COVENANT OF SALT

TEXT:

Levi 2:13 And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.

Matt 5:13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

"Salt lose it savour"

• Salt changes everything it comes in contact with.
• But salt, itself, remains unchanged.
• If salt loses its savour, what can salt this salt?
• Salt has savour.

SAVOUR

• The Lord is said to enjoy a sacrifice with "savour".

Gene 8:20-21 And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart [is] evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.

Exod 29:18 And thou shalt burn the whole ram upon the altar: it [is] a burnt offering unto the LORD: it [is] a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

Ezek 20:41 I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen.

Leviticus said:

...with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.

So we know these offerings had salt and that is what made them a sweet savour to God.

• Why?
• WHY DID SALT MAKE THEM A SWEET SAVOUR TO GOD?

SALT

• A spice was involved in the sacrifice that made that sacrifice something special.
• Salt is mentioned several times in the Bible.
• It is intended to represent something.

2Kin 2:20-22 And he said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they brought [it] to him. And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the LORD, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren [land]. So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake.

• Salt was put in the cruse of oil - a cruse is a jar or bowl - a horn was used also for pouring ANOINTING OIL on a person.
• Horns mean POWER because horns were removed from animals, who used them for their power.
• WITH SALT in the CRUSE OF ANOINTING OIL we see a picture.
• SALT IMPLIES PRESERVING
• Waters were "HEALED UNTO THIS DAY."
• "There shall not be from thence any more death or barren [land]."
• Salt is used to preserve.
• POWER (horn/cruse) combined with PERMANENCY (salt) makes permanent power.
• PERMANENT HEALING was shown in the healing of the waters with a cruse with salt in it.

Numb 18:19 All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer unto the LORD, have I given thee, and thy sons and thy daughters with thee, by a statute for ever: it [is] a covenant of salt for ever before the LORD unto thee and to thy seed with thee.

2Chr 13:5 Ought ye not to know that the LORD God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David for ever, [even] to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt?

• God gave a covenant of SALT to David.
• This means God will not turn back on His word!
• To give a sacrifice to God with SALT IN IT is to be COMMITTED TO HIM FOREVER.
• To make a covenant of SALT with God is to stick with Him forever.
• And God made a NEW COVENANT (New Testament) of salt with us.

Matt 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, [even] unto the end of the world. Amen.

Putting Salt in the sacrifice is giving your life to God and making a commitment and sticking to it.

Roma 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [which is] your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

We are a living sacrifice to God. And every sacrifice is supposed to have salt in it.

• God wants SALT in this kind of sacrifice.
• It is only reasonable to wholly yield to God since He wholly gave Himself to us, putting SALT, as it were, into His sacrifice on the cross.
• We will give oursleves and STICK TO that commitment.
• Put salt in your sacrifice to God.
• Have a back-bone and refuse to be a jelly-fish who goes back on his/her commitment.

Matt 8:19-22 And a certain scribe came, and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air [have] nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay [his] head. And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.

• Excuses show there is no salt in the sacrifice.

Matt 8:23-24 And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him. And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep.

• Disciples followed Jesus.
• A storm hit, just as he warned them that following Him would not always be easy.
• And they were afraid.
• They were not prepared for the storm.
• But He was with them in the STORM!
• He was so calm in that storm that He slept.
• I might become fearful, but I must remember that HE is with me.
• He stuck it out with them and He will with you too!
• With the kind of Lord who sleeps in storms, I am glad that He put salt in His commitment to me, saying He will never leave me.
• Friends and brothers may leave me, but He NEVER will.
• He put salt in His part of the covenant.
• No weapon formed against me can prosper because He said He will never leave me.
• Greater is he that is in me that he that is in the world, because He said He will never leave me.
• He put salt in His part of the covenant.
• He will stick to it!
• NOW I NEED TO DO MY SIDE OF THE COVENANT AND PUT SALT IN THE SACRIFICE, ALSO.
• I need to stick with Him no matter what comes my way.
• No matter who persecutes me.
• No matter what family thinks of my christianity.
• No matter what friends may think of my salvation.
• I must stick to Him.
• No matter what fake christian hurts me with slander.
• I cannot back out on my God because of a hypocrite.
• God will look at me, if I forsake Him due to somebody's attacks against me, and ask "What did I do to have you forsake me?"
• I need SALT in the sacrifice of my life to Him.
• Stick with Him no matter what comes my way.
• He said He would never leave me, now I must say the same.

Roma 8:17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with [him], that we may be also glorified together.

Roma 8:23-24 And not only [they], but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, [to wit], the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

• Heirs IF WE SUFFER.
• Stick to Jesus even in the persecution HOPE is evidence of SALT.
• We are saved by having HOPE.
• SALT must be in the one if they are the one that HOPES and holds on no matter what comes their way.

Titus 2:12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

• WHY???

Titus 2:13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

• IT IS WORTH IT!
• It is worth denying all ungodliness, because there is something ahead!
• You endure anything for Jesus when you realize that great hope that lies ahead.
• What a sweet savour the people bring forth to God when He sees them stand in hope.
• Storms may hit, but they are committed for they know God made a covenant of salt with them to stick with them to the end of the world, for after that we will be in glory with Him if we are still holding on.
• Jesus made a covenant of salt with the church when he said he would be with them always even to the end of the world.

The writer of Hebrews caught that:

Hebr 13:5-6 [Let your] conversation [be] without covetousness; [and be] content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord [is] my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

1Cor 15:19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

Gala 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

• STAND FAST.
• HOLD ON.
• Have SALT in your sacrifice.

Hebr 6:11 And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:

Hebr 6:19 Which [hope] we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;

Hebr 6:12-15 That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

Let us be like Abraham, who took God's word, seeing that God put SALT in His promise, and put SALT in his part of the covenant, also.  Abraham patiently endured and would not go back on his commitment to God. And Abraham received his promise from God!