Did you know that through us God diffuses the fragrance of Christ’s knowledge in every place?
The most valuable perfume in the world, I’m told, is a diamond-and-pearl encrusted vial of Shumukh perfume by Spirit of Dubai, priced at $1.295 million. But that’s mostly in the packaging. Jean Patou’s Joy sells for a whopping $1800 since it’s made from 10,600 jasmine flowers and 28 dozen roses per bottle. A custom-made perfume would run in the $30,000-55,000 range. But this perfume! God held the license on it, and it was a capital offense to use it for any purpose other than “the tabernacle of meeting and the ark of the Testimony; the table and all its utensils, the lampstand and its utensils, and the altar of incense; the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the laver and its base…And…Aaron and his sons” (Ex 30:26-30). With a base of five quarts of olive oil (which Adam Clarke says “is supposed to be the best preservative of odors”), it was “compounded according to the art of the perfumer” (v 25) out of myrrh, cinnamon, cassia, and calamus. What of the perfume in the true Tabernacle? Our Lord Jesus is described as follows, “You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions. All Your garments are scented with myrrh and aloes and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, by which they have made You glad” (Ps 45:7-8). Notice that the place and the people who served there had the same fragrance. Any priest walking among the people would silently but surely show he had been in the holy place. You don’t suppose that happens now? Listen, “We are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing” (2 Cor 2:15). May people catch a hint of the perfume of His gladness from our lives today.