Pagan deities require food offerings. Often, bowls of choice morsels, strategically placed before the fetish, rot. Or as in the epic myth of Gilgamesh the food gift is cooked and the gods eat it. The Lord also asked for food offerings, but He does not eat them. "If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?" (Psalm 50:12, 13)
So what exactly is the relationship between the offering and the Lord? Does He just watch the ritual from a distance. Leviticus 1:9 says that the priest shall burn the offering to be a sweet savour unto the Lord. The smoke of the burnt offering becomes a kind of incense; the fragrant residue of something burned; and that perfume is for God. He receives the offering by smelling it. He breathes deeply of the sweet scent and takes it into His own being.
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Psalm 141:2 says, "Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice." Hmm... my prayer like sacrificial incense? My prayer ascending into the courts of glory and wafting to the throne to be received by God? Prayer, the breath of my soul, (Gospel Workers 254.4) in His nostrils and lungs? Isn't that slightly ironic; me a creature who is dependent on His breath of life, giving breath back to Him? But that is the thing about my Father, He wants to enjoy every intimacy with me. Like a father nuzzles close to his baby and savors the sweet smell of her breath, God loves the breath of my soul and that is... amazing!
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