The Smell of Sacrifice
The LORD smelled the soothing aroma; and the LORD said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, Genesis 8:21
Soothing Aroma – Can you imagine the scene? Noah brings the animals out of the ark. He takes one of each of the acceptable animals and birds and sacrifices them on the altar. How many dozens of animals and birds must have been killed on that day! How much blood flowed over the new ground! How big the fire must have been to consume all of these carcasses! Do you really think the smell was like perfume? Of course not. It was the smell of death, of burning flesh. But God said that it was a soothing aroma.
The Hebrew makes it very clear. The two words reyah and niyhoah are used many times in Leviticus to describe the same effect on the Lord. If we were standing there, watching those animals and birds being consumed by the fire, we might turn from the smell. So why does God called it “soothing”? The Lord’s reaction was not to the actual burning, but rather to the acknowledgement of His sovereignty. This is an act of worship, a sacrifice that recognizes the need for atonement. It is an act that honors the Judge of all Mankind at the same time that it acknowledges Man’s need for mercy. When Noah came out of the ark, he knew full well that the only thing that saved him from the destruction of the last year was God’s provision. Noah’s sacrifice acknowledged God’s grace as the only constant in the universe. God loves the smell of that kind of humility and dependence.
Once again we see that God’s perspective on life’s priorities is not the same as ours. If we stood alongside Noah, we might be tempted to think, “We must protect the life of all of these creatures. They are the only links to repopulating the world.” After witnessing the destruction of the world, death would be the last thing on our minds. We would be thinking about security and development and provision.
Noah had God’s perspective on the matter. The God who could open the deep to flood the world was the same God who preserved Noah’s little group through all the destruction. God is in charge, even in the midst of scarcity and aftermath. Without God’s blessing, all efforts are doomed. If the Flood teaches us nothing else, it should teach us that God alone is our salvation. And if God is pleased for us to sacrifice what has been rescued in His honor, then who are we to hold it back?
The smell of the sacrifice is not earthly perfume. It is the heavenly scent of man’s confession of dependence. When we take what has been rescued by the Lord and offer it back to Him in sacrificial release, He is pleased. We have learned that all of it comes from His hand.
