Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar;
Exodus 30:37-38: “And as for the perfume which thou shalt make, ye shall not make to yourselves according to the composition thereof: it shall be unto thee holy for the Lord. Whosoever shall make like unto that, to smell thereto, shall be cut off from his people.”
I thought of this verse when I told my study partner that while I was student at Moody, I tried to start up a little perfume business by making perfume in my dormitory room. The perfume making equipment sat on top of my dresser. It had a little cooper container sitting on top of a Bunsen burner with cooper tubing leading to a glass beaker to catch the distilled fragrance. It also bore a strange resemblance to something else and some student picked up on it immediately: “Perfume nothing, brother, I’m from Mississippi and I know and I know what that is, I’ve know a still when I see a still.” You can imagine how my perfume business took another turn and became the talk of the campus until the dean forced me to shut down my business. I offered to put up a sign saying: “For smelling not drinking.” but the dean alleged I could not have an open flame in my room.
So I guess I can sympathize with the Hebrew people who would get cut off from their people for making perfume to smell it. I mean, like, what value is there to perfume if you don’t smell it. Isn’t that what perfume is all about? Unless, of course, the perfume production was producing something else.
The sages taught that perfume symbolizes the saintly people. The word perfume is ketoreth. The root word is used two different ways. Rabbi Yehoshua Starrett explains that the first use expresses the pashat (literal meaning) the second use expresses the sod (deep spiritual meaning). The first use is fragrance, perfume, incense. This is your remez, why are we not to duplicate the perfume offered to God for the sake of smelling it.
The reason is that this perfume represents the saints. The second use of ketoreth is to bind. On a deeper level what this command is expressing is that any one who imitates the conduct of a saint who binds himself to God for his personal benefit is by his own self produced experience cutting himself off from God and automatically from his His people. This “binding” with God produces conduct which may seem a little (pardon my use of word – Pentecostal). “These men are not drunk as ye suppose.” (Acts 2:15).
I have noticed among some churches which seek the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, that in each church there are a group of members who express a manifestation in a certain way. Well, who am I to say they are not just filled with the joy of the Lord. What tends to stand out is that some people look at this manifestation and say: “Well, I can do that.“ So they start to imitate the behavior and end up making the “perfume’ unto themselves. They seem to enjoy the praise of other people who think they are very holy for their behavior. One person is really filled with the joy of the Lord and shouts “Yippee!” and all that. Someone else sees and hears this and says: “Well I can do that if that is all it takes to get a little recognition from the brethren.” Before long you have dozens of people shouting “Yippee!” and that. They are pulling an Exodus 30:37-38 where the Hebrews were commanded to not duplicate the perfume to smell it. Or on it’s deeper level to duplicate, for their own benefit, the behaviour of the saints who bind themselves to God.
Now don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against grunting, moaning, rolling, and shouting “Yippee!” and all that so long as it is truly of the Spirit of God. What I am saying, if you see someone saying “yahoo,” and you are about to respond with a “yahoo” of your own, stop and think about Exodus 30:37-38. Ask yourself, “Am I saying “yahoo” because I am just so filled with the Spirit of God that I can not contain myself? Or am I yahooing because I am trying to duplicate this saint who really is motivated by the Spirit of God and I want to do it for personal benefit, so people will see how spiritual I am.”
The danger of trying to duplicate the experience of another Christian or imitate the experience of another Christian is that you will cut yourself off from God who wants to do something special and unique in you. Our God is an infinite God who has infinite ways to express Himself. He made us each as unique individuals, each who can express God in their own unique way. Rather than observe another saints manifestation and saying “I can do that.” Say: “God, what can I do that is unique and special just between you and me?”
It might be a “Yippee!” and all that. It might be something more quiet or louder. But it will be between you and God once you bind yourself to Him.
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