Myrrh

I love the Word of God.  Above all I love studying the smallest, seemingly insignificant details.  There isn't one word or detail that God put in the Bible by accident.  The Word is perfect, and alive.  There are amazing truths in the smallest nooks and crannies.  For example, I have been studying the anointing as a general topic, and one of my major areas of study has been the Sacred Anointing Oil used for anointing priests in the Old Testament.  I thought it would be interesting to share a little bit about it, particularly about the first ingredient of the oil, which is myrrh.

In Exodus 30:23 & 24 God gives Moses the recipe for Sacred Anointing Oil:

  "Take also to you principal spices, five hundred shekels of pure myrrh, and half as much of sweet cinnamon, even two hundred and fifty shekels, and two hundred and fifty shekels of sweet calamus, and five hundred of cassia, after the shekel of the sanctuary, and a hin of olive oil."

First of all, did you know that myrrh come from a myrrh tree? 

It has to come from somewhere right?  It isn't even a very nice looking tree.  Also, it's thorny, making the actual harvesting of myrrh a bit tricky.  What is amazing about myrrh though, is that out of this ugly, thorny tree comes one of the most amazing natural medicines in the Middle East.  Check out the following:

“Myrrh has traditionally been applied topically or used as a mouthwash to treat various types of mouth and gum ailments, including sore gums, bad breath, and canker sores. Herbalists have also used myrrh in formulas for laryngitis, coughs and colds, respiratory and sinus congestion, and sore throats. Chinese herbalists have used myrrh to promote the healing and relieve the pain of wounds, arthritis, tumors, bedsores, sore muscles, and skin conditions. Myrrh has a folk reputation as a uterine stimulant and women have been known to use it to promote menstruation or alleviate menstrual pain. Some herbalists have recommended myrrh as a digestive tonic to promote appetite or expel gas from the intestinal tract. 

 

Studies have begun to confirm that myrrh has anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and anti-inflammatory properties that make it useful against conditions such as canker sores, sore throat, and gum disease. In addition some evidence suggests heart-protective properties in myrrh, from reducing blood levels of cholesterol and fats, and anti-cancer effects. Myrrh may also help to prevent or treat: bad breath, common cold, athlete's foot, herpes, and stomach ulcers.” 

http://www.theolivebranch.com/herbs/myrrh.htm

 

                                                                      

Aside from its incredible medicinal properties, myrrh is also used for perfume.  Consider the following:

"Even if you’ve never smelled myrrh, a gum resin obtained from Commiphora myrrha trees native to Yemen and Somalia, its aroma contains so many familiar hints that it is not likely to seem exotic. Strange, maybe, but not completely foreign. Imagine the scent of raw mushrooms and black licorice, then add a bit of smoldering damp wood and bakery exhaust fumes. For some people it is also reminiscent of cool church stones, since myrrh is often used in liturgical incense blends.

Among the notes in the perfumer’s palette, some materials have a reputation of being challenging. Myrrh is one of such difficult, but exciting notes. It has so much character that unless a perfumer is a skilled technician, myrrh ends up smothering the fragrance. As perfumer Calice Becker observes, myrrh for a perfumer is like butter for a chef; it enriches the flavors.  A proper balance of myrrh with other ingredients results in a sensual, haunting character. The dose can range from a delicate accent to a heavy-handed stroke, but in all cases, myrrh indeed deepens the composition."

                                    - http://boisdejasmin.com/2012/01/myrrh-sensual-haunting-perfume-note.html
            

Myrrh Resin

                                
Myrrh has always been considered highly valuable, but it has another certain property that most people never think about.  Remember how the wise men brought it to Jesus when he was born?  That is a pretty common story.  How about Mark 15:23, when Jesus was hanging on the cross?

"And they gave Him wine mixed with myrrh to drink. But He did not take it." 

Ever wonder why in the world they would offer Jesus wine mixed with myrrh?  You see, if you eat myrrh, or burn it and breathe in the fumes (especially mixed with frankincense, oddly enough), it become a powerful narcotic that deadens your senses, and can cause all kinds of hallucinations and strange physical reactions.

Albert Barnes Notes on the Bible comment on Mark 15:23:

“The effect of this, it is said, was to stupefy the senses. It was often given to those who were crucified, to render them insensible to the pains of death. Our Lord, knowing this, when he bad tasted it refused to drink.  He was unwilling to blunt the pains of dying. The “cup” which his “Father” gave him he rather chose to drink. He came to suffer. His sorrows were necessary for the work of the atonement, and he gave himself up to the unmitigated sufferings of the cross.”

 

Aaron Anointed High Priest by Moses

There is a purpose for everything that God puts in the Bible, and as I said in my last post, He has a manifold nature.

We can look at all of the natural properties of myrrh and see all kinds of potential, both for health benefits and narcotic abuse, but I believe we should look at it in the context it is meant for, the anointing. 

Myrrh was just one single ingredient in several, so there is a lot more study to do of course, but just by looking at this in the right context, we see all kinds of parallels.

For example, 1John 2:20 says, "But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things."

And

2 Cor. 1:20-21  "For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God."

So we who are in Christ are anointed, so we should study what that means.  Especially because Isaiah 10:27 says: "And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing." 

The anointing breaks the yoke, that is pretty powerful.

Now, if you are thinking, "But that anointing was for the priests, I'm not a priest..."  Go with me please to Revelation:

Rev. 1:6,  "And (Jesus) hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."

And

Rev. 5:10,  "And (Jesus) hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth."

If you are in Jesus, you are a priest in His name.  So the anointing belongs to you as well.

I don't want to be repetitious, or restate the obvious, but now that we have established that not only are we priests, but we are already anointed in Him, and the anointing oil in Exodus 30 is clearly in scripture for our sake, for us to learn and grow, myrrh being part of that, I think it is safe to say (along with lots of supporting scripture if there was space to state them all), that in Christ we have the following:

Health/Healing.  (1 Peter 2:24)

A sweet fragrance is symbolic of prayer in scripture, and God's pleasure with His people (Song of Solomon 1:2, Rev. 8:4).  So you could say we have favor with God, and an open ear to our prayers.

As for the narcotic value of myrrh.  Well, I certainly don't condone the use of narcotics in any way.  As I said, I'm looking for the spiritual significance of these things.  To me it is clear that this value is the spiritual value of supernatural visions, touches from God.  The anointing clearly brings these things into our lives as we can see if we simply look at any of the prophets, Apostles, and Jesus Himself.
 
We have to remember that the devil always tries to take things of God, and create a forgery to fill the void of the unsaved, so they don't seek Christ.  That is why drugs are so rampant in cultures like the U.S. where supernatural occurrences are so few and far between.  God made us to crave those things, and if we can't get them in the legal, Christian way, we tend to seek them out in other illegal avenues.  So people turn to the lesser experiences of drugs rather than the true power of Jesus.

It isn't any different than comparing earthly drunkenness with being drunk in the spirit.  Again, earthly drunkenness is merely a sad attempt to fill a spiritual void.

Imagine.  This is just one ingredient of the anointing oil.  There are still five more!  I don't know if I will post any of the other studies, but I felt like this one was pretty amazing.