LEVITICUS 8:22-29

 Q: Aaron waves the offering before the Lord as a wave offering. What does this mean? Do they wave the offering for God to smell it?

No, the “waving” itself was not for God to smell it. The word is better translated as “elevating,” as in the NRSV), and Allen Ross best explains the act: “The wave offering was placed in the offerer's hands, and then the priest placed his hands beneath those of the offerer, moving them upward and downward, forward and backward, thereby symbolizing the consecration of the gift of God in the sight of all. It was, in a sense, transferring the offering to God, showing that it belonged to him first.”

However, we can't entirely avoid the idea that God was meant to smell the offering as it was being burnt (“a pleasing odor before the LORD” – Leviticus 8:28; also Genesis 8:21; Exodus 29:18, etc). This is another anthropomorphic image of God as if he had the sense of smell. In the first place, the word translated as “pleasing” can also be translated as soothing or appeasing. This represents “the satisfaction God experiences in the proper worship of him and the acceptance of a sacrifice as a propitiation for sin.” (Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, p. 801)

It should be pointed out that some Christian denominations still use incense in their worship services for the same symbolic reason. The smoke of incense is associated with prayers of the believers in Psalms 141:2 and Revelation 8:3-4.