Cometh the Tide
Leviticus 2:13
“You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.”
When Christ referred to His disciples as ‘the salt of the earth,’ perhaps He was alluding to the way we as Christians preserve the world from decay, just as salt preserves meat, or the way we flavor the world with goodness, truth, and beauty, just as salt flavors bland food, or the way we purify the wicked world, just as salt purifies water. The analogy seems like a little well in the midst of the wilderness at first glance, but on closer inspection, it becomes an expansive ocean with so many applications to explore.
Nevertheless, I can’t help but marvel at the way salt represents God’s incarnational, ever-present labor of love in His covenant with us. Think of the fact that the joy of human toil is inextricably married to the pain of it. As the cliché goes, the climb gives the mountain view its gravitas; the cold blizzard gives the fire its comfort; the hunger makes the meal refreshing. The blood, sweat, and tears of the journey make it memorable. So translate that reality back to the life of Jesus, friend. Marvel at the thought that He incarnated into our human travail as a Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. That those tears that poured from His eyes as He wept over lost humanity, and that sweat that poured from His brow as He ministered to the hapless masses, and that blood that overflowed from His heart from the arduous, physically draining task of redeeming the world, is an ocean of divine love and justice—the salty tide of an everlasting covenant!
When I read God’s commandment not to let the salt of the covenant be missing from our offering, I see in it a wondrous illustration of the sort of offering He gives. A little granule-sized analogy of the way He drained Himself of every last drop of blood, sweat, and tears in order to save us. So, today, may the sweat of our own toil drench our offerings back to Him. May our words always be seasoned by actions as we fulfill our imitational part of this holy covenant.