“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each other.” Col 4:6
Salt is sprinkled throughout the pages of the Bible. Depending on the account, salt can have a different symbolic representation across different portions of scripture. It has negative connotations as when Lot’s wife looked back for a forbidden glance and is transformed into a pillar of salt (Gen 19:12-29) or as in Jeremiah 17 where the Lord curses the one who trusts in man and declares he will live in a salt land where no one lives. But usually salt is portrayed in a more positive light. Salt symbolizes new beginnings; salt covenants were made between the Jews and the Lord. It causes thirst; can you really eat popcorn without something to drink? It is a seasoning; it makes food more palatable. It is an irritant with healing and purifying properties; it smarts a bit when that scuffed toe makes it’s first dip in the ocean but feels much better afterwards. It’s a preservative; country ham would not exist without salt.
In 2Kings 2:19-21, Elisha has been called to help with the bad water of Jericho. The story of the walls of Jericho get a lot more press and similarly a lot more time during a Holy Land tour but this simple, short story holds a great deal of symbolism for us to ponder. Jericho had been under a curse since the time of Joshua and while it was a lovely place to live, the water was bad and the land produced no fruit due to the lack of good water. The correlation between Jericho and our world today can be drawn. The world is full of all the tangible resources that make our lives pleasurable. Water in the Bible is often a symbol of the Word, the Spirit and even of life. But when the water is bad the opposite holds true, the Word is polluted, the Spirit is stagnant and death is inevitable. Elisha asked for a new jar with salt in it (vs 20). He didn’t request just any ol’ jar laying around, but a new jar. Some commentaries say this could represent a new, regenerated believer, a new creation in Christ. Salt was the mechanism God used to heal the water. Christ purified us through His death, he heals our wounds, and as we feast more on His Word we thirst for more of Him in our lives.
“Then he went to the spring and threw the salt into it saying, “This is what the Lord says: I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive. And the water has remained wholesome to this day, according to the word Elisha had spoken” (vs 21-22). God’s power worked through Elisha. It’s important to realize it was not the salt or Elisha but God that healed the water and it was a witness for all to see then and generations to come. In the same way, we are to live an authentic Christian life, well-seasoned with Christ, revealing for all to see and hear the new creation of Christ in us. And that’s your Tuesday Tidbit.
The pictures are from my recent trip to Israel. The spring is still there for all to see and taste!