Salt

 •  2 min. read  •  grade level: 9
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Salt from the Dead Sea
This well-known and valuable condiment is found in abundance near the Dead Sea. In scripture salt is used as symbolical of moral savor and thus of a preservative. Every oblation of the meat offering was to be seasoned with salt (Lev. 2:13). The heave offerings given to the priest are called “a covenant of salt” (Num. 18:19).
Salt by the Dead Sea
Christians are the salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost its savor, it is of no use whatever1 (Matt. 5:13; Mark 9:50; Luke 14:34-35). It is typical of freshness and savor in a Christian, his heart being maintained in the sense of grace, the loss of which nothing else can supply.
The Christian’s speech should be with grace, seasoned with salt (Col. 4:6), not characterized by asperity, nor lacking unction, and yet morally wholesome in its character. “Everyone shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt” (Mark 9:49). God puts all to the proof, but with the saint it is the dross that is consumed. Every sacrifice being salted with salt refers to the preservation of that which is set apart for God from corruption and impurity.
To “eat the salt” of their masters, is used by the Persians and Hindoos to imply that they are fed by their employers. This idea is found in Ezra 4:14, where the opposers of the Jews say, “We eat the salt of the palace,” as the passage is more literally translated: see margin. With reference to an infant being “salted” (Ezek. 16:4), Galen records that this was done to render the skin tighter and firmer.
 
1. Salt in the East is not pure chloride of sodium, but mostly mixed with vegetable and earthy substances, and has been found at times, after being exposed to the sun and rain, to be quite tasteless, and perfectly useless.