Salt: August 2022
Table of Contents
Salt
“Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom. 12:1). “Christ ... through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God” (Heb. 9:14). His life was salted (tried) by fire and only emitted a fragrant odor to God. No honey — the sweetness of nature—and no leaven — that which is sour and inflated. He was salted with salt — the holy grace which binds the soul to God and enables the heart to refuse all that is presented to it which is not of Him. In short, a sinless man was before God’s eye in Christ, and He was what none else ever was in itself offered to God. In Romans 8:2-3, we are consecrated to God and presented to Him, as in Christ. In Romans 12 as priests for whom the mercies of God have opened our temple door, we have come out of all man’s corruption and now present our bodies, hitherto slaves of sin, to God, a “living sacrifice” as in Christ and His life in us, “holy,” to which the salt pointed (compare Mark 9:49-50), and “acceptable,” the grace of Christ seen in us (the frankincense) — all presented to God as an “intelligent priestly service.”
F. G. Patterson (adapted)
Salt
Salt is necessary to life, both for man and beast, and it is a means of cleansing the body. Salt is a necessary component of human and animal blood.
“Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned?” (Luke 14:34).
Salt cannot season itself. Inasmuch as it does not benefit itself, it is intended to be used for others. Salt is a picture of the power of holy grace in man. A true believer is likened to salt which savors, or seasons, and preserves. He acts as a moral savor, and as long as the believer is in this world, he is a preserver.
Salt is not compounded but is found in its natural state.
“That which they have need of, both young bullocks, and rams, and lambs, for the burnt offerings of the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, and oil, according to the appointment of the priests which are at Jerusalem, let it be given them day by day without fail” (Ezra 6:9). What a lesson here — “day by day!”
Wheat is Christ for our food, as we read and pray and are built up in our most holy faith. Salt is the separating power of holiness, keeping us from the world and evil, within and without. Wine speaks of the constant joy of feeding on Christ, the result of the Holy Spirit within. Oil, a type of the Holy Spirit, reminds us of our being sealed until the day of redemption, the earnest assuring us of the time when we will have bodies of glory, as well as giving us present happiness. The anointing is the presence and energy of the Spirit of God in intelligence and power.
“Salt without prescribing how much” (Ezra 7:22).
The Holy Spirit within gives spiritual discernment as to grace and devotion.
“Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man” (Col. 4:6). The Lord Jesus could say,”[I am] altogether that which I also say to you” (John 8:25 JND).
Separation here is concerning what we say, which should be with grace for edification for others. This is a purpose of salt. Salt is the inner power of energy and holiness in grace, devotedness to God, and separation from evil. There is no life without salt and no life in salt. Even food is unsavory without it.
“Can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt?” (Job 6:6).
How vivid a picture before us as we view the properties of salt in a moral or spiritual way! Salt cleanses by rejecting all within that is contrary to God. As salt seasons and flavors, so does the believer in a moral way. For one whose life is a sacrifice, salt is a preservative. It binds the soul to God and inwardly preserves from evil because of the power of holy grace and devotion.
The believer is likened to salt.
“Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted?” (Matt. 5:13).
If he loses his savor or his purpose here, he is good for nothing. Those who offered themselves to God, who were set apart for Him, were the salt of the earth.
Salt for discipleship is the energy within that binds and dedicates the heart to God in a service of obligation and desire. Thus salt is the separating power of holiness. The good should be seasoned with salt.
“He said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him. And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land” (2 Kings 2:20-21).
Here we find Jericho under the curse, just as the world through which we pass. Everything of refreshment (“water”) is spoiled. There must be a new cruse, a new nature, then there must be salt in that new cruse. Unless there is personal devotedness to Christ and unless the spring of the waters (complete dependence upon God) is reached, where holy grace is exercised, there never can be blessing or refreshment. Salt must be cast into the spring of the waters. Only God can heal the waters in the city of the curse, but it is by casting salt into the spring of waters, and we must have the spiritual energy to do it. It is the personal energy of faith which depends entirely upon God.
Both in worship and in a consecrated offering in service there should not lack the salt of holy grace and devotion. The Old Testament speaks of offerings and sacrifices. They do not all apply to atonement. Many of them typify the believer in his normal role. “Ye are the salt of the earth” (Matt. 5:13). Also, we learn how he is to offer his life and service to God down here. All of this was written for our learning. This is not to say that man can provide anything for God in or from himself, but there can be devotedness, a response from the heart, noticed by God and often a testimony on earth to His glory.
“When thou hast made an end of cleansing it, thou shalt offer a young bullock without blemish, and a ram out of the flock without blemish. And thou shalt offer them before the Lord, and the priests shall cast salt upon them, and they shall offer them up for a burnt offering unto the Lord” (Ezek. 43:23-24).
The bullock speaks of the largeness of appreciation of what Christ, in His offering, is to God. The discernment of this is through salt, the inner intelligence as well as holy grace and devotion. How often we need to judge ourselves as to this! It is only right that God should have the utmost in devotion, whether in worship or sacrifice, and salt should always accompany these.
“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” (Lev. 2:13).
“Ought ye not to know that the Lord God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David forever, even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt?” (2 Chron. 13:5).
David’s kingdom was founded on a covenant of salt, perpetual devotedness of responsibility. Only Christ can fill this place of eternal devotion and grace as to the kingdom.
“Every one shall be salted with fire” (Mark 9:49).
Fire represents God’s own character and is the standard that tests persons as to reality. If failure, it corrects; if unreality, it judges.
“Every sacrifice shall be salted with salt” (Mark 9:49).
Everything done for Christ is tested to see if it is done in devotion and by grace. Efforts of the flesh have no place in any sacrifices, either for worship or for service.
May these meditations refresh our spirits to true devotedness and holy grace.
C. E. Lunden (adapted)
The Importance of Salt
About 100 years ago, a company in St. Clair, Michigan, U.S.A., that sold salt advertised its product by issuing a booklet entitled, “One Hundred and One Uses for Diamond Crystal Salt.” Included in its list were functions like keeping the colors bright on boiled vegetables, making ice cream, removing rust, sealing cracks, putting out grease fires, and treating a myriad of human ailments such as dyspepsia, sprains, sore throats and earaches. Today the figure is over 14,000 uses, as the list now includes the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, the melting of ice on roads in winter, making soap, softening water, and making dyes for textiles.
Salt is so common today, and relatively cheap, that we have forgotten that right from the beginning of man’s history in this world, salt was one of the most sought-after commodities. It was not until the twentieth century that salt became readily available and inexpensive. The search for salt challenged engineers for thousands of years. Trade routes were established, alliances formed, empires secured, and revolutions provoked — all because of salt. During those millennia, salt represented wealth. Many governments taxed it to raise money. It was often used for money, and armies were paid in salt. The Latin word sal (salt) became the French word solde (pay), from which came the word soldier and also the expression, “Worth his salt.” Our English words salary and salad are derived from the same root, as the Romans often used salt on vegetable greens.
A Preservative
Salt is mentioned many times in the Word of God, and most of these references are in the Old Testament. Since other articles in this issue of The Christian will take up the typical meaning of many of these references, we will confine ourselves in this article to one aspect of salt that is well-known — its ability to preserve. This has been well recognized throughout history. Man has long known how to preserve meat and some vegetables by packing them in salt. But the Word of God takes up that same function of salt to teach us important lessons. One of these concerns the Salt Sea (otherwise known as the Dead Sea), which came about as a result of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The lesson here is not so much the preserving character of salt, but rather how God has preserved the Salt Sea. It does not seem that the Salt Sea existed before those wicked cities were destroyed. Rather, the area is described as being “well watered everywhere, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord” (Gen. 13:10). We might be tempted to think lightly of this expression, but let us remember that the phrase “the garden of the Lord” is used in only one other place in the Word of God. It is found in Isaiah 51:3, where the Spirit of God describes the future blessing of Israel in the millennium. There it says that “the Lord shall comfort Zion: He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord.” The Spirit of God does not exaggerate in His descriptions, so that we may safely conclude that the area around Sodom and Gomorrah was indeed a beautiful place. Yet when the Lord “rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone [sulfur] and fire from the Lord out of heaven” (Gen. 19:24), the Lord left that Salt Sea as a solemn reminder to us of the awful judgment that awaits those who go on in wickedness and sin.
Those who have visited the area tell us that there are many minerals in the Salt Sea, and among them sulfur is quite prominent. (The word “salt” in the English language is usually used to refer to sodium chloride, or what we traditionally call “table salt,” but the word actually has a much wider meaning. In chemical terms, a salt is a combination of an acid and a base, so that, for example, baking soda and other compounds are also technically “salts.” However, in the Bible the word “salt” refers to what we call table salt.) The whole area around the Dead Sea is now very arid, and the water that drains into it comes from the Jordan River and other land drainage, with hardly any from rainfall, which is less than 100 mm (4 in.) per year.
Sodom and Gomorrah
The Spirit of God refers to Sodom and Gomorrah many times in the Bible. The two cities are mentioned together 15 times, while Sodom, either by itself or in some other combination, is mentioned another 31 times. If this world needs a serious reminder of God’s judgment, God has certainly provided it in the Dead Sea and in the preserving quality of the salts found in it. The Lord Jesus Himself referred to Sodom and Gomorrah when He condemned some of the cities where His mighty works were done. Even the National Geographic Society, which is not noted for its reverence for the Word of God, was forced to admit some years ago that the Salt Sea possibly did support the Biblical record of the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah.
In summary, then, we may say that God has left man without excuse. For thousands of years, the Dead Sea has been preserved as a reminder of the judgment on those wicked cities, and God has seen to it that the climate has been altered so that this reminder cannot be easily removed. As we have already mentioned, not only is the area extremely hot and arid, but the Dead Sea is about 430 meters (over 1400 feet) below sea level. For this reason, all of the surrounding area in Israel and Jordan, as well as areas farther away, drain into it. How sad it is to see so many today reacting like the sons-in-law of Lot, who, when they were warned of coming judgment, thought that the messenger was “one that mocked!”
W. J. Prost
Jericho - Healing Grace
“The men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is naught, and the ground barren. And he said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him. And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land. So the waters were healed unto this day according to the saying of Elisha, which he spake” (2 Kings 2:19-22).
Perhaps there is scarcely a sin that man is capable of that God has not noted in His Word; this shows how thoroughly He knew what was in man. Many have no question that man is a sinner, but man’s entire helplessness toward God is a truth which few will admit. It is this truth which this brief record of one of Elisha’s miracles in the name of Jehovah strikingly illustrates.
No doubt the great point in it is the readiness and power of God, in grace, to bring in healing in Israel, where all is death and barrenness. Elijah had been God’s faithful witness to the nation’s terrible departure from God, but now he had ascended into heaven, after crossing Jordan, the river of death and judgment. This Elisha saw and knew to be the secret of his power. The first thing after this that we find Elisha conscious of was that Jericho was a place of barrenness and death. But he knew also that there was power in God to heal and that when the people took their true place of owning such to be their condition, He would heal. Here we see man in his helplessness, his inability to bear fruit, and the absence of spiritual life, because he is dead in trespasses and in sins.
Barrenness
The acknowledgment to the man of God was, “The situation ... is pleasant ... but the water is naught, and the ground barren” (vs. 19). The sun shone upon it, showers descended from heaven, seasons passed in proper succession, but there was no fruit. All who passed by, while noticing the pleasantness of the situation, could not fail to be struck with its perpetual barrenness.
Such is man. His circumstances are often pleasant; he is surrounded with kindly influences, providential mercies, and untold comforts and advantages, yet toward God there is no life, and consequently no fruit. Men have to learn that “the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom. 8:7-8). He may be a nominal professor of Christianity, surrounded with exemplary Christians, and exposed to the influence of some of their privileges, yet is he fruitless, like a barren fig tree. There is no life; not as some would have it — a little life and a little fruit. No, “the water is naught, and the ground barren.”
Many will allow that man can do nothing unless assisted by God, as if he had some innate power of holiness which only needed help. However, it is not help from God, but life which he needs, for “except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). And as to fruit-bearing, Jesus taught even His disciples that they must abide in Him, as a branch abides in the vine, or they could not bear fruit. He said, “Without Me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5).
At Jericho, then, it was not a question of digging, dressing or irrigating the land, but the bringing in of something entirely new. The gospel of the grace of God is not an improvement of the Jews’ religion, but a new order of things altogether. The gospel makes no demands on man in order to be blessed, but brings to him freely everything that he needs.
A New Cruse
The prophet says, “Bring me a new cruse and put salt therein.” It was something new, for it was meeting the need in pure grace, and to illustrate it a new cruse must be brought. Salt teaches us several things. It is clear, first, that “salt is good.” Second, it has “savor” and can season or preserve. Third, it was to be mixed with the sacrifices: “With all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.” (See Luke 14:34; Lev. 2:13.) Its goodness, savory qualities and association with all the offerings clearly tell us of the holy grace of God to us in Christ Jesus. “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).
However, it is not the knowledge of the letter of Scripture, but the application to the soul that man needs for healing. And so we read that Elisha “went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith Jehovah, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land. So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake” (vss. 21-22). Observe here the two things in this illustration which are often presented to us in the Scripture for peace and rest of soul: the work of Christ and the Word of God. The salt was applied to the spring, and then it was said, “Thus saith Jehovah, I have healed these waters.” The ground of peace is the work of Christ on the cross, while the sole authority for peace is the Word of God, and therefore it must be only on the principle of faith. The Word of God declares that “whosoever believeth in Him [the Lord Jesus Christ] shall receive remission of sins” (Acts 10:43), and “their sins and iniquities will I remember no more” (Heb. 10:17). Thus, the person who takes his place by faith before God as a helpless and guilty sinner then looks to Christ as the object of faith. He reposes on the blood of Christ as the ground of peace and rests on the unalterable Word of God as the authority for peace. They are cleansed from all sin, are justified from all things, are children of God, and “have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Christ now is risen and at the right hand of God in virtue of what He did on the cross for us, and He has sent down the Holy Spirit, “that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God” (1 Cor. 2:12).
C. H. Mackintosh (adapted)
Seasoned with Salt
“Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt” (Col. 4:6). These are plain statements of Scripture — statements found in immediate connection with some of the most elevated doctrines of inspiration. It will be found that where those plain statements are not allowed their full weight on the conscience, the higher truths are not enjoyed. I can neither enjoy nor walk worthy of my “high vocation” if I am indulging in “foolish talking and jesting” (Eph. 5:4).
I quite admit the need of carefully avoiding all affected sanctimoniousness (a pretense of holiness) or fleshly restraint. The sanctimoniousness of nature is fully as bad as its levity, if not worse. But why exhibit either the one or the other? The gospel gives us something far better. Instead of affected sanctimoniousness, the gospel gives us real sanctity; instead of levity, it gives us holy cheerfulness. There is no need to affect anything, for if I am feeding upon Christ, all is reality, without any effort. The moment there is effort, it is all perfect weakness. If I say I must talk about Christ, it becomes terrible bondage, and I exhibit my own weakness and folly. On the other hand, if my soul is in communion, all is natural and easy, for “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” It is said of a certain little insect that it always exhibits the color of the leaf on which it feeds. So it is exactly with the Christian. It is very easy to tell on what he is feeding.
Our Habit of Conversation
But it may be said by some that “we cannot be always talking about Christ.” I reply that just in proportion as we are led by an ungrieved Spirit will all our thoughts and words be occupied about Christ. If we are children of God, we will be occupied with Him throughout eternity. Why not now? We are as fully separated from the world now as we shall be then, but we do not always realize it, because we do not walk in the Spirit.
It is quite true that in entering into the matter of a Christian’s habit of conversation, one is taking low ground, but then, it is needful ground. It would be much happier to keep on the high ground, but we fail in this, and it is a mercy that Scripture and the Spirit of God meet us in our failure. Scripture tells us we are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6); it also tells us not to steal. It may be said that it is low ground to talk to heavenly men about stealing, yet it is necessary. The Spirit of God knew that it was not sufficient to tell us that we are seated in heaven; He also tells us how to conduct ourselves on earth, and our experience of the former will be evidenced by our exhibition of the latter. My walk here proves how much I enter into my place there.
Hence, I may find in the Christian’s walk a very legitimate ground on which to deal with him about the actual condition of his soul before God. If his walk is low, carnal, and worldly, it must be evident that he is not realizing his high and holy position as a member of Christ’s body, and a temple of God.
Wherefore, to all who are prone to indulge in habits of trifling conversation, I would affectionately but solemnly say, Look well to the general state of your spiritual health. Bad symptoms show themselves —certain evidences of a disease working within—a disease, it may be, more or less affecting the very springs of vitality. Beware how you allow this disease to make progress. Go at once to the Great Physician and partake of His precious balm. Your whole spiritual constitution may be deranged, and nothing can restore its tone, save the healing virtues of what He has to give you.
The Beauty of Christ
A fresh view of the excellency, preciousness and beauty of Christ is the only thing to lift the soul up out of a low condition. All our barrenness arises from our having let Christ slip. It is not that He has let us slip. No; blessed be His name, this cannot be. But practically, we have let Him slip, and our tone has become so low that it is at times difficult to recognize anything of the Christian in us, but the mere name.
We have stopped short in our practical career. We have not entered, as we should, into the meaning of Christ’s “cup and baptism”; we have failed in seeking fellowship with Him in His sufferings, death and resurrection. We have sought the result of all these, as wrought out in Him, but we have not entered experimentally into them, and hence our melancholy decline from which nothing can recover us, but getting more into the fullness of Christ.
C. H. Mackintosh (adapted)
The Salt of the Earth and the Light of the World
“Ye are the salt of the earth” (Matt. 5:13). Salt is the only thing that cannot be salted, because it is the preservative principle itself; if this is gone, it cannot be replaced. “If the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted?” The salt of the earth is the relation of the disciples here to that which already had the testimony of God; therefore the Spirit of God uses the expression “earth” (or land), which was especially true of the Jewish land then. Now, in our day, if you speak about the earth, it is Christendom — the place that enjoys, either in reality or professedly, the light of God’s truth. That is what may be called the earth. And this is the place which will finally be the scene of the greatest apostasy, for apostasy is only possible where light has been enjoyed and departed from. In the Revelation, where the closing results of the age are given, the earth appears in a most solemn manner, and then we have the peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues — what we should call heathen lands. But the earth means the once-favored scene of professing Christianity, where there have been all the energies of the mind of men at work. It is the scene where the testimony of God had once shed its light — then, alas! abandoned to utter apostasy.
The faithful ones in Israel were the real preservative principle there; all the rest, the Lord intimates, were good for nothing. But more than that. He gives a solemn warning that there is a danger that the salt should lose its savor. He is not now speaking of the question of whether a saint can fall away or not. The Lord is not here raising the question whether life is ever lost, but He is speaking of certain persons who are in a favored position. Among them there might be persons who had believed carelessly or even falsely, and then there would be the fading away of all that they had once had. And He shows what their judgment would be — the most contemptuous possible, to be passed upon that which took so high a place without reality.
The Light of the World
“Ye are the light of the world” (Matt. 5:14). This is another thing. Bearing in mind the distinction drawn in the series of the beatitudes and of the persecutions, we have the key to these two verses. The salt of the earth represents the righteous principle. The salt of the earth involves the clinging to the eternal rights of God and the maintenance before the world of what is due to His character. That was gone when what bore the name of God fell below what even men thought proper. You can hardly read the news today but that you find scoffing against what is called religion. Respect is gone, and men think that the condition of Christians is a fair subject for their ridicule.
But now, in verse 14, we have not only the principle of righteousness, but of grace — the outflowing and strength of grace. And here we find a new title given to the disciples, as descriptive of their public testimony — “the light of the world.” The light is clearly that which diffuses itself. The salt is what ought to be inward, but the light is that which scatters itself abroad. “A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.” It was diffusing its testimony everywhere. Man does not light a candle to put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, “and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.” After this manner, “let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (vs. 16).
Two Striking Testimonies
We see here, then, two striking sketches of the testimony of believers here below, as the salt of the earth, the preservative energy in the midst of profession, and as the light of the world, going out in activity and love towards the poor world. There is also the danger of the salt losing its savor and of the light being put under a bushel. Now we find the great object of God in this twofold testimony. It is not merely a question of the blessing of souls, for there is not a word about evangelization or saving sinners, but rather the walk of saints. There is a serious question that God raises about His saints, and this is about their own ways apart from other people. Calls to the unconverted we find abundantly elsewhere, and none can exaggerate their importance for the world, but the sermon on the mount is God’s call to the converted. It is their character, their position, their testimony distinctively, and if others are thought of throughout, it is not so much a question of winning them, as of the saints reflecting what comes from above. This light is what comes from Christ. It is not, Let your good works shine before men. When people talk about this verse, they are evidently thinking about their own works, and when that is the case, there are generally no good works at all. But even if there were, works are not light. Light is that which comes from God directly and purely, without admixture of man. Good works are the fruit of its work upon the soul, but it is the light which is to shine before men. It is the disciple’s confession of Himself; that is the point before God. Confess Christ in everything. Let this be the aim of your heart. It is not merely certain things to be done. The light shining is the great object here, though doing good ought to flow from it.
Good Works
If I make doing good everything, it is a lower thought than that which is before the mind of God. An infidel can feel that a shivering man needs a coat or blanket. Even a natural man may be fully alive to the wants of others; but if I merely take these works and make them the prominent thing, I really do nothing more than an unbeliever might. The moment you make the good works the object, and their shining before men, you find yourself on common ground with Jews and heathen. God’s people are thus destroying their testimony. What is so bad as a thing done professedly for God, but that leaves out Christ, and that shows a man who loves Christ to be on comfortable terms with those that hate Him? This is what the Lord warns the saints against. They are not to be thinking about their works, but that the light of God should shine. Works will follow, and much better works than where a person is always occupied with them. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Let your confession of what God is in His nature and of what Christ is in His own person and ways — let your acknowledgment of Him be the thing that is felt and brought before, men — and then, when they see your good works, they will glorify your Father which is in heaven. Instead of saying, What a good man such an one is, they will glorify God on his behalf. If your light shines, men then connect what you do with your confession of Christ.
W. Kelly (adapted)
Covenant of Salt
The expression “a covenant of salt” is used twice in the Word of God. It is used first of all in Numbers 18:19, in reference to the heave offerings of the children of Israel.
“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 forever: it is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord unto thee and to thy seed with thee.”
The heave offerings were part of the offerings of the people of Israel, and in this scripture, they were given to Aaron and to his family, as the priests of the Lord. They were guaranteed, if we might use that word, to Aaron and his family perpetually, for the priests had no inheritance in the land. They were to be wholly devoted and separated to the Lord, and the Lord was assuring them that their needs would be looked after on an ongoing basis.
The Kingdom Usurped
The second use of the phrase “a covenant of salt” is in 2 Chronicles 13:5, where King Abijah of Judah addresses King Jeroboam of Israel (the ten tribes), when these two kings went to war with one another. We are not told which one was the aggressor; we are simply told that “there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam” (vs. 2). However, Abijah makes a speech to Jeroboam, reminding him of how he had usurped the kingdom that belonged to Abijah’s father Rehoboam and how that God had given the kingdom to the house of David by “a covenant of salt.”
“Ought ye not to know that the Lord God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David forever, even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt?”
There was truth in this, for God had indeed promised David that there would always be a light from his family to sit on the throne of Israel. The Lord had said, “He shall build an house for My name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom forever” (2 Sam. 7:13). This refers to Solomon, but we notice that Abijah conveniently leaves out the next verse, which says that “if he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men” (vs. 14). Solomon had indeed committed iniquity, and God had indeed visited him by allowing adversaries to come against him in the latter part of his reign. Also, after the death of Solomon, it was the Lord who had given part of the kingdom to Jeroboam, although he proved to be an unfaithful man.
However, we are concerned with the expression “a covenant of salt.” The expression was first used by the Lord when He spoke to Aaron about the offerings of the people promised to him and his family, and this same expression was picked up by Abijah and used against Jeroboam, whom Abijah considered a usurper. As we have seen, this was only a half-truth.
The Preserving Character of Salt
We have seen in other articles in this issue that one of the functions of salt is its preserving character. The expression means, then, that what was done and sealed could not be changed. What the Lord said to Aaron could not be changed, and what God had said about David’s family and throne of Israel could not be changed either.
We know that, in the millennial day, the priesthood will be reestablished in Israel and that the family of Aaron will serve in that day before the Lord. We know too that the purposes of God concerning David’s family will be fulfilled in Christ, although David’s family was a failure in their responsibility before the Lord in ruling Israel. Eventually all of Israel was carried into captivity, and the last king of Judah (Zedekiah) was guilty of swearing an oath in the name of the Lord and then breaking his word. But all will be made perfect in Christ, for although David was compelled to say towards the end of his life, “Although my house be not so with God,” yet he could also go on to say, “Yet hath He made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure” (2 Sam. 23:5).
How blessed to know that God can make a covenant that will never be changed and that He made such a covenant with Israel. Neither will He change His promises to us, for although we, as the church, are not in a covenant relationship with God, yet “all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us” (2 Cor. 1:20).
W. J. Prost
Two Solemn Facts
“Every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt” (Mark 9:49).
In this short verse we have two distinct classes of people and two solemn facts brought out. In the first place, we are told that “every one shall be salted with fire.” And, second, we are told that “every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.” It might seem like a rather difficult verse to understand, but it is simple when we see the context in which our Lord Jesus speaks these words.
First of all, we are told that “every one shall be salted with fire.” This means everyone, for it includes even our blessed Lord Jesus when He was in this world as a Man. Here salt is that which tests everything according to God’s holy standard and judges everything in that light. It brings the holy claims of God before us and reminds us that “every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Rom. 14:12). In that sense, our Lord Jesus went through testing in the wilderness, when He was tempted by the devil before He went out on His earthly ministry. Satan did everything possible to cause the Lord Jesus to sin, even to the point of quoting Scripture to Him. However, our Lord simply answered him with Scripture, and Satan was obliged to depart from Him for the moment, for he could not draw Him into sin.
Every Sacrifice Salted
It is for this reason that we read in Leviticus 2:13 that “every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt.” Our blessed Lord must be proven to be perfectly spotless and sinless in His life down here before He could go to Calvary’s cross and suffer the penalty of sin. During His earthly ministry He could confidently say to the Jewish leaders and the people around Him, “Which of you convinceth Me of sin?” (John 8:46). No one took up the challenge, for “in Him is no sin” (1 John 3:5).
For mankind, all must also be salted with fire. For those who reject Christ as Savior, that fire will abide for all eternity — God’s awful judgment for sin. The Lord Jesus could solemnly warn those who heard Him that in hell “the fire is not quenched.” This is repeated three times in this chapter (Mark 9). The judgment for sin will be eternal, and those who go on without Christ will indeed be “salted with fire” forever.
However, what about all this for you and me who are believers? Are not we salted with fire? Yes we are, and perhaps we could say that this happens in two ways. First of all, we can all be thankful that we have been salted with fire at the cross, although not in ourselves; it was all done for us in the Person of Christ. Since every true believer is now “in Christ,” we stand where the fire has already burned. There is nothing left for God’s fire to burn, for Christ has borne all the judgment for us. How precious it is to know that judgment is behind us and not ahead of us! God’s holy nature has been completely satisfied, and “there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).
The Proof of Reality
But then that same salt with fire does have an effect on you and me, for the Lord does test us from time to time, in order to prove the reality of our salvation. In no way does this mean that we can lose our salvation; rather, the Lord “salts us with fire” to prove that we are indeed truly saved. In 1 Peter 1:7 we read that “the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” Later, in 1 Peter 4:12, Peter refers to the “fiery trial which is to try you.” These trials are circumstances through which the Lord passes us, in order to prove, on the one hand, the reality of our faith and, on the other hand, to purge out that which is not of Himself. In those who are real, the fire only burns up that which is not of God, while that which is of Himself remains. The Lord wants us to be holy, for He says, “I am holy,” and He often uses “salting with fire” to accomplish this in us. We can be thankful for this purging that the Lord does in us, although sometimes it is not pleasant at the time. We all know how salt can sometimes sting and irritate, yet it may be necessary.
Salted With Salt
But now we come to the second part of the verse: “Every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.” We have already pointed out how that the meat (meal) offering was always to be salted and how that the Lord Jesus, as the true meat offering, must be salted with fire. But here, in this second clause of our verse, the meaning is a little different. The Lord Jesus was indeed “salted with fire” before He began His earthly ministry, and this was necessary to prove who He was. But then, as He went out among men, we see His life as the perfect sacrifice in submission and service. For this reason, we notice that the phrase says, “Salted with salt,” not “salted with fire.” Every step of His pathway was a display of God in grace, but it was also “seasoned with salt” (Col. 4:6). His words and His works all displayed God in grace, but God’s holiness was brought in too. This is why He was rejected, not for His grace, but rather because He could say, “I testify of it [the world], that the works thereof are evil” (John 7:7). The salt was never lacking in the daily sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, whether He was in the temple, with a crowd in the street, alone with an individual, with His disciples, or in a home. Wherever He was, that holy grace was there, and the proper mixture of grace seasoned with salt was brought out. How our hearts look on with wonder and praise as we see all this displayed in our blessed Master!
A Living Sacrifice
It should be the same for us. We too are to “present [our] bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God” (Rom. 12:1), and in that sense, we too need to have every sacrifice salted with salt. It is easy not to take the trouble to do this, but rather simply to display grace and love to this world. The world will like this, for it appreciates those who are honest, upright, helpful, gracious and generous. The world likes those who seem to want to “make this world a better place” and, as the saying goes, who want to “make a difference.” Yes, we should wish to “make a difference,” but that difference, if it is to be according to God’s mind, must bring in salt — the energy of holiness along with God’s grace. The kind of difference God looks for is saving people out of this world, not improving that which is under judgment.
As we have seen, salt may tend sometimes to irritate and sting, and we will find that the world in general will not care for it. However, if Christ is before us and God’s claims have a grip on our souls, then we will want to honor Him before men, as well as warning them of coming judgment. If we neglect this, we are like salt that has “lost his saltness” (Mark 9:50), and then nothing can season it. We are really no use in this world if we neglect the salt in our sacrifice for the Lord. It is more and more important, as the world grows darker and our Lord’s coming draws nearer.
W. J. Prost
Grace in Spiritual Energy
Salt is grace in spiritual energy; that is, the saints are to be witnesses in the world of the power of holy love, instead of selfishness. Salt is the consecrating principle of grace: If that is gone, what is to preserve? Salt is rather grace in the aspect of holy separation unto God, than in that of kindness and meekness, though, of course, these are also inseparable from grace. If the salt has lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? If I have meat without salt, I can salt it, but if there is no saltness in salt, what can I do? What a character we have here of an unspiritual church, or an unspiritual saint! Like the vine which represented Israel, good for nothing at all but to dishonor the Lord (who is its owner) and be destroyed. Mercy, it is true, may recover us, but as saints we should have the savor of Christ. Whatever enfeebles attachment to Christ destroys power. It is not gross sin that does it, which, of course, will be met and judged, but it is the little things of everyday life which are apt to be chosen before Christ. When the world creeps in, the salt has lost its savor and we show that a rejected Christ has little power in our eyes.
J. N. Darby
Grace With Salt
“Ye are the salt of the earth” (Matt. 5:13).
I have just read a statement of a Christian writer to the effect that the salt of the earth needs to be rubbed in, even if it smarts.
I have heard and read many developments of the salt theme. The outline usually runs the same course: salt seasons, purifies, preserves. But somebody ought to remind us that salt also irritates. Real living Christianity rubs this world the wrong way. “The world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John 17:14). Godly living is in itself a rebuke to this age, and this world resents the light that exposes its corruption.
Some Christians are going to a lot of trouble these days developing a brand of Christianity that will not irritate this world. The only salt that will not irritate is “salt without savor,” and our Lord said that such salt, whether table salt or spiritual salt, is “good for nothing, but to be cast out, and trodden under foot of men.”
Christian Truth, Vol. 35
Salt's Preserving Place
There was something which was to be included in every sacrifice. It was salt. If you or I had been making the choice, we would have chosen honey rather than salt, but then God’s thoughts are not ours; we will always find that we must put aside our thoughts to get God’s. Salt was commonly used to preserve or keep things in those days, and it would typify to us the fact that everything connected with the life and death of the Lord Jesus will be preserved to God’s glory. The remembrance and the blessings which flow from them will abide eternally. All these sacrifices typified Christ, and surely both now and forever we shall remember and rejoice in the fruit of what He has accomplished. The perfect grace in Him was always “seasoned with salt” and will be preserved, but with us there is so much of self that is connected with even our “holy things,” and the grace in us is not always “seasoned” as it should be so as to abide for God’s glory. In everything we say, in all our contacts with others, saved or unsaved, may we leave with each one something that will abide for God’s glory. It may sting a little, as salt does, and so sometimes because of this, and to escape the world’s scorn, we do not confess the Lord. We may perhaps show the grace of Christ, but a little word or a gospel tract may, like the salt, remain and be preserved, being fruit for eternity; or a little word spoken to a fellow believer may bring lasting blessing to his soul. This is what it means when Scripture says, “Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man” (Col. 4:6).
G. H. Hayhoe
The Salt Test
The world was so contrary to Christ, that he who was not against Him was for Him. The Son of man was to be rejected. Faith in His person was the thing, not now individual service to Him. Alas! the disciples were still thinking of themselves: “He followeth not us.” (Mark 9:38). They must share His rejection; and if any one gave them a cup of cold water, God would remember it. Whatever would cause them to stumble in their walk, were it even their own right eye or hand, they would do well to cut off; for it was not the things of an earthly Messiah that were in question, but the things of eternity.
“For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.” (Mark 9:49).
And all should be tested by the perfect holiness of God, and that, in judgment, by one means or another. Everyone should be salted with fire — the good and the bad. Where there was life, the fire would only consume the flesh; for when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. If the judgment reaches the wicked — and assuredly it shall reach them — it is condemnation, a fire that is not quenched. But, for the good, there was also something else — they should be salted with salt. Those who were consecrated to God, whose life was an offering to Him, should not lack the power of holy grace, which binds the soul to God, and inwardly preserves it from evil. Salt is not the gentleness that pleases (which grace produces without doubt), but that energy of God within us which connects everything in us with God, and dedicates the heart to Him, binding it to Him in the sense of obligation and of desire, rejecting all in oneself that is contrary to Him; it is an obligation that flows from grace, but which acts all the more powerfully on that account. Thus, practically, it was distinctive grace, the energy of holiness, which separates from all evil; but by setting apart for God. Salt was good — here the effect produced in the soul, the condition of the soul, is so called, as well as the grace that produces this condition. Thus, they who offered themselves to God were set apart for Him — they were the salt of the earth. But if the salt lose its savor, wherewith can it be salted? It is used for seasoning other things; but if the salt needs it for itself, there is nothing left that can salt it. So would it be with Christians; if they who were of Christ did not render this testimony, where should anything be found, apart from Christians, to render it to them and produce it in them. Now this sense of obligation to God which separates from evil, this judgment of all evil in the heart, must be in oneself; it is not a question of judging others, but of placing oneself before God, thus becoming the salt, having it in oneself’. With regard to others, one must seek peace; and real separation from all evil is that which enables us to walk in peace together.
In a word, Christians were to keep themselves separate from evil and near to God, in themselves; and to walk with God in peace among one another. No instruction could be more plain, more important, more valuable. It judges, it directs the whole Christian life in a few words.
Present Testimony, Vol. 7
Paul's Doctrine and Salt
Have we then Paul’s doctrine? We may boast, as all do, that we have the scriptures — surely it is well. We may have confidence that an ever faithful Lord will never leave or forsake His people, and that He knows them that are His, and will keep them unto the end. But can we say that we have Paul’s doctrine of the Church — the body of Christ on earth formed by the presence and baptism of the Holy Spirit? Having it, can we say that we are as living members, acting upon the truth of it through the never-failing supply of grace He gives? Or, do we come under the character of those who are described as “ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth?” — Those whose mind and intellect the truth has reached, but without faith, and hence without practical value in our lives? Of the truth, we can say as of faith: “What profit, my brethren, if a man say he have the truth?” if he have not shown that he has faith in it; and thus has learned to act upon it as something in which he believes? It is always a sign that a man has faith in the truth which he knows, when it has had its corresponding effect upon his life — when it has been acted upon in practice. No man has ever had the joy and power of a divine truth till he has accepted it, and walked therein. Many are thus ever learning and never able to come to a divinely confirmed knowledge of it, because the practice is wanting. It is learned in the intellect; the natural mind is touched perhaps with the beauty and divine excellence of it; it cannot be denied, but there is no faith in it. It has not been learned in the conscience and in the soul; and when tribulation or persecution arises because of it, he is offended — deems it non-essential perhaps — and surrenders that to which he has never come to a divinely given knowledge. If ever there was a day when there was such a thing as “salt which had lost its savor,” it is the present. The most touching — the very highest — truths of God have become the topics of the world’s conversation. They are held by many after a fashion, in which the edge and power of them are lost. A worldly walk and conversation are coupled with the intellectual knowledge of the highest truths of God; and like salt that has lost its saltness, one can but ask of it, “Wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but (even) men cast it out” (Luke 14:34-35). “But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. But continue thou in the things thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them” (2 Tim. 3:10-14). May the Lord open the understanding of His beloved people, that in the midst of the confusion and corruption of such in evil day — when men are saying, “What is truth?” and yet not caring for the reply, they may find that there are such principles in the word of God as no amount of man’s failure can ever touch, and which are ever practicable to those who desire humbly to walk with God, and to keep the word of the patience of Jesus, till He comes. May they learn to walk together in unity, and peace, and love in the truth, for His name’s sake. — Amen.
F.G. Patterson
Salt
Of daily tasteful use to each of us,
Salt! Worldwide now so easy to obtain;
How freely we avail the usefulness
Of that which comes with neither stress nor strain.
It was not so in centuries gone by;
Much toil and trouble surely was required
To come by salt: a trade commodity
It was back then, from sea and mine acquired.
And countries too, their taxes did impose,
For salt was needful for all life on earth;
Treaties were made, and empires too arose,
Oft based on salt, and whether glut or dearth.
But then we find it in the Word of life,
As that which speaks to us of holy grace:
God’s love — that precious love with grace so rife,
Yet seasoned with what suits God’s holy face.
Preserving too, that salt of life divine,
That we the salt of all the earth might be;
Putting on view that character of grace
Tempered with salt, as that which speaks of Thee.
But Thou, blest Savior, wast the blessed Salt
That brought the way of God before this world:
Supreme example — One without a fault,
Though men at Thee their vilest insults hurled.
Give us to learn, Lord Jesus, more of Thee;
Of all Thou wast before the Father’s face,
That we might grow, and more and more might be,
In word and deed, those who display Thy grace.
wjp