Salty

Today I am starting my repetition/trying to memorize/oof, why can’t I get this…of Matthew 5:13-16. These are very well known passages to me, heard them over and over growing up. Heard sermons. Sung songs about this little light I have and how I was supposed to let it shine. But, before I delve into light, let’s dive deep into salt.

Let me remind you again about context. A you read my meanderings, there is a context that you understand. I can say something about a cell phone and immediately you know what I am saying. (Something a reader 40 years ago, if reading this would have no understanding.)

The writers of the Bible have a context, a manner of writing that we sometimes miss. There is an assumption that you understand the culture, the times, the world. I wonder if they could have ever imagined that a woman, 6,216 miles away in Chicago, would be typing out a response to their writings about Messiah on an iPad in the year 2023. Well, I don’t have to wonder, they would not. There would be no..context.

That’s a long winded way of saying when Jesus says, “you are the salt of the earth,” his audience would understand the usage of salt in their daily life. Their dependence on salt to preserve, to purify, to taste. So, as I share these verses with you. I hope you are blessed by what I have learned and maybe you learn something as well!

Genesis 19:26 NASB1995 “But his [Lot’s] wife, from behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.” I have questions here. So many questions. Such as, if they could not look back, how in the world did they know she became a pillar of salt? Did they come back? Questions to ask when i arrive in heaven. here, salt is judgement for not obeying a direct command.

Leviticus 2:13 NASB1995 “Every grain offering of yours, moreover, you shall season with salt, so that the salt of the covenant of your God shall not be lacking from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer with salt.” So, here salt is the picture of the covenant between God an man. Salt enhances flavor. Salt preserves food. I know, I know, I’m repeating myself. Salt was a necessary part of food preparation, ergo it was also a necessary part of sacrifice. (Pollard)

Numbers 18:19 NASB1995“All the offerings of the holy gifts, which the sons of Israel offer to the Lord, I have given to you and your sons and your daughters with you, as a perpetual allotment. It is an everlasting covenant of salt before the Lord to you and your descendants with you.”” I’m sure I have read this before, but never really paid attention.

Covenants were generally confirmed by sacrificial meals and salt was always present. Since, too, salt is a preservative, it would easily become symbolic of an enduring covenant. So offerings to Yahweh were to be by a statute forever, “a covenant of salt for ever before Yahweh” (Nu 18:19).

International Bible Standard Encyclopedia Written by Edward Bagby Pollard

2 Kings 2:20-22 NASB1995 “He said, “Bring me a new jar, and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him. He went out to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, “Thus says the Lord, ‘I have purified these waters; there shall not be from there death or unfruitfulness any longer.’ ” So the waters have been purified to this day, according to the word of Elisha which he spoke.”

Friend, as I even type this, I am reminded of how much I need purifying in my own life. God calls us to be the salt of the earth. To preserve His name, to show the world the difference God has made in our lives, to glorify Him in all we do and say (tall order), but he doesn’t ask us to do this alone. i can grieve what i have done, or didn’t do, OR i can remember what God says of me today.

I am the salt of the earth. And when Jesus said this real time, his audience, would have had this framework and even more! Context matters. knowing more about Jesus’ words creates a picture that helps us understand meaning. may this bless you today.

I have this app that curates photos and such from my different social medias and i see each day what i was doing in the past. i see pictures of my family, memories, stories. I love it most of the time. Sometimes, I wish I could go back and tell my past self, pay attention to this. Stay in this moment a little longer.

I don’t have that option. I have today. Today is the gift.