There Shall be Oil

Exodus 30: 22-33

The LORD tells Moses that he's to go into the perfuming business. He's to take some liquid myrrh, fragrant cinnamon, fragrant cane, some cassia, and some olive oil and mix it together (with specific amounts determined for each). This oil is to be taken and used to annoint "the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the Testimony, the table and all its articles, the lampstand and its accessories, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the basin with its stand." So essentially the are to create a sacred smell.

Aaron and spawn are also to be annointed with it. The text makes a point of saying that all of these items (and Aaron's kin) are to be annointed AND consecrated. This is a tad puzzling to me- I would think that something would become consecrated by being annointed. Maybe the point here is they are to pour oil on it and treat it as sacred, pointing out desired behavior, not consecration methodology.

The most interesting part of the section to me comes in the admionition to not use this magic formula for any other purpose. This holy smell is strictly for these items and people. Don't try to profit from it. Keep it off of QVC, don't try to use it for purposes of seduction. This is a holy smell. Amazingly interesting. I think of language being holy- using words to praise or worship, I think of music and art as tools of signifying things as holy- hymns or paintings or sculpture- even architecture- but I don't think I've ever considered the olfactory as a venue for sacred expression. I can think of lots of smells that are much less than holy- but the thought of a perfume used only for God is amazing.

Folk singer Leonard Cohen has a song (Hallelujah) in which he references a secret chord that David played to please the Lord, and this has a smilar feel to it, a smell only for God. In fact in this case the smell is to be so exclusive that if you make a knock-off perfume, or wear the perfume when you shouldn't you are to be cut off from your people.

When annoionted, they are holy (as are the items) and anything that touches them becomes holy.

And from an unlikely source... perfume, God is praised.