed, cut into pieces. His inwards and his legs were washed with water. The head and the fat, as well as the other parts including the inwards and the legs, were put in order on the wood upon the altar. It was then completely consumed by fire and rose up a sweet savour unto the Lord. All has its typical meaning. All is exposed to the Divine gaze and all witnesses to the perfection and excellencies of Him who gave Himself. The fat is typical of His internal excellencies. The inwards and the legs washed in water apply to Christ's holy character in His affections and in His walk in perfect accord with the Word (the water). The wood tells of His humanity which He took on for the suffering of death. The fire was the fire from heaven. It is not, as often taken here, the symbol of Divine wrath consuming the sacrifice, but it has another meaning. It is the figure of God's perfect delight in the devotion of His ever blessed Son. God rested in Christ and found His fullest satisfaction in Him. The Hebrew has different words for burning. The one that is used here is the same as used for the burning of incense. This in itself shows that it has no connection with wrath. The continual fire upon the altar in connection with this greatest of all the offerings, tells us of God's perpetual delight in the work of Christ, what He is and what He has done.

Those sacrifices which could be brought as a willing response to God, in contrast to those commanded for sins and trespasses, bear several marks of a distinctive character. Associated with them were indications that they were offered to bring something pleasurable to God. The first of these indications is the repeated statement that they were "for a sweet savour" to Jehovah. We are not to suppose that burning animals were intrinsically pleasing to God, but in the scheme of redemption they were a sweet savour to God because of their typical significance. Certain accompaniments of the sacrifices also suggest a fragrance and sweetness rising to Him. On the meal offering was put frankincense; and when the moment of offering arrived, though only a handful of the meal was burned as an offering, the burning must include "all the frankincense thereof". Moreover, certain actions connected with the sacrifices vividly portray a presentation before Jehovah to give Him pleasure. Parts of the peace offerings were "waved" and "heaved" before Him, as though He wished to linger, with His people at peace with Himself, prolonging His delight in the offering. Thus the Levitical commandments bear the character of being designed to represent what was pleasurable to the Lord.

But why these thoughts and purposes of God? Because of the sweet savour of the sacrifice. Man had not improved so as to furnish any reason for a change of dealing with him. The Lord's estimate of man after the flood differed little, if at all, from that before it. (Compare Gen. 6:5 with Gen. 8:21.) Before the flood God spoke of evil as being constantly in the heart of His creature man. After it He declared it was innate. "The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." Beholding the active wickedness of man, God traced it back to his heart, every imagination of the thought of which was only evil continually. Viewing all that yet remained alive on earth of the human race, God declared that man himself was unchanged. "Only evil!" What a description of us all by nature! As children of Adam, then, we have nothing to boast of before God.

Thus from the sin offering there rises a smell of delight to God out from the fire. There was at the cross of Christ not only propitiation by blood-shedding, but the sin bearer there was such that He glorified God, honoured Him, brought a glory to His throne, and government, and nature, which was the true "smell of delight," even from that terrible place where sins, and sin, and all evil, were dealt with and their judgment executed.

However, this burnt offering was "an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord". There was that which was ascending in the perfect subjection of His own beloved Son to accomplish the work which His righteous, holy judgment demanded, that ascended to God as a sweet savour, delighting His heart.