A Salt Ridden Covenant

Salt and covenant are two words I’d never put together before. Surprising how enlightening a commentary can be.

Leviticus 2:13 Season all your grain offerings with salt. Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings. (NIV)

In an age where salt can be thought of as ‘bad’ or detrimental to our health, I marvel over the significance of salt in the Old Testament offerings. Something inside of me giggles over this, with a joy from deep down inside of me.

From Easton’s 1897 Bible Dictionary –

Salt

used to season food (Job 6:6), and mixed with the fodder of cattle (Isa. 30:24, "clean;" in marg. of R.V. "salted"). All meat-offerings were seasoned with salt (Lev. 2:13). To eat salt with one is to partake of his hospitality, to derive subsistence from him; and hence he who did so was bound to look after his host's interests (Ezra 4:14, "We have maintenance from the king's palace;" A.V. marg., "We are salted with the salt of the palace;" R.V., "We eat the salt of the palace").
A "covenant of salt" (Num. 18:19; 2 Chr. 13:5) was a covenant of perpetual obligation. New-born children were rubbed with salt (Ezek. 16:4). Disciples are likened unto salt, with reference to its cleansing and preserving uses (Matt. 5:13).

From that excerpt, take this away from my blog post today and ponder on it a while.

To eat salt with one is to partake of his hospitality, to derive subsistence from him; and hence he who did so was bound to look after his host's interests…

I’ll be curious to hear from you – what does God speak to your heart about it?