God’s Goodness

Day 25 – The Senses

I wanted to do something unusual and not “obvious” in today’s post. The senses came to mind so I meditated on that for a while. As with any part of life, I found the Lord in all of our senses. We are so blessed! Of course, the first thing I noticed was the number five – for five senses. By now, you’ve noticed I have a love for God’s references to numbers in the Bible. The number five is the number for grace. So how does God’s grace affect all of our senses? Let’s dig in! I hope this is as much of a blessing to you as it was to me!

Let’s look at the the first sense – sight.

For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. (Isa 64:4)

Can you imagine this? Just think of the most beautiful waterfall or majestic mountain that you have seen. God says that your eye (or anyone’s for that matter) has never seen what awaits you in Heaven. Glory!! It amazes me how God intricately created the eye. Just the eye alone has so many parts and all work together to enable us to behold God’s beauty! Have we ever stopped to think what we would do without our eyes? We would stumble in darkness. God likens the lost in this way:

The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble. (Pro 4:19)

Does not this just illuminate the song verse “I once was blind but now I see”? Truly such amazing grace!!

The next sense is that of hearing.

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. (1 Co 2:9)

As Paul was quoting Isaiah, he pointed out that nothing that we have heard with our own ears can be compared to what we will hear in Heaven! I have heard the Philadelphia Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir singing Handel’s Messiah, the Hallelujah Chorus, and I thought this was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard. I was certain this would be sung in Heaven when we gather to worship Christ. I’ve also enjoyed listening to the beautiful coos of a sweet, precious baby! But God tells us that no one has any idea, or even a clue, of what we will hear in Heaven! Double Glory!! Christ used the sense of hearing seven times in the Book of Revelation Chapters 2 and 3. The Word says that with our sense of hearing we will come to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Rom 10:17)

God is so good to His children. He has given us eyes and ears with which to enjoy the beauty and sound of His creation!

The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD hath made even both of them. (Pro 20:12)

Next is the sense of taste.

O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. (Psa 34:8 )

How can you “taste” God? Have you not walked away from your Bible reading with the feeling that you ate sweet honey because God has healed your broken spirit? Have you ever walked away from your reading with a “bitter” taste in your mouth where God has revealed a sin to you?

How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (Psa 119:103)

I think of how Christ used the sense of taste in His words to us. He is the water of life – He said we should be like salt to the unsaved! Christ used the senses as examples to us so as to teach us. So did Peter.

1 Pet. 2:2-3, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: (2) If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. (3)

The sense of touch is next.

Touch not; taste not; handle not; (Col 2:21)
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, (2 Co 6:17)

We touch thousands of things in the course of a day. Our hands touch what our eyes see and our brain leads us to touch. We must be so careful to protect our eyes so that our hands are not led to touch what we should not. If we protected ourselves in this manner, we would be able to fulfill 2 Co 6:17 without a problem. Our desire (our heart) should be to touch what is good in God’s eyes. I love sitting with my Bible and running my fingers across its leather cover and eagerly anticipating my time spent in reading its blessed pages. I love to hold a rose and touch its velvet-like petals. I love to touch a baby’s skin and nuzzle my nose into its sweet, precious soft neck.

Lastly, let’s look at the sense of smell.

I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. (Amo 5:21)

God even used the sense of smell to reveal to us His desires and His will. God does not want the work of our hands – He does not want us to play religion. This verse says that God hates the smell of our unrighteous sacrifices. God wants us to have a relationship with Him. Man’s relationship with God was severed in the Garden of Eden. However, Christ came to restore that relationship. He has saved us and His sacrifice is the sweet savour that God smells. In kind, our testimonies should be a sweet savour to a lost and dying world.

For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: (2 Co 2:15)

The lost should be able to see that our “religion” is not one of burnt offerings of our own works but the blessed sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what they should see in us – our testimony should smell like a rose to them, not like a skunk.

God’s Word has so much on the senses. I never gave it much thought until this morning. Just doing a word search in my Bible software showed me just how much God used the senses to teach us. What an awesome God we serve!

My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding. (Psa 49:3)
[Maschil of Asaph.] Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth. (Psa 78:1)
Is there iniquity in my tongue? cannot my taste discern perverse things? (Job 6:30)
All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad. (Psa 45:8 )
For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. (Heb 4:15)