Smell

The Words of the Holy God found in the majority-text Authorized King James Bible are the inerrant Words of the Living God. They are righteous and true altogether. They are the words of life, giving perfect instruction and insight into all that is true. It is the truth socially. It is the truth medically. It is the truth in all scientific disciplines. It is the truth of all eternal dimensions. It is the truth and standard of all morality. To disregard it is to bring damage upon oneself. Every word is precious and has direct bearing. Not one sentence was spoken superfluously and when an emphasis is made in the Word of God, a wise man says, "AMEN." NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Genesis, chapter 8, verse 21:

And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every living thing as I have done.

GOD SAID, Exodus, chapter 25, verse 6:

Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense,

GOD SAID ,Exodus, chapter 30, verses 1-7:

And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon: of shittim wood shalt thou make it. A cubit shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof; foursquare shall it be: and two cubits shall be the height thereof: the horns thereof shall be of the same. And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, the top thereof, and the sides thereof round about. And two golden rings shalt thou make to it under the crown of it, by the two corners thereof, upon the two sides of it shalt thou make it; and they shall be for places for the staves to bear it withal. And thou shalt make the staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold. And thou shalt put it before the vail that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee. And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it.

GOD SAID, Exodus, chapter 30, verses 23-25:

Take thou also unto thee principal spices, of pure myrrh five hundred shekels, and of sweet cinnamon half so much, even two hundred and fifty shekels, and of sweet calamus two hundred and fifty shekels. And of cassia five hundred shekels after the shekel of the sanctuary, and of oil olive an hin: And thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary: it shall be an holy anointing oil.

A special note: God goes on to warn against trying to duplicate this compound.

This aromatic Holy Oil was extracted from flowers, seeds, stems, bark and the roots of herbs.

GOD SAID, Psalms, chapter 45, verses 7-8:

Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad.

GOD SAID, Philippians, chapter 4, verse 18:

But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God.

MAN SAID:  The concepts portrayed in the Bible have been written by men and certainly not God, having no supernatural origin.

Now THE RECORD. The principle and importance of smell is supernaturally articulated by God since the beginning of time. Science is just beginning to understand why—and I emphasize "beginning."

The nose plays a critical role in all of life. Genesis, chapter 2, verse 7:

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

In an article written by John Travis, titled "Dialing Up An Embryo" in Science News, the following findings were outlined by biologist William Dreyer concerning olfactory receptors, which of course are essential to the sense of smell.

In the Aug. 4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES (PNAS), Dreyer lays out the provocative idea that cell surface proteins in the nose that detect odors also help assemble embryos. He asserts that these olfactory receptors and related proteins act as identifiers that help cells to find their intended neighbors in a developing embryo, much like the last few digits of a telephone number help identify the person’s phone.

"I’ve been searching for these last digits for 20 years," says Dreyer, a biologist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "No one can say for sure [the new theory] is true, but I’m up to 90 percent confident."

And again from the article:

Last year, Dreyer plunged into genomics, a fledgling field that employs computers to survey the flood of data on newly isolated genes. He began to examine databases of expressed sequence tags (ESTs), which represent fragments of genes that are active in cells. Searching through large EST databases, Dreyer found that ESTs from the liver, lung, prostate, eye, kidney, heart, testes, and other tissues match olfactory receptor genes. His survey, supported by several studies from other research groups, suggests that all tissues make at least a few olfactory receptors.

"What are they there for? They’re not there to smell the roses," contends Dreyer. "They’re there for the receptor gradients that pull all types of cells together."

As God records in Genesis 2:7, man’s life begins with the breath of life being breathed into his nostrils by God.

The smell connection and the brain were addressed in the book A User’s Guide To The Brain, authored by Doctor Ratey. A short excerpt follows:

Because the olfactory system in the brain has a short and direct connection to the memory centers, smells can take us right back to a vivid scene from the past.

And again Ratey writes:

[O]lfactory nerves project directly into the amygdala and olfactory cortex, parts of the limbic system, without any mediation through the thalamus. The olfactory nerves have a hotline to the emotional brain, and only then is the information sent to the orbitofrontal cortex for more associating, inhibiting, and further processing. The "smell" connection is much faster and more decisive than the systems for the other senses and not much filtering goes on before action is called for by emotional memory. [End of quote]

The sense of smell plays a very large role in our existence, from the very beginning of our lives to the activities in our everyday existence.

You’ve probably heard of a concept known as aromatherapy, which is just beginning to enter the mainstream. Although it’s been around since creation, it has just not been very well understood. Aromatherapy is basically the absorption of essential oils through the pores of the skin or inhaled through the nose. The molecules of these oils then enter the nervous system via the bloodstream, affecting the emotional well-being of the individual. But be sure that it’s so much more than this simple definition.

Energy Times had this to say about the nose-brain connection:

Of the five senses, smell elicits the quickest recognition and response from the brain. Odors activate nasal-cavity nerve cells, which then transmit impulses to the limbic portion of the brain, which is linked to emotions and memories. Therefore it’s believed that some odors provoke emotional responses. Our sense of smell may also affect our physiology. The limbic system activated the hypothalamus, which sends messages to the pituitary gland; the latter is in charge of hormones that control many of our bodily functions, lending some researchers to hypothesize a relationship between odors and the systems governing some basic drives and instincts, among them hunger, sex, fear and aggression. [End of quote]

The Bible directives concerning the sense of smell and the proper things to smell are daily being vindicated as truths—truths and insights that only the Designer of the body would know. This is just another proof that God is and that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).

The following paragraph from The Encyclopedia of Health reports some very unusual effects of smell:

The chemicals in smells affecting animals’ reproductive behavior are call pheromones, and some scientists think they have an effect upon the behavior of humans as well. In 1970 the psychologist Martha McClintock of the University of Chicago’s Department of Behavioral Sciences noted that the menstrual cycles of women who live together tend to become synchronized. A 1988 study by George Preti and Winnifred Cutler of the University of Pennsylvania and the Monell Chemical Senses Center supplied information about how this adjustment actually occurs. For a period of three months, every few days they exposed the 10 women to the smell of underarm perspiration from other women. At the end of the three months, the menstrual cycles of women assigned the task of smelling donated sweat had adjusted so that they coincided with the cycles of those whose perspiration they smelled. Apparently a pheromone in the perspiration adjusted the biological rhythms of those women who smelled it. [End of quote]

Not all that long ago, Europeans carried on their person nosegays made of freshly cut herbs and flowers to protect from foul smells and diseases being caused by poor public sanitation.

Essential oils such as those used in God’s holy anointing oil, when diffused and inhaled, are billed as the best air filtration systems the world has to offer. They will:

1. Purify, by removing metallic particles and toxins from the air.

2. Increase atmospheric oxygen.

3. Increase ozone and negative ions in the house, which inhibit bacteria growth.

4. Destroy odors from mold, cigarettes, and animals.

5. Fill the air with a fresh, herbal aromatic scent.

In Deuteronomy 23:13-14, God commands the children of Israel to dig a hole and bury their bodily wastes outside the camp. God said that if He smelled their stench, He would turn away from them. Uncleanness of all sorts is an abomination unto God. Included are bad odors that are a result of spoilage, decay, bodily waste, disease or death. All these can carry sickness.

The following excerpt is from The Science Times Book of the Brain:

A persistent bad smell can be more debilitating than even the continuous cry of a car alarm. Dr. Schiffman and her colleagues are now studying a group of people in North Carolina who live downwind of hog farms. "They constantly have fecal odor in their kitchen and on their drapes," she said. "They can’t open doors or windows."

"We’ve done profiles of their mood states," she added, "and we’ve found they’re severely depressed, anxious and have less vigor."

Note the words of God used in the book of Amos, chapter 5, verse 21:

I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.

There exists a plethora of research and new studies that are cataloging the tremendous power of smell and just what one should smell. The editors of Prevention magazine weighed-in with the following information under the paragraph heading, "Can You Teach Your Body to Fight Cancer?" It reads:

Imagine the fragrance of a bouquet of flowers or the melody of a favorite song signaling your immune system to fight off cancer. Far out? Researchers at the University of Alabama don’t think so.

They found they could train the immune systems of mice to rev up when the mice were exposed to an odor. They used a procedure known as classical, or Pavlovian, conditioning. Pavlov, you may recall, conditioned a dog to salivate whenever a bell rang, after learning to associate the sound with food.

The Alabama researchers exposed mice to the odor of camphor for 4 hours every 3 days for 27 days. Just before being exposed to the smell, the animals were injected with a chemical compound that stimulates interferon. This potent biochemical activates natural killer cells, our body’s first line of defense against cancer.

After nine sessions, the rodents were given a three-day rest. On the fourth day, some were exposed to the camphor smell again, but without the injection. These mice reacted with three times more interferon production and killer-cell activity than mice that were not exposed.

"We know from studies regarding stress, grief, and happiness, that the immune system is linked to the central nervous system," says the research team organizer. "Now we are beginning to see how we can influence that interaction."

"Our ultimate hope," they say, "is to be able to train the immune systems of people with cancer to mimic the effect of immune-stimulating drugs." [End of quote]

The following excerpt is also from the editors of Prevention:

Clinical studies suggest that certain essences are valuable as antidepressants, others as natural relaxants. And recent studies at Yale University and Warwick University, London, have shown that just inhaling the aroma of spiced apple pie, or the seashore, can be as relaxing as some stress- reduction techniques. [End of quote]

Aromatherapy has been used to treat physical ailments, too—everything from acne to varicose veins.

The Corsican Blue Tit is a bird that some are calling a "true botanist" because it feathers its nest with perfumed plants, including lavender, mint, yarrow and citronella. These compounds damage bacteria and fungus, and ward off mosquitoes. How did the Corsican Blue figure it out?

Thousands of years before science began to understand the reason why, God spent an enormous amount of time highlighting aromatherapy secrets. I recommend we all start practicing it at home, at work, and in our vehicles, not as Biblical law but as life-enhancing, God-given Biblical benefit.

GOD SAID, Genesis, chapter 8, verse 21:

And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every living thing as I have done.

GOD SAID, Exodus, chapter 25, verse 6:

Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense,

GOD SAID ,Exodus, chapter 30, verses 1-7:

And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon: of shittim wood shalt thou make it. A cubit shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof; foursquare shall it be: and two cubits shall be the height thereof: the horns thereof shall be of the same. And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, the top thereof, and the sides thereof round about. And two golden rings shalt thou make to it under the crown of it, by the two corners thereof, upon the two sides of it shalt thou make it; and they shall be for places for the staves to bear it withal. And thou shalt make the staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold. And thou shalt put it before the vail that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee. And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it.

GOD SAID, Exodus, chapter 30, verses 23-25:

Take thou also unto thee principal spices, of pure myrrh five hundred shekels, and of sweet cinnamon half so much, even two hundred and fifty shekels, and of sweet calamus two hundred and fifty shekels. And of cassia five hundred shekels after the shekel of the sanctuary, and of oil olive an hin: And thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary: it shall be an holy anointing oil.

A special note: God goes on to warn against trying to duplicate this compound.

This aromatic Holy Oil was extracted from flowers, seeds, stems, bark and the roots of herbs.

GOD SAID, Psalms, chapter 45, verses 7-8:

Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad.

GOD SAID, Philippians, chapter 4, verse 18:

But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God.

MAN SAID:  The concepts portrayed in the Bible have been written by men and certainly not God, having no supernatural origin.

Now you have THE RECORD.



References:

King James Bible

"Circle of Light Essential Oils," www.cnect.com/oils.

Claps, F., "While the Benefits of Aromatherapy Are Still In Question, There’s Some Promise That It Might Give You An Energy Kick," Energy Times, May 2002.

Editors of Prevention, "Positive Living and Health," Rodale Press, 1990.

Glausinsz, J., "Eau D’Oiseau," Discover, November 2002, p13.

Kittredge, M., The Encyclopedia of Health

Ratey, J.J., M.D., A User’s Guide To The Brain

Science Times Book of the Brain, The New York Times, 1998.

Travis, J., "Dialing Up An Embryo," Science News, Vol. 154, August 15, 1998, p106.

• Go Further With Christ
• Email To a Friend
• Comments or Questions?