THE SALT OF THE EARTH

Time with Jesus - 13 Sept 2013

Hi all,

For a change, I thought it would be worthwhile to look at one of the most widely used substances in daily use - Salt. Jesus said His people should be like salt. ¹³ "You are the salt of the earth! But what good is salt if it has lost its flavour? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. Mat 5:13 NLT 

Based on the fact it’s so commonly used, we think we know all about salt and what He meant. So let’s look at “salt”.

Salt, also known as table salt or rock salt (halite), is a crystalline mineral that is composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound. It is essential for animal life, but can be harmful to animals and plants in if used excessively. It’s one of the oldest, most ubiquitous food seasonings. It’s an important method of food preservation. The taste of salt (saltiness) is one of the basic human tastes.

Salt for human consumption is produced in different forms: unrefined salt (such as sea salt), refined salt (table salt), and iodized salt. It is a crystalline solid, white, pale pink or light grey in colour, normally obtained from sea water or rock deposits. Edible rock salts may be slightly greyish in colour because of mineral content.

Because of its importance to survival, salt has often been considered a valuable commodity during human history. However, as salt consumption has increased during modern times, scientists have become aware of the health risks associated with high salt intake, including high blood pressure in sensitive individuals. Therefore, some health authorities have recommended limitations of dietary sodium, although others state the risk is minimal for typical western diets.

In the Old Testament, thirty-five verses mention salt. One of them is the story of Lot's wife, who was turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back at the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:26) as they were destroyed. When the judge Abimelech destroyed the city of Shechem, he is said to have "sown salt on it," probably as a curse on anyone who would re-inhabit it (Judges 9:45). The Book of Job contains the first mention of salt as a condiment. ⁶ Don't people complain about unsalted food? Does anyone want the tasteless white of an egg? Job 6:6 NLT

In the New Testament, six verses mention salt. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus referred to his followers as the "salt of the earth". The apostle Paul also encouraged Christians to "let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt" (Colossians 4:6).

Koshering salt, usually referred to as kosher salt, is a variety of edible salt with a much larger grain size than some common table salt. Like common table salt, kosher salt consists of the chemical compound sodium chloride.

Courtesy Wikipedia

One of the best known verses in the New Testament, if not in the entire Bible, is John 3:16. Most Christians are able to quote it. ¹⁶ "For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 NLT There is one word in the verse few of us consider meaningfully. It’s the word “perish”. 

According to Collins Thesaurus of the English Language, one of the definitions of the word is, “rot, waste away, break down, decay, wither, disintegrate, decompose, moulder. e.g. The rubber lining has perished.

Those who have used rubber hot water bottles know that if the rubber perishes, it is useless as a hot water bottle. It looks like a hot water bottle, but cannot be used for that purpose. It has to be thrown away as useless. It could perhaps be thrown on the rubbish heap or into a land fill site or even into hell. So a perished hot water bottle has to be discarded or recycled, if possible. 

Think for a moment about “salt which has lost its savour”. It may look like salt, but cannot be used for that purpose. What can be done with it? Nothing at all! It too must be thrown away as useless. We might say it has perished! 

However, salt which has lost its savour can be put to a different use. It’s no good as a preservative but could be spread on foot paths or dirt roads much in the way it was done in Jesus’ day. In this way its use would be for people and animals to walk on. Could it be recycled? Perhaps science can do so. Otherwise it has no further value.

Junk Yard for Perished Perishables
and Other Useless Trash

There is a strong association between people who have “perished” and Christians who have lost their “saltiness”; their savour. Certainly, Jesus is in the business of “recycling” people who are of no further use to God. These are the ones who have perished. He is able to recycle them. But what about Christians who are no longer “salty”; those who have lost their “savour”? It seems they have lost the very qualities that mark them as a Christian. It seems they have only one purpose. To be “thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.” Mat 5:13 NLT

Trampled On

If we lose our Christian identity; our saltiness, we are hopelessly lost. Can we be recycled again? Don’t ask me! Ask the Lord Jesus.

Shalom,

Jim & Phyllida Strickland

Thrown on Pathways to be trampled underfoot

Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give		Time with Jesus – 13 Sept 2013			Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give
©	These devotionals are the intellectual property of Jim Strickland and copyright protected. You are welcome to copy and distribute them to anyone provided it is for non-commercial Christian purposes					©
	INTRODUCTION		DAILY LIGHT EVENING SCRIPTURES	THE SALT OF THE EARTH
If I asked you what you thought was the biggest problem which most Christians have to face today, I rather suspect that most people would say “Embarrassment”. It’s a sort of off-shoot of the fear of man. One of the best examples I can think of is what happens in the local restaurant when the staff gathers round you and sings, “Happy birthday to you!” Most of us blush. We don’t like this sort of attention. There are times I’d like to crawl under the table and hide rather than face the knowing stares of others. Like a tortoise I’d like to pull my head and feet into the shell and play dead! At the same time we revel in it when we send the staff to sing “Happy Birthday” to others. I rather think many of us are like this. I’ve tried to avoid it by keeping my birthday and anniversary dates under lock and key. I could always find a good reason for not telling enquirers the “incriminating evidence”. As the years go by it becomes increasingly difficult keeping this a secret. I’ve often wondered how a person can stand at a pulpit and deliver an inspiring sermon in front of dozens of people, without a second thought. But when your birthday is in the church notices for the purpose of asking people to phone you, the day becomes something of a nightmare. The phone rings. You’d like to ignore the incessant ringing. But in the end you pick up the receiver sheepishly knowing what’s going to happen. There is a cheery voice gushing over with the news that you are a year older. At times I’d rather forget! Sadly, embarrassment carries over into everyday life. We would like to testify to the goodness of God and our commitment to Jesus. But we are too embarrassed to do it. It’s stupid, but many of us are like this. We all want to be different. But we also want to be well liked and well thought of by others. We know we have become a “Jesus Freak”. But nobody likes a freak! So we sort of gulp and say nothing. The same attitude is reflected in what we wear. The idea of wearing a brightly coloured tee-shirt with the words, “Jesus love you” is somehow worse than singing an aria from Carmen! The good news is that Jesus knows and understands. The bad news is that He wants us to grow up and get over it! He expects our light to shine brightly and not be hidden under a pot. In simple terms He expects us to influence society in much the same way as salt changes the “society” into which it is placed. If the salt in you and me is not changing our society in some way, our salt is tasteless and useless. Notices how He describes its final end. “Thrown out and trodden underfoot by men”. There are two ways to look at this. One is to see the salt as not serving a useful purpose. There is another and, in my opinion, a worse outcome. The “useless salt” gets thrown onto the pathway of life and is walked on by the people of this world. Oh it does serve a purpose. The feet of men trample on it and it becomes more useless than it was. People do not know what its purpose was. How can they? It’s hidden under their feet. Things will not change until you and I “rise up” from beneath their feet and allow our saltiness to be seen. There really is no choice. Somehow we must ask Him to give us the strength to provide the flavour of Jesus to change the world. He will not use compulsion. But if we do nothing, that pathway could be a grave from which nothing will ever escape. Jim & Phyllida Strickland			13 "You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavour? Can you make it  again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. Matthew 5:13 NLT	Salt is a preservative, it also disinfects. It also is a flavouring a master chef respects. When it isn’t present, your food you cannot taste. This means, that on occasions, the food will go to waste. But there are other purposes. In fact there’s many more. Which one was Jesus meaning? I think we should explore, What many people used it for, way back in Jesus’ days. To help us come to grips with what we find the Bible says. One of the surprises was to fertilize a field. When mixed with other minerals, it caused the ground to yield, A larger crop of vegetables than any they had known. So for the local farmer, a bigger crop than sown! Its antiseptic uses, the midwives knew quite well. They “washed” a new-born infant with salt. The child would yell And tell the anxious fathers the child was doing fine. But in the drier areas, they used camel urine! They couldn’t waste their water; they needed it to drink. So salt mixed with the urine. Worked just as well – I think! They also had a ritual; a Covenant of Salt; Was often celebrated for family feuds to halt. This covenant was permanent. It wasn’t put aside. It was a lasting guarantee, like husband to his bride. It never could be broken. The only way was death. And people swore to keep it, until their final breath. We cannot live without it. I had a long-time friend; A very helpful fellow on whom you could depend. He had a “pet aversion” to that which he could taste. A very “fussy eater” whose actions were misplaced. He couldn’t stand salt’s flavour. He’d push his plate away, If he could even smell it. This happened till the day, They thought that he was terminal; they all wanted to know, The reason why this person’s health had reached an all-time low. They did a special test on him, to find the reason why, And found his low salt content was causing him to die! They put him on “salt tablets” and in a day or two, He was restored to normal; the man whom they all knew. Now Jesus is omniscient. He knows about these things. He knows what lack of saltiness, to many people brings. And that’s what He was saying when speaking on that day. He meant if you’re not salty, you will be thrown away. If salt has lost its usefulness, it isn’t any good. Where can you dispose of it? You’d use it if you could. But it will not cause damage if its throw upon the road. If people walk upon it, it helps to spread the load, So folk will not fall over and sink into the ground. There is no better purpose than ever to be found. So keep on being salty, that other men may know, That Jesus is the only way a person ought to go. Jim Strickland Written 13th Sept. 2012
			4 You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God. 1 Peter 3:4 NLT
			23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 1 Peter 1:23 TNIV
			25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, John 11:25 ESV
			36 And they will never die again. In this respect they will be like angels. They are children of God and children of the resurrection. Luke 20:36 NLT
			23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Romans 1:23 NASB
			9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. Romans 8:9-11 ESV
			42 It will be like that with bodies that are raised from the dead. The body that is planted does not last forever. The body that is raised from the dead lasts forever. 1 Corinthians 15:42 NIrV
			0 Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another." Mark 9:50 ESV
			29 Don't use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. Ephesians 4:29 NLT