Genesis 8:21 starts out by saying that when Noah sacrificed a burnt offering as his worship to God, God smelled a sweet savour, which first and foremost establishes the fact that God is not some inanimate source of uncontainable power, devoid of human emotions and feelings … but instead he can smell i.e., he can feel. Infact, I believe that we have the senses (one of which is the sense of smell) because we are made in the image of the Creator and have his attributes (Genesis 1:27). Second, the sacrifice of Noah was a sweet smelling aroma to God. This made me wonder and ask “What was the smell in the land, at that time, before God smelled the burnt offerings from Noah?” If you allow me to indulge myself a little, I suspect that with the destruction and death, caused by the universal deluge (flood), rotting bodies of land creatures and mankind would have been sprawled around the world, and from their decay should have aroused the stench of death. So before God smelled the sweet savour in his nostrils, that came from the sacrifice, the stench of death would have prevailed, in the land.

Points to ponder:
Just like the offerings of Noah, Jesus who gave himself for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God, which is once and for all, was a sweetsmelling savour unto God (Hebrews 10:1-10; Ephesians 5:2). Until Jesus’ offering and willful sacrifice, sin and its wages, which is death (Romans 6:23), along with its stench, prevailed. Now all who believe in Jesus Christ, who have confessed their sins and the Lordship of Jesus the Savior, that is in them that are saved, are indeed a sweet smelling savour of Christ himself to God (2 Corinthians 2:15). No longer is the stench of death on them that have believed for the gift of God is eternal life in and through and by Christ (Romans 6:23; John 3:16). The question is, on you will God smell the stench of death or a sweet savour?

Genesis 8:21 (KJV)
21 And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.

Ephesians 5:2 (KJV)
2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.

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