Salty, Sweet, Gooey Goodness
Leviticus 2:13, “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 salt.”
Moses had been given the command from God, and now he was relaying that message to the Israelites. He was very much like a quarterback on a football team who gets a play from the sidelines, and then relays them to the other players. Once the play begins the quarterback can and does guide the other players on what to do, but in most cases the outcome of the play rests on how well the players rememember and do what the quarterback told them. If all players work together, and do the right thing the play will end in gain, but if even one player decides to do his own thing then it will probably end in a loss.
Sometimes we look at the instructions, and they don’t make much sense to us. Why do we need to add salt to the offering before we bring it to God? Aren’t we just going to destroy it anyway! Salt is expensive, and very valuable to have! I don’t want to waste it on something I’m going to burn. In those days salt was fairly expensive. It was hard to get, and before refrigeration and modern medicine it had a lot of uses. Salt was good for keeping meat in storage without it going bad, and salt had many uses in healing the human body. Even today people use it to dry and store meat for long periods, and it is still widely used in medicine. Not to mention the health benefits of salt; our bodies require salt, or sodium, in order to function properly. In addition to all that salt tastes good; it adds flavor to everything. When I sit down for a meal, one of the first things I do is add salt to everything on my plate.
With all of these benefits is there any wonder that God told Moses that all of the Israelites offerings should have salt. God requires the best of what we have! Today, instead of requiring salt, since it has become so easy to get, it might be easier for us to understand if we used diamonds or some other precious jewel that is hard to come by, and I believe that God also required the use of salt because it represents His healing and sustaining powers. Salt also adds flavor to the offerings given to God, just as you do not want to eat dull and tasteless food God does not want our dull worship. God wants us to get excited, and bring some flavor and life into our worship of Him.
Jesus also talked about salt; He said in Matthew 5:13, “You are the salt of the world…” We, Christians, represent all the properties of salt. We are valuable, so valuable that Jesus died for us, we have the ability to preserve people when we point them towards Him, and we add flavor to everything we touch.
The offering that God requires still must be seasoned with salt, but the salt in our offerings must come from a relationship with Him; it is only through the love of Jesus that we get the salt we need to share with the world!
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Father, I thank You for sending “salty” people into my life, and I ask that You use me to show others the tastiness of Your love. In Jesus’ name, Amen
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The above image can be found at:
http://foodyoucanteat.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/free-from-foods-high-in-salt/
Yes, You Can Ministry 