Leviticus 1:1–9, “And the Lord called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the flock. If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord. And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering: and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. And he shall kill the bullock before the Lord: and the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall bring the blood, and shall sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And he shall flay the burnt offering, and cut it into his pieces. And the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire upon the altar, and lay the wood in order upon the fire: And the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall lay the parts, the head, and the fat, in order upon the wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar: But his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water: and the priest shall burn all on the altar, to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord.”
As you begin to read this message, I want you to look back up at the verses that you just read, and I want you to read again the last few words of verse 9, when it said, “an offering made by fire, of a sweet smelling savour unto the Lord.” As you do, I want you to see two things here. Number one, it was an offering made by fire. We’ll deal with that later on in this message. And then, two, that it made a sweet savour unto the Lord.
Picture in your mind an altar burning with fire. During the course of a day, one after another, bullocks are placed upon the altar and are burnt unto the Lord. The hair burns. The flesh burns. The fat burns. Blood is sprinkled all over the altar and it runs down the ramp and over the sides. It is not a pretty site and it surely isn’t pleasant smelling! Or is it? For, the Bible clearly tells us that it made a sweet savour unto the Lord. In other words, it smelt good!
How can this be? Have you ever smelt burnt flesh? Have you ever smelt singed hair? It smells terrible! It is nauseating! So, how could the priests burn bullocks and it not smell bad then? The secret to this is found in your Bible in the Book of Exodus chapter 30, verses 22 – 33.
“Moreover the Lord spake unto Moses saying, 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. And thou shalt anoint the tabernacle of the congregation therewith, and the ark of the testimony, And the table and all his vessels, and the candlestick and all his vessels, and the altar of incense, And the altar of burnt offering with all his vessels, and the laver and his foot. And thou shalt sanctify them, that they may be most holy: whatsoever toucheth them shall be holy. And thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister unto me in the priest’s office. And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, This shall be an holy anointing oil unto me throughout your generations. Upon man’s flesh shall it not be poured, neither shall you make any other like it, after the composition of it: it is holy, and it shall be holy unto you. Whosoever compoundeth any like it, or whosoever putteth any of it upon a stranger, shall be even cut off from his people.”
This was how the holy anointing oil was made. And this is how the sacrifice that was being offered made a sweet smelling savour. The priest would pour this oil all over the animal being sacrificed before burning it. Now, just in case you are like me, and you don’t understand what all those shekels mean, let me just briefly give to you the measurements of each so that you can better understand:
Pure Myrrh – 19-½ lbs. Myrrh is a gum, which comes from the stem of a thorny tree that grows in Arabia. The word “pure” here means free flowing. The best gum comes spontaneously from the bark.
Sweet Cinnamon – 9 ¾ lbs. Cinnamon comes from a tree growing in Ceylon. It is the dried inner rind of the tree.
Sweet Calamus – 9 ¾ lbs. Calamus is a fragrant cane whose root is used as a spice.
Cassia – 19-½ lbs. Cassia is the aromatic bark of a shrub tree that grows in the eastern countries.
Olive Oil – 6 Quarts. Olive oil of course is the oil that comes from the olive when it is pressed down and squeezed out.
Now, when all of these ingredients were put together, it made a very sweet pleasant smelling odor. But remember, according to the Word of God, these were only the “principal spices”. No where does it say that these were the “only” spices. And the problem that existed was only a select few ever knew how to mix the ingredients of the compound together. In Exodus 30:25, it even said that it had to be made after the art of the apothecary. The word apothecary was applied to the one who compounded perfumes and fragrances together.
The initial person assigned this tasking by God to make the holy anointing compound oil was a man named Be-zal’e-el according to Exodus 31:2-3 and 37:29. He was assigned by God Himself to be the mixer of the holy anointing oil. After that, not much is said in the Word of God about mixing this holy oil. But, Jewish legend has much to say about it. According to Jewish legend, when God gave the ingredients to him and assigned him to do the work of the apothecary that God forbade him to ever tell anyone else the ingredients. As a matter of fact, supposedly God told him not to tell another living soul until he was on his death bed and then to only reveal all the ingredients to his first born son. And then when his son was on his deathbed to tell his son, as so forth down through all their generations. The only problem with that was, after the temple was destroyed in 70A.D., there was no need for a priesthood any longer. And, if there was no need for a priesthood, there was also no need for any holy anointing oil.
What I see here is a great symbolism of what will happen to the modern church if we let the priesthood of believers die out and we leave the anointed things of God behind. My friends, if there is no anointed priesthood, there is no need for the holy anointing oil of God to be poured out upon us. God forbid! We need the anointing of God. For it is the anointing of the Holy Ghost that empowers us for service and propels us into our prophetic destiny’s as the children of God on this earth! We need and must have the anointing upon us! And not just a little anointing either. No! We must have an anointing like the Old Testament people received. An anointing that is poured over all of us and saturates our entire being!
Psalm 133:1-2 says, “How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments.”
Job 29:6 also states something very interesting. It says, “Thou washeth my steps in butter.” Know what that means? That means that the priests would be so anointed that they would leave their footprints behind after being anointed with the anointing oil. Oh to God for some men and women in this day and age who will seek for so much of God that when they find Him, they will be saturated with His holy anointing oil and never be the same again!!!
And do you know what the beautiful part of all this really is? Now, God doesn’t require us to offer animal sacrifices. Read what Romans 12:1 says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Oh hallelujah! He doesn’t want animal sacrifices any longer. No. He says here that He would much rather have a good anointed Hallelujah or Praise the Lord or Thank You Jesus!
The holy anointing oil was a type of the Holy Spirit. Now we can be so anointed with the Holy Spirit, that we too can produce a sweet smelling savour unto the Lord – with our praise!