Pleasing Aroma רֵ֣יחַ נִיח֔וֹחַ

We are in chapter twenty-nine of Exodus with our word for today which is a phrase. רֵ֣יחַ נִיח֔וֹחַ pleasing aroma, fragrant incense. It is used 43 times in the Old Testament, 3 times in our chapter. Our phrase is used in the sense of an offering to idols. Ezekiel 6:13 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, and under every leafy oak, wherever they offered רֵ֣יחַ נִיחֹ֔חַ pleasing aroma to all their idols. Ezekiel 16:17-19 You also took the fine jewelry I gave you, the jewelry made of my gold and silver, and you made for yourself male idols and engaged in prostitution with them. And you took your embroidered clothes to put on them, and you offered my oil and incense before them. Also the food I provided for you—the flour, olive oil and honey I gave you to eat—you offered as לְרֵ֥יחַ נִיחֹ֖חַ fragrant incense before them. That is what happened, declares the Sovereign Lord. Ezekiel 20:24, 28 They had not obeyed my rules, but had rejected my statutes and profaned my Sabbaths, and their eyes were set on their fathers' idols … For when I had brought them into the land that I swore to give them, then wherever they saw any high hill or any leafy tree, there they offered their sacrifices and there they presented the provocation of their offering; there they sent up רֵ֚יחַ נִיח֣וֹחֵיהֶ֔ם their pleasing aromas, and there they poured out their drink offerings. Most of the uses of our word are in reference to offerings to the true God YWHW. The first thing Noah did after being rescued by God through the ark was to offer a sacrifice to the LORD. Genesis 8:20-21 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled רֵ֣יחַ הַנִּיחֹחַ֒ the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. The rest of the uses of our phrase are in the context of the tabernacle worship that God had Moses set up. This is how our phrase is used in our chapter today. Exodus 29:18, 25, 41 Then burn the entire ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the Lord, a רֵ֣יחַ נִיח֔וֹחַ pleasing aroma, a food offering presented to the Lord … Then you shall take them from their hands and burn them on the altar on top of the burnt offering, as a לְרֵ֤יחַ נִיח֙וֹחַ֙ pleasing aroma before the Lord. It is a food offering to the Lord … The other lamb you shall offer at twilight, and shall offer with it a grain offering and its drink offering, as in the morning, for a לְרֵ֣יחַ נִיחֹ֔חַ pleasing aroma, a food offering to the Lord. 

I’ll close with these great pictures of God connecting with his people comparing it to a pleasant-smelling offering. And it compared to the sharing of the good news of salvation in Christ. Ezekiel 20:41 As a בְּרֵ֣יחַ נִיחֹחַ֮ pleasing aroma I will accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered. And I will manifest my holiness among you in the sight of the nations. 2 Corinthians 2:14-17 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.