Salt-Bible study

There are about 40 occurrences of the word, salt, in the Bible. Here are some of them:

Salt was part of the offerings to Yahweh: Leviticus 2:13 Every offering of your meal offering you shall season with salt. You shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your meal offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt.

Salt was used to poison the fields of enemy nations: Judges 9:44 Abimelech and the companies that were with him rushed forward and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city; and the two companies rushed on all who were in the field and struck them. 45 Abimelech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city and killed the people in it. He beat down the city and sowed it with salt.

Deuteronomy 29:23 that all of its land is sulfur, salt, and burning, that it is not sown, doesn’t produce, nor does any grass grow in it, like the overthrow of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which Yahweh overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath.

But salt, in at least one case, had the opposite effect, presumably because of a miracle: 2 Kings 2:19 The men of the city said to Elisha, “Behold, please, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad, and the land is barren. 20 He said, “Bring me a new jar, and put salt in it.” Then they brought it to him. 21 He went out to the spring of the waters, and threw salt into it, and said, “Yahweh says, ‘I have healed these waters. There shall not be from there any more death or barren wasteland.’”

Offerings were supposed to be salted:

Leviticus 2:13 Every offering of your meal offering you shall season with salt. You shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your meal offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt.

Numbers 18:19 All the wave offerings of the holy things which the children of Israel offer to Yahweh, I have given you and your sons and your daughters with you, as a portion forever. It is a covenant of salt forever before Yahweh to you and to your offspring with you.”

Salt was used in part of the ritual of establishing a covenant:

2 Chronicles 13:5 Ought you not to know that Yahweh, the God of Israel, gave the kingdom over Israel to David forever, even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt? (I'm not sure whether salt was used in covenants between people, or just in covenants between God and people.)

Babies were salted at birth: Ezekiel 16:4 As for your birth, in the day you were born your navel was not cut. You weren’t washed in water to cleanse you. You weren’t salted at all, nor wrapped in blankets at all. (It may be that some of the significance of salt, as in putting it on babies, were prevalent just at the time related to that scripture. Or these practices may be widespread.

Here are some references from the New Testament: Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its flavor, with what will it be salted? It is then good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under the feet of men.

Luke 14:34 “Salt is good, but if the salt becomes flat and tasteless, with what do you season it?

Colossians 4:6 Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.

For the Christian, salt is related to keeping our flavor. Does that mean that we should remain distinct from the general population? Christians are to impart God's grace, perhaps somewhat like babies were salted in Ezekiel's time.

Salt preserves and flavors. These uses were well known in Bible times. A use that they probably didin't think about was that salt retards freezing. As I write, there is lots of crystallized salt on roads and sidewalks nearby.  Christians, too, should be warm-hearted.

There are several Biblical references to the Salt Sea, which we now call the Dead Sea. (It has a high salt content.)

For a lot more about salt, see the Wikipedia article.

Women of the Bible: Zipporah

Exodus 2:13 He [Moses] went out the second day, and behold, two men of the Hebrews were fighting with each other. He said to him who did the wrong, “Why do you strike your fellow?”

14 He said, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you plan to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian?”

Moses was afraid, and said, “Surely this thing is known.” 15 Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and lived in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.

16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 The shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock. 18 When they came to Reuel, their father, he said, “How is it that you have returned so early today?”

19 They said, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and moreover he drew water for us, and watered the flock.”

20 He said to his daughters, “Where is he? Why is it that you have left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.”

21 Moses was content to dwell with the man. He gave Moses Zipporah, his daughter. 22 She bore a son, and he named him Gershom, for he said, “I have lived as a foreigner in a foreign land.” 

Exodus 4:24 On the way at a lodging place, Yahweh met Moses and wanted to kill him. 25 Then Zipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet; and she said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me.”

26 So he let him alone. Then she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision*. 

Exodus 18:1 Now Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel his people, how Yahweh had brought Israel out of Egypt. 2 Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, received Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her away, 3 and her two sons. The name of one son was Gershom, for Moses said, “I have lived as a foreigner in a foreign land”. 4 The name of the other was Eliezer, for he said, “My father’s God was my help and delivered me from Pharaoh’s sword.” 5 Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with Moses’ sons and his wife to Moses into the wilderness where he was encamped, at the Mountain of God. 6 He said to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, have come to you with your wife, and her two sons with her.” 

*In Genesis 17, God's covenant with Abraham and his descendants involved circumcising males. Presumably Moses knew about this. Later, Joshua had all the males about to enter the Promised Land circumcised.

This is the last post of a long series, quoting scripture relating to all the women of the Bible, more or less from Abigail to Zipporah. Thank you for reading!

Worship ideas from Leviticus 1-8

Worship in Leviticus

We aren’t bound by OT Law. Acts 15:7b Peter rose up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that a good while ago God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the nations should hear the word of the Good News, and believe. 8 God, who knows the heart, testified about them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just like he did to us. 9 He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. 10 Now therefore why do you tempt God, that you should put a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? 11 But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they are.” [All scripture from the World English Bible, public domain, and, except when otherwise indicated, from Leviticus.]

Acts 15:19 [James speaks] “… my judgment is that we don’t trouble those from among the Gentiles who turn to God, 20 but that we write to them that they abstain from the pollution of idols, from sexual immorality, from what is strangled, and from blood.

In his The Bible Jesus Read: Why the Old Testament Matters, Philip Yancey reminds us that the OT teaches us something that we need to hear: The world revolves around God, not around us. In another book, he says that God kept trying to reach us, first revealing Himself as the Father, in the OT, then as the Son appearing on earth as a man, and now through the Holy Spirit, who lives in us. We need those reminders, and without the Old Testament, we wouldn't have them.

Perfect sacrifices, when offering: Leviticus 1:3 “‘If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. [3:1 and 3:6 also say “without blemish.”]

1:10 “‘If his offering is a burnt offering from the flock … a male without blemish.

I need to give God my best.

Remove the junk: 1:14 “‘If his offering to Yahweh is a burnt offering of birds, then he shall offer his offering of turtledoves, or of young pigeons. 15 The priest shall bring it to the altar, and wring off its head, and burn it on the altar; and its blood shall be drained out on the side of the altar; 16 and he shall take away its crop with its filth, and cast it beside the altar on the east part, in the place of the ashes

"with its filth!" should be taken away. God is a holy God.

No yeast, no honey: 2:11a “‘No meal offering, which you shall offer to Yahweh, shall be made with yeast; for you shall burn no yeast, nor any hone.

I can't explain either of these prohibitions, as the Bible doesn't do so. But one possible lesson from this is that, if I have a conviction (say that I shouldn't drink coffee (!)) which I believe is God-given, I should stick to it, even if others don't share it, or I can't explain it.

 

First fruits: 2:14 “‘If you offer a meal offering of first fruits to Yahweh, you shall offer for the meal offering of your first fruits grain in the ear parched with fire, bruised grain of the fresh ear.

I think it's a good practice to have devotions early in the day. (I know that that's impossible for some people.) It's also a good practice to give offerings and tithes before we start paying our bills, or buying other things.

Even when you didn’t realize you had sinned: 4:1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘If anyone sins unintentionally, in any of the things which Yahweh has commanded not to be done, and does any one of them: 3 if the anointed priest sins so as to bring guilt on the people, then let him offer for his sin, which he has sinned, a young bull without blemish to Yahweh for a sin offering.

5:2 “‘Or if anyone touches any unclean thing, whether it is the carcass of an unclean animal, or the carcass of unclean livestock, or the carcass of unclean creeping things, and it is hidden from him, and he is unclean, then he shall be guilty.

I have a hard time with that one, but it's there. These commentaries make sense to me:

David Jamieson, Commentary on Leviticus 4 (public domain) All sins may be considered, in a certain sense, as committed "through ignorance," error, or misapprehension of one's true interests. The sins, however, referred to in this law were unintentional violations of the ceremonial laws,--breaches made through haste, or inadvertency of some negative precepts, which, if done knowingly and wilfully, would have involved a capital punishment.

And Matthew Henry wrote this:

But if the offender were either ignorant of the law, as in divers instances we may suppose many were (so numerous and various were the prohibitions)

Continuous: 6:9 “Command Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the law of the burnt offering: the burnt offering shall be on the hearth on the altar all night until the morning; and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning on it. 12 The fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it, it shall not go out; and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning: and he shall lay the burnt offering in order upon it, and shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings. 13 Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it shall not go out.

The application is obvious!

No fat, no blood: 7:23 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘You shall eat no fat, of bull, or sheep, or goat. 24 The fat of that which dies of itself, and the fat of that which is torn of animals, may be used for any other service, but you shall in no way eat of it. 25 For whoever eats the fat of the animal, of which men offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh, even the soul who eats it shall be cut off from his people. 26 You shall not eat any blood, whether it is of bird or of animal, in any of your dwellings. 27 Whoever it is who eats any blood, that soul shall be cut off from his people.’”

I'm not aware of any church that makes a big deal out of eating only meat which has had the blood drained from it. Note that James also mentioned blood. Blood was crucially significant, in both the Old and New covenants. (See below) That must be honored. Perhaps I should be more wary of consuming blood.

As for fat, James didn't forbid that. Although Leviticus says not to eat it, that seems to have changed by New Testament times. There are references to eating from a "fatted calf" (KJV and NKJV language) in Luke 15 and Matthew 22, in celebration, by Jesus, himself. 

Consuming too much fat, or the wrong kinds, may be bad for our physical health.

Cleansed: 8:6 Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water. 7 He put the coat on him, tied the sash on him, clothed him with the robe, put the ephod on him, and he tied the skillfully woven band of the ephod on him, and fastened it to him with it. 10 Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and all that was in it, and sanctified them. 11 He sprinkled it on the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and all its vessels, and the basin and its base, to sanctify them. 12 He poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron’s head, and anointed him, to sanctify him.

God is holy!

Blood is symbolic: 8:22 He presented the other ram, the ram of consecration: and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram. 23 He killed it; and Moses took some of its blood, and put it on the tip of Aaron’s right ear, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the great toe of his right foot. 24 He brought Aaron’s sons; and Moses put some of the blood on the tip of their right ear, and on the thumb of their right hand, and on the great toe of their right foot; and Moses sprinkled the blood around on the altar.

Again, the significance of blood, symbolically cleansing the priests. 

Thanks for reading!