Salt
in Scripture - An Everlasting Covenant |
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Brother Royce Ellis -
Assoc. Editor |
I was reading about minerals
and came across a statement that made me laugh: Salt is
one of the oldest minerals on the face of the earth. I
thought, by what, 3 hours?
Salt, regardless of its age,
is crucial to our existence on this planet. Doctors say if
you manage to live salt free 30 days, you would no longer be
able to think. If you hadn’t come to your right mind at the
end of 30 days and continued your salt less diet, you’d be
dead within two more weeks. Your body can’t live without
salt. Doctors will tell you that salt is what drives your
blood pressure up and gives you so many health problems, but
is it really the salt? Or is it the ingredients added to the
compound that sits on your kitchen table? In truth, the
chemicals that pour out of the average kitchen shaker are a
far cry from what the Lord intended.
Salt begins with nearly one
hundred nutrients vital to our health and well being.
Companies mining salt, whether from the ground or sea, strip
away the valuable nutrients for resale, leaving a substance
that only faintly resembles the original compound. It
carries the name “salt” and little else. They add a
anti-caking agent, perhaps bleach it to turn it white, then
add aluminum and iodine. Yum! If you want to immediately
know the difference between the two, try this simple
experiment: Take a small dab of Kosher or Sea Salt and taste
it. It will be vaguely familiar to you. It tastes like salt.
Then, immediately try the common table salt you always use.
You’ll instantly taste the poison and may never use common
so called salt again.
Like many husbands, I get in
trouble with my wife for salting my food before I taste it.
She always makes the case that she seasoned it perfectly and
I should try it first. I rarely do. And I can’t remember the
time when I had to go back and say I was wrong – now it is
too salty. The truth is, I like the taste of salt.
Salt has a rich and
interesting history. There’s an old saying about a person
being “worth their salt.” It turns out we get our word
“salary” from the same Latin root. Salt was once used as a
form of currency, and in some cultures, it was given with
pay or in lieu of other monies as it was so easily traded.
It’s engrained into our cultures, and our language. “He’s
not worth his salt.” “She is just pouring salt in his
wounds.” “Take it with a grain of salt.” That one’s so old
there’s a Latin version of it: “Cum grano salis.” ”Below the
salt” is an expression dividing the rich from the poor at
the common table.
It’s a natural antiseptic.
Germs cannot live in salt. It’s used as a healing agent in
many applications, from homemade remedies – gargling with
salt water to cure a sore throat – to emergency
applications. Emergency room visitors are often given a
saline solution to replenish their fluids and aid in
stabilizing them even before their condition has been fully
diagnosed.
Why all this talk of salt?
Because of the biblical significance of course. We know the
most popular story about salt and the scriptures pertaining
to Lot’s wife. She looked back toward Sodom during its
destruction and turned into a pillar of salt. Jewish
tradition says Lot instructed his wife to give the strangers
he brought into the house salt, but she defied him because
of its value.
The Old Testament places
great importance on salt.
Lev 2:13 And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt
thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of
the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat
offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.
Num 18:19 All the heave offerings of the holy things,
which the children of Israel offer unto the LORD, have I
given thee, and thy sons and thy daughters with thee, by a
statute for ever: it [is] a covenant of salt for ever before
the LORD unto thee and to thy seed with thee.
A covenant of salt. Why salt?
Why a covenant? In biblical times, salt, because it was
easily traded and highly valued was carried in small bags
attached to a man’s belt. When two made an agreement,
contract or promise, they would each pinch a bit of salt
from their bag and place it into the others’ bag,
proclaiming the unbreakable covenant – “there is salt
between us.” It was an impossibility to separate your salt
from your partners. It represented a permanent arrangement
that could not be undone. Jews would salt the Sabbath bread
to remind them of the covenant they had with God. And more
importantly, the priests were instructed by the Lord to
offer every sacrifice with salt. It was not to be lacking in
anything.
Salt is used as a preservative
to cure food. It is also used to remove blood. Eze 16:4
And [as for] thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy
navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to
supple [thee]; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at
all. Elisha poured a cuze of salt into the waters to
heal the barren land at the Lord’s instructions. Yet in
Judges chapter nine, we find Abimelch sowing the city of
Shechem with salt, to show his contempt for the people
there.
And the everlasting kingdom?
2Ch 13:5 Ought ye not to know that the LORD God of Israel
gave the kingdom over Israel to David for ever, [even] to
him and to his sons by a covenant of salt?
Salt is unique in that it
retains its characteristics. If you put it in water, when
the water has evaporated, you still have the original salt.
Our God is unchangeable and pure as well, so this element
truly represents Him and His covenants. Job, in the middle
of his trials and difficulties, waxed poetic about salt: Job
6:6 Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt? or
is there [any] taste in the white of an egg?
While fulfilling the law to a
jot and a tittle, Jesus reminded the Jews of the importance
of salting the sacrifice:
Mar 9:49-50 For every
one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be
salted with salt. :50 Salt [is] good: but if the salt
have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have
salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.
Paul tells us we should even
season our speech. If you use too much salt in your
conversation and speak of religion and nothing else, it
could be distasteful to many and actually hinder your
ministry. But without grace in your conversation, how would
anyone know you belong to the Lord? Col 4:6 Let your
speech [be] alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye
may know how ye ought to answer every man.
Now that I’ve brought to your
attention something about salt you may not have known, allow
me to be a little speculative to paint a picture for you.
Exd 30:22-25 Moreover the
LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Take thou also unto thee
principal spices, of pure myrrh five hundred [shekels], and
of sweet cinnamon half so much, [even] two hundred and fifty
[shekels], and of sweet calamus two hundred and fifty
[shekels], And of cassia five hundred [shekels], after the
shekel of the sanctuary, and of oil olive an hin: And thou
shalt make it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound
after the art of the apothecary: it shall be an holy
anointing oil.
Exd 30:30-32 And thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons,
and consecrate them, that [they] may minister unto me in the
priest's office. :31 And thou shalt speak unto the
children of Israel, saying, This shall be an holy anointing
oil unto me throughout your generations.:32 Upon
man's flesh shall it not be poured, neither shall ye make
[any other] like it, after the composition of it: it [is]
holy, [and] it shall be holy unto you.
Exd 30:33-35 Whosoever
compoundeth [any] like it, or whosoever putteth [any] of it
upon a stranger, shall even be cut off from his people.:34
And the LORD said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices,
stacte, and onycha, and galbanum; [these] sweet spices with
pure frankincense: of each shall there be a like [weight]:
:35 And thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after
the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure [and]
holy: (Tempered together = salted)
Exd 30:36-37 And thou shalt
beat [some] of it very small, and put of it before the
testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation, where I
will meet with thee: it shall be unto you most holy :37
And [as for] the perfume which thou shalt make, ye shall
not make to yourselves according to the composition thereof:
it shall be unto thee holy for the LORD.
Fast foward to the New
Testament:
Mat 26:7-10There came unto him a woman having an
alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on
his head, as he sat [at meat].
8 But when his disciples saw [it], they had indignation,
saying, To what purpose [is] this waste?:9 For this ointment
might have been sold for much, and given to the poor :10
When Jesus understood [it], he said unto them, Why trouble
ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me.
Mat 26:11-13 For ye have
the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. :12 For
in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did
[it] for my burial. :13 Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever
this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, [there]
shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a
memorial of her.
I’ve heard the gospel
proclaimed in several different areas of the world, but only
once have I heard a specific sermon on this woman and the
memorial. You would think by the words of Christ we’d hear
about her actions every week when we gather. Jesus himself
said every sacrifice must be salted. And here he was. As our
sinless, perfect, sacrifice, Christ needed not the actual
salt, but allowed it to be applied in this method to fulfill
the ceremonial law to a jot and a tittle. And the precious
ointment? The anointing of our great High Priest.
How is this memorial spoken
of concerning this woman?
Psa 133:1-3 [[A Song of degrees of David.]] Behold, how
good and how pleasant [it is] for brethren to dwell together
in unity! :2 [It is] like the precious ointment upon the
head, that ran down upon the beard, [even] Aaron's beard:
that went down to the skirts of his garments :3 As the
dew of Hermon, [and as the dew] that descended upon the
mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the
blessing, [even] life for evermore.
Whenever we gather together in
peace and harmony, in unity, we fulfill that which becomes a
memorial to her and we enjoy the sweet dew of Mt. Hermon
(which is Zion.)
Hbr 1:9 Thou hast loved
righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, [even] thy
God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy
fellows.
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