THE COVENANT OF SALT
2 Chronicles, 13:4,5
“The Covenant of Salt”
“Then Abijah stood on the slope of Mount Zemaraim that is in the hill country of Ephraim, and said, “Listen to me, Jeroboam and all Israel! Do you not know that the Lord God of Israel gave the kingship over Israel forever to David and his sons by a covenant of salt?”
What on earth is the “covenant of salt?”
Salt in Biblical times was a precious commodity. The Dead, or “Salt” Sea is perhaps ¼ salt. After every flood, when the water evaporated, a course-grained salt was left behind. It was not particularly rare, but it was as necessary to their daily lives as it is to ours.
Salt was used in a variety of ways – as a preservative, a seasoning, a disinfectant, as a unit of exchange, and in ceremonies. It was used to draw the blood from meat, and to preserve it. And how many of us have gargled with salt water at the first sign of a sore throat? In Biblical times, newborns were often rubbed with salt, not only to ritually protect them, but to ensure that they would have integrity and always be truthful.
But beyond the practicalities of everyday life, salt was considered important enough to use in ceremonies and promises. A covenant made with salt was intended to last forever, unbreakable by either party.
Treaties were sealed in salt. Covenants were based on trust. Giving someone your salt was a sign of that trust. You do this, and I do that. Shake on it. It’s a done deal. But what about when God makes a covenant with mankind? How does that change things?
We make promises to God all the time, and unfortunately, break them just as often. Perhaps we forgot we made the promise in the first place. Or maybe as time goes on, the promise doesn’t seem as important, so the whatever we’ve promised kind of falls by the wayside. Or we may even say, “But God, I didn’t mean that! You can’t expect me to do that!”
But then there’s God – permanent, ever-faithful, forever keeping His end of the bargain, even when we break ours. “I will never leave you, nor forsake you,” He says, and He means it.
For His part of the bargain, His “salt,” He gave what was most precious to Him, His only begotten Son. And what do we give as our part of the bargain? What is your “salt?” What is most precious to you? Is it money? Health? Your children or your mate? Are we really willing to give what is most precious to us over to the care and keeping of God? Or do we hold on to it, that thing that is so precious, unwilling to let even God have it for a little while, let alone forever?
Here’s God, waiting in the wings, His part of the bargain intact. Waiting.
And here are we, holding on to what is most precious to us for dear life.
I wonder, are we afraid that if we give our “salt” to God that He will treat it as shamefully as we treated His?
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