The-A-to-Z-Guide-to-Bible-Signs-and-Symbols-epubCS7-120

Salt

Salt was one of the most common substances in the ancient world. Roman soldiers were paid in salt and would revolt if they didn’t get their ration. The English word salary comes from the Latin salarium, which literally means “salt-money.” And the expression “that man isn’t worth his salt” is a reminder of salt’s high value. The biblical writers made generous use of salt imagery. Salt has many positive qualities and also some negative qualities.

Salt in the Old Testament

Early in Jewish tradition, the salt covenant (Lev. 2:13; Num. 18:19; 2 Chron. 13:5), capitalizing on salt’s preserving qualities, symbolized a permanent, indissoluble relationship between God and his people. Salt was also used for its preserving quality for all burnt offerings (Ezra 6:9).

Salt symbolized a curse and a desolate landscape. Abimelech laid waste to the captured city of Shechem as he “tore down the city and scattered salt all over the land” (Judg. 9:45). The Dead Sea (Salt Sea), the Valley of Salt, and the City of Salt all imply death, desolation, despair, and deserts. “They will see all the soil poisoned with sulfur and salt. Nothing will be planted. Nothing will be growing. There will be no plants in sight. It will be as desolate as Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, cities the LORD destroyed in fierce anger” (Deut. 29:23).

The Salt of the Earth

Perhaps the best known salt symbolism comes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Jesus contrasted salt’s positive and negative potential: “You are salt for the earth. But if salt loses its taste, how will it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled on by people” (Matt. 5:13). Jesus used salt to symbolize the impact believers can have on society. In the ancient world, salt primarily functioned as a preservative. It retarded spoilage. Likewise, believers act as a preservative in the world. Believers spread the kingdom’s influence into culture, protecting society from the full sway of evil that would otherwise be present.

Jesus declared, “You are salt for the earth” (Matt. 5:13). Absent from Jesus’ instruction are the words like or as. Believers are commanded to be salt, not just to be like salt. The essence of salt is its uniqueness, its distinctness. Nothing is quite like salt. Just as salt is different from pepper, Christians are distinct from the world. The Christian’s distinctiveness is what makes a difference in the world, impacting culture. Salt was used as a flavoring or seasoning (Job 6:6). In a similar fashion, Christianity brings spice and zest to life. The Christian is the personification of how life is to be lived.

Christians are to be salt in the world—to make people thirsty for God, to preserve the culture, and to heal wounds.

Salt is an antiseptic. In ancient times newborn babies were rubbed with salt so that the cuts and infections of primitive birth methods could be healed (cf. Ezek. 16:4). While this sounds painful, the cleaning out of a wound with salt was very effective in fighting infection. Christians have a responsibility of not only pointing out sin, but practically offering healing and help. By exerting our influence we can prevent the ravages of disease and death caused by sin.

Salt was often used as a preservative in the days before refrigeration.

Salt creates thirst. A familiar statement asserts that we can lead a horse to water but we can’t make him drink. That may be true, but we can give him a salt tablet, making him thirsty. As Jesus made people thirsty for God the Father, so do Christians make people thirsty for the real life found only in Christianity.

Jesus warned his followers, “But if salt loses its taste, how will it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled on by people” (Matt. 5:13). Perhaps the most important fact about salt is that in its purest form it never loses its taste. Salt will always be salt. It is an extremely stable compound. We can put it in a dish, walk away, come back ten years later, and it will still be sodium chloride—salt. The only way salt can lose its saltiness is to be mixed with something else. Jesus is making the point that it is dangerously easy for Christians to become diluted and lose their salty, preserving influence in the world. If believers are not affecting the world, the world is affecting them. If they are not salting the world, the world is rotting them. In order to prevent the world from affecting us, we must stay in close contact with the ultimate influence—Christ himself.

Key Verse

You are salt for the earth. But if salt loses its taste, how will it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled on by people. (Matt. 5:13)

We are to be unlike the world. There is no need to stress that, it is perfectly obvious. Salt is essentially different from the medium in which it is placed and in a sense it exercises all its qualities by being different. . . . The very characteristic of saltness proclaims a difference, for a small amount of salt in a large medium is at once apparent. Unless we are clear about this we have not even begun to think correctly about the Christian life. The Christian is a man who is essentially different from everybody else. He is as different as the salt is from the meat into which it is rubbed. He is as different as the salt is from the wound into which it is put. This external difference is to be emphasized and stressed.