In Scripture salt is used for many different things. Salt is to be placed upon sacrifices and burnt offerings. Salt is described in seas of water, and used as a teaching example to all of us who fail to listen to Yah's Words and commands. We are told we are the salt of the world. But what does Salt mean and why is there a covenant of salt? This lesson will discuss salt and the meaning as well as enlighten you with new understanding of what our Covenant of Salt is and why we are The Salt of the World.
Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt because she failed to do as she was told, she looked back. Salt is used for desolation and destruction as seen in the case of Lot's wife.
Genesis 19: 15-17,24-26
15 And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.
16 And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the Lord being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city.
17 And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.
24 Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven;
25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
26 But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
What does Salt Mean?
Salt- as a noun is defined as:
1. : a crystalline compound NaCl that consists of sodium chloride, is abundant in nature, and is used especially to season or preserve food or in industry
— called also common salt
2. an ingredient that gives savor, piquancy, or zest : flavor a people … full of life, vigor, and the salt of personality— Clifton Fadiman
3. sharpness of wit : pungency
c : common sense
d : reserve, skepticism — see grain of salt
e : a dependable steadfast person or group of people —usually used in the phrase salt of the earth
Salt- as a verb means:
1. to give flavor or piquancy to (something, such as a story)
2. : to enrich (a mine) artificially by secretly placing valuable mineral in some of the working places 3: to add something to secretly- salted the files with forged papers also
4. to insert or place secretly salted the mines along the road 5. : to sprinkle with or as if with a salt b : scatter, intersperse https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/salt
What is the Covenant of Salt or Salt of the Covenant?
These phrases are found 3 times in Scripture.
Leviticus 2:13
And 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.
Numbers 18:19
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 for ever: it is a covenant of salt for ever before the LORD unto thee and to thy seed with thee.
2 Chronicles 13:5
Ought ye not to know that the LORD God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David for ever, even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt?
For understanding let us look at the word covenant.
Covenant- H1285- bᵉrîyth, ber-eeth'; from H1262 (in the sense of cutting [like H1254]); a compact (because made by passing between pieces of flesh):—confederacy, (con-) feder(-ate), covenant, league.
Biblical Outline of Usage of H1285
covenant, alliance, pledge
between men
treaty, alliance, league (man to man)
constitution, ordinance (monarch to subjects)
agreement, pledge (man to man)
alliance (of friendship)
alliance (of marriage)
between God and man
alliance (of friendship)
covenant (divine ordinance with signs or pledges)
(phrases)
covenant making
covenant keeping
covenant violation
Covenants are made between the Most High and man throughout scripture. Abba Yah even makes a covenant between He and the earth and all flesh upon it
Genesis 9:13-16
I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant H1285 between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:
And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.
And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
Covenants are also cut off from Abba Yah upon disobedience.
To understand the word Covenant better we must look at the word in which is derives from.
H1262- bârâh, baw-raw'; a primitive root; to select; also (as denominative from H1250) to feed; also (as equivalent to H1305) to render clear (Ecclesiastes 3:18) to select; to feed; to render clear:—choose, (cause to) eat, manifest, (give) meat.
H1254- bârâʼ, baw-raw'; a primitive root; (absolutely) to create; (qualified) to cut down (a wood), select, feed (as formative processes):—choose, create (creator), cut down, dispatch, do, make (fat).
Being cut off from a covenant is seen with King Solomon
1 Kings 11:11
Wherefore the LORD said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant.
Abba Yah even cuts off His own Children for disobedience and betrayal of His covenant with them
2 Kings 17:5
And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them.
Understanding that a Covenant is about agreements, alliances and promises, we can now look at the Covenant of Salt.
Salt in Hebrew means:
H4417- melach, meh'-lakh; from H4414; properly, powder, i.e. (specifically) salt (as easily pulverized and dissolved):—salt(-pit).
It is derived from H4414- mâlach, maw-lakh'; a primitive root; also as denominative from H4417 properly, to rub to pieces or pulverize; intransitively, to disappear as dust; also to salt whether internally (to season with salt) or externally (to rub with salt):—× at all, salt, season, temper together, vanish away.
Biblical Outline of Usage for H4414
to tear away, dissipate
(Niphal) to be dispersed, be dissipated
to salt, season
(Qal) to salt, season
(Pual) to be salted
(Hophal) to be rubbed or washed with salt
Isaiah 51:6
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away H4414 like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.
Exodus 30:34-38 uses melach in the process of making the Temple incense. David wrote in Psalm 141:2, “May my prayer be set before You like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice”, both of which (incense and sacrifice) had salt added to them. Is it possible that salt aids our worship to God? Could every act of faith or trust/covenant
(1 Corinthians 10:31) be an act of salting our worship?
Let us look at these scriptures:
Exodus 30:34-38 (NKJV)
34 And the Lord said to Moses: “Take sweet spices, stacte and onycha and galbanum, and pure frankincense with these sweet spices; there shall be equal amounts of each. 35 You shall make of these an incense, a compound according to the art of the perfumer, salted, pure, and holy. 36 And you shall beat some of it very fine, and put some of it before the Testimony in the tabernacle of meeting where I will meet with you. It shall be most holy to you. 37 But as for the incense which you shall make, you shall not make any for yourselves, according to its [j]composition. It shall be to you holy for the Lord. 38 Whoever makes any like it, to smell it, he shall be cut off from his people.”
Psalm 141:1-2 (NKJV)
Lord, I cry out to You; Make haste to me! Give ear to my voice when I cry out to You. 2 Let my prayer be set before You as incense, The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
1 Corinthians 31(NKJV)
31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 32 Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God, 33 just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.
Paul uses Temple and sacrifice images quite often in his writings. So when he penned the words in Romans 12:1-2 that we are to offer our “bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God”, could he have been thinking of the salt added to all the sacrifices? Paul goes on to say that once we offer ourselves to God, we are to let Him change our lives through changing our thinking, which in turn changes our behavior, glorifying and thus worshiping the God we say we love.
Romans 12:1-2 (KJV)
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
It’s interesting that Revelation 8:3 uses this same imagery – incense on the golden altar (meaning the incense altar in front of the veil between the Holies of Holies and the Most Holy Place, where the coals from the outside bronze sacrificial altar were laid and incense was poured on top of the burning coals causing smoke). Do our lives smell (both the offerings and the incense) good to our God?
Revelation 8:3-4
3 And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
4 And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.
Salt in Greek is very important for the understanding of its usage in changing our minds as stated in Romans.
Salt-G217- ἅλας hálas, hal'-as; from G251; salt; figuratively, prudence:—salt.
Biblical Outline of Usage G217
salt with which food is seasoned and sacrifices are sprinkled
those kinds of saline matter used to fertilise arable land
salt is a symbol of lasting concord, because it protects food from putrefaction and preserves it unchanged.
Accordingly, in the solemn ratification of compacts, this is a practice that continues to this day in some cultures, partaking of salt together.
wisdom and grace exhibited in speech
Matthew 5:13
Ye are the salt G217 of the earth: but if the salt G217 have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
Savour is key this understanding- G3471- mōraínō, mo-rah'-ee-no; from G3474; to become insipid; figuratively, to make (passively, act) as a simpleton:—become fool, make foolish, lose savour.
Biblical Outline of G3471
to be foolish, to act foolishly
to make foolish
to prove a person or a thing foolish
to make flat and tasteless
of salt that has lost its strength and flavour
A fool cannot teach the Scriptures, A fool cannot be the light of the World to the lost
Proverbs 18:2-3 Fools have no interest in understanding; they only want to air their own opinions. Doing wrong leads to disgrace, and scandalous behavior brings contempt.
Proverbs 1:5-7 Let the wise listen to these proverbs and become even wiser. Let those with understanding receive guidance by exploring the meaning in these proverbs and parables, the words of the wise and their riddles. Fear of the LORD is the foundation of true knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
Proverbs 12:22-23 Lying lips are abomination to the LORD: but they that deal truly are his delight. A prudent man concealeth knowledge: but the heart of fools proclaimeth foolishness.
Mark 9:49- For every one shall be salted G233 with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted G233 with salt.
Mark 9:50
Salt G217 is good: but if the salt G217 have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt G217 in yourselves, and have peace one with another.
In 2 Kings 2:20-21, salt was used to heal a body of water so it could be drinkable. Now think about this for a second. When salt is added to water, one gets salt water, not fresh. You might use salt water to gargle, but certainly not to drink. Now imagine what was going through the minds of those watching Elisha throw salt into their putrid water hole.
Why would Elisha do it? Trust. After Elisha threw the salt into the water, it “became wholesome”. How would the people know it was good to drink? They would have to trust their God enough to dip their hand into the water and draw it to their lips. Pouring salt must have seemed like a crazy thing to do to them. But when it comes to walking with our God, isn’t this what it takes – going against the way we think to do what He tells us to do?
2 Kings 2:20-21
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.
22 So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake.
2 Chronicles 13:5 passage where God gave “the kingship of Israel to David and his descendants forever by a covenant of salt.” Treaties were sealed in salt. Covenants were based upon trust. Giving someone your salt was a sign of that trust. And God was making a treaty with David to have his children sit on his throne forever, no matter how good or bad they were!
2Chronicles 13:5
5 Ought ye not to know that the Lord God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David for ever, even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt?
So when we put the words “covenant” and “salt” back together, it stands for the idea of two parties making and keeping an agreement with each other based upon trust. The word “salt” gives us the truth that we should trust our God enough to live with and for Him in our everyday lives. In the everyday decisions we encounter, we are to sacrifice our way of living and thinking and trust His Word.
The covenant gives us the thought that when we trust our God and live His way – our part of the agreement – He will change our lives for the better, one where no judgment is needed – His part of the agreement. He can make life come out of the dead areas of your life. He can turn an unsatisfying life into a tasty one. Where we were once alone, we can now communicate with the God of the universe. Instead of fear and anxiety, we can have peace.
This covenant of salt is all about who you are going to serve: God or Satan? Serve Satan and be judged, eventually die, and spend your eternity with him. Serve God and be saved, and taste goodness both now and forever.
https://torahclass.com/archived-articles/1036-featured-article-sp-940659465
https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G251
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Chronicles+13&version=KJV
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