10.31.24

Good morning!

To live as salt, it's important to connect pieces of the salt covenant. Through our study yesterday, we saw the salt covenant spoken of in two different ways. With the phrase, 'covenant of salt' He desires a relationship with His people based upon trust that is seen in their actions and, eventually, through a changed life (Rom.12:1,2; 8:29,36,37; Matt.5:13-19).

A covenant is an agreement or alliance between two parties where each party makes a pledge to keep their end of the bargain; whereas the terms of the agreement are known as terms of grace.  We find the first covenant in this week's Torah portion (Gen.6:18). Noah was to build the Ark and gather the animals.  If Noah would fulfill his end of the bargain, God would get them safely through the coming deluge...This took trust.  In order to go through the embarrassment of building a boat so far away from water in a land that's never needed or seen rain, in order to start gathering supplies for animals which he had quite possibly never seen or even heard of before, Noah had to trust God to keep His end of the bargain (Heb.11:7).

This agreement was based upon mutual trust.  If Noah did his part, would he trust God to do His part?  The answer is given right after God writes up the contract.  Noah did everything just as God commanded him (Gen. 6:22)  Noah showed his trust in God through his actions of living out the words of the contract, or covenant. No wonder he found grace in the sight of the Lord (Gen. 6:8).

Sometimes, and definitely not frequently, covenants are unidirectional (Gen.9:9). Huh? Why? In Noah's case, after his one year roller coaster ride on the ark, I can imagine Noah saying, 'I sure hope I never have to go through that again.' And God unidirectionally tells him, don't worry my boy...but still, what would it take?  Trusting in God’s word.  Could you imagine the PTSD Noah felt every time the skies started clouding up, Noah would need to remember God’s word – no more worldwide floods.  As He trusted God’s word, peace would replace the anxiety.  But first Noah had to trust.
Let's talk about salt/melach, which comes from malach/to be dispersed or dissipated, for a few minutes (Gen.14:3; Num. 34:3,12; Deut.3:17;Josh.3:16). Salt is inorganic. It's not living, but one day, it will be made fresh and alive again (Eze.47:10-12); which is happening today.

What is most interesting to me is the first time the root word of salt/melach is used it's with Lot's wife (Gen.19:26). Can you see the covenant in this story?

Later in Judges 9:45 we see this idea of pulverizing something in order to scatter the salt/melach over the ground, when Abimelech destroyed the city of Shechem and poured salt over it.  In this story, the people of Shechem rebel against their leaders, Gideon’s sons.  The citizens of Shechem made Abimelech king, after which Abimelech wipes out every single son of Gideon, except one Jotham. In order to right this wrong, God moves the citizens to rebel or break their agreement with Abimelech, who in turn wipes them out.

Melach is not only associated with death, destruction, and judgment.  It is also associated with the korbanot/to draw near to God (Leviticus 2:13).  We'll come back to that later...

Sandwiched between Genesis and Leviticus is Exodus 30:34-38 where melach is used in the process of making the Temple incense.  David wrote in Psalm 141:2, 'May my prayer be set before You like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice', both of which (incense and sacrifice) had salt added to them.  Is it possible that salt aids our worship towards God?  Could every act of faith or trust/covenant (1 Corinthians 10:31) be an act of salting our worship? Enquiring minds want to know and doers of the Word want to experience it (Rom.12:1,2)!

It’s interesting that Revelation 8:3 uses this same imagery: incense on the golden altar where the coals from the outside bronze altar were laid and incense was poured on top of the burning coals causing smoke to rise.

As we head into this fifth day of the week, let me leave you with a challenge: Do our lives smell (both the offerings and the incense) good to our God (Ex. 25:6; 30:7)?

Shalom!

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