Project Description

2015/05

A Word To Women

“Can that which is unsavoury be
 eaten without salt?”
(Job 6:6)

Salt is found in every kitchen. Those who are health conscious may add little salt but plenty is found already in almost every food. We need salt to live and even our tongues have special cells designed to help us taste it. Salt and its properties have been recognised from earliest times. Salt is extracted from sea water or mined from huge deposits found across the globe. But how is it spoken of in the Scriptures?

In Job 6:6, salt is seen as a taste enhancer. The example of using salt to flavour the white of an egg is given. A little pinch in cooking seems to bring out other flavours and greatly improve our dining experience. In Colossians 4:6 we read, “Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt” The speech of a Christian should set him apart. It should add nothing unsavoury to a conversation but should add pleasantness and wholesomeness. The tongue is a small part of our body but has a capability of causing much hurt and harm. Let us guard what we say, seasoning our speech with salt.

In the Old Testament salt accompanied the offerings (Leviticus 2:13). This spoke of the flavour and pleasantness of our Saviour.  Psalm 34:8 exhorts us, “O taste and see that the Lord is good”. To avail of all the privileges of God’s people, we must first avail of the salvation which He offers freely. Neither leaven nor honey were allowed in the offerings, only salt, as it preserves and speaks of the continuance and effectiveness of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. Christ not only saves but He keeps His people. He gives eternal life and we shall never perish. A covenant of salt was an everlasting covenant (Numbers 18:19), so the Lord promises never to forget us but has ‘graven us on the palms of his hands’ (Isaiah 49:16).
Salt as a preservative has been well used throughout time. While today we preserve foods by freezing and other methods, salting is still used.  It is a natural method of preserving food, but is not the food itself. In the Sermon on the Mount the Lord Jesus compared His disciples and followers to salt – “Ye are the salt of the earth”. The phrase has passed into everyday vocabulary.  Christians in a country have a preserving effect, praying as they do for the spiritual welfare of the people. Christians act as a brake to the downward moral slide. Salt is made up of many grains, and more grains produce a saltier taste. Likewise the church of Christ is made up of many individuals. Let us endeavour to work together as a preserving influence wherever we are found.

Generally, salt is a good thing. However, Christ warned of salt which had lost its savour and was “good for nothing, but to be cast out, and trodden under foot of men”. Those who are truly saved cannot be lost, but a Christian may grow cold and allow his pleasant and beneficial flavour to be hidden. The unsaved will use such as an excuse for not receiving Christ. If we are losing our savour then we should pray to be restored to usefulness. If we see a Christian stumbling, then reach out to help, remembering that we too can easily fall.

If you are still unsaved, heed the warning, ‘Remember Lot’s wife’. In an instant she was reduced to a pillar of salt – a startling warning to escape from the wrath to come.

Olive Maxwell.