ADAR 18
Salty
“You are the salt of the
earth, but if salt has lost its taste (its strength, its quality), how can its
saltness be restored? It is not good for anything any longer but to be thrown
out and trodden underfoot by men.”
(Mat 5:13 AMPC)
Salt in the Middle East is in plentiful supply and found in
several different forms. The Dead Sea,
in Israel, has the highest percentages of salt of any body of water on the face
of this earth, and is more than 1300 feet below sea level. Much of the salt taken from the area
surrounding the Dead Sea is not ‘pure’
salt, and has other minerals mixed in with it.
When exposed to natural elements, the outer layers, or crusts, will lose
their ‘saltiness’, and need to be removed.
This would expose the inner layers, the pure salt, which could then be
used for ‘seasoning’ and preserving. The
outer layers were most often used as a road base in the time of Messiah Yeshua,
so yes, the worthless salt was trampled underfoot (see our opening verse).
Salt is one of the symbols of Elohim’s covenant with those of
us who are called by His Name (see Num 18:19), and the covenant of salt is an
everlasting, eternal covenant. When
Messiah Yeshua is telling us that we are the salt of the earth, He is telling
us that we, those of us that have
entered into a covenant relationship with our Elohim, are symbolic of the “salt
covenant” that we have with our Abba Father (see Col 4:5-6). Because salt not only acts to strengthen the
flavor of food, but also to preserve food from corruption, so are we to function in those same duties in
the society that we live in (strengthen the flavor and preserve from
corruption). And herein is the key of
the covenant of salt:
“Have salt IN
YOURSELVES, and have peace with one another.” (Mark 9:50
The covenant begins with us, and the salt needs to be applied
to our own lives first. As we continue to walk in surrender to the
work of the Spirit of Yahweh, the salt will season us, bring out the fullness
of our flavor. It will also expose all hypocrisy and
impurities, and burn them out of us, preserving in us the pure Word of truth. Then,
and only then, will we have the seasoning effect that Elohim desires us to have
on the world around us.
However, when we fail to heed the Spirit of Elohim within,
our seasoning will no longer have the desired result. We have all of us tasted of food that was too salty, or perhaps flavorless, with
not enough salt. Perhaps we are too ‘salty’ with our words (and actions), and
lack the love and compassion that is needed to know when enough has been
applied. Or perhaps we have not enough
salt of our own, that there would be plenty to season others with …
“Let your speech at all times be gracious (pleasant and
winsome), SEASONED [as it were] WITH SALT, [so that you may never be at a loss]
to know how you ought to answer anyone [who puts a question to you].” (Col 4:6 AMPC, emphasis mine)
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