Mar 1, 2007 - Can Salt Loose Its Saltiness

Mar 1, 2007

Mat 5:13 WTNT
(13) ¶ Ye are the salt of the earth: but and if the salt be once unsavory, what can be salted there with? It is thence forth good for nothing, but to be cast out at the doors, and that men tread it under feet.
William Tyndale New Testament

Sometimes in putting these together I get a verse and I know what needs to be said about it. Other times I have to look it up and study it a lot. Today's falls in the later category. How can salt loose it's saltiness? The answer is that in today's way of looking at salt, it cannot. We look at salt as a white granular substance in a pure state made up of Chlorine and Sodium. It is not possible to loose its saltiness without it breaking down to its individual elements. There is a old statement the Rabbi's once said:

How can one re-salt salt after it has lost its flavor?
You can salt it with the afterbirth of a mule.
But a mule is sterile, how can you get an afterbirth?
Can salt loose its saltiness?

In reality, we can never loose our saltiness, we are in the world to flavor it.

In Jesus day though, salt was a lot different. It would be mixed in with the ground when it was mined. They would try to purify it as much as could be done, but in the end it would be a cake that they would grind off the salt from to flavor the food. It was through a process of exposure to moisture and sunlight that the salt would leech itself out of the cake. At this time, though it would look the same, the salt flavor was gone, and with that the usefulness of the block of salt.

So what does that mean to us today? If we have lost our saltiness, we are no longer influencing those around us and have become not much good for anything. When we do not do the things that make us stand out as Christians, we loose the saltiness and become like the world. In fact we become equal to the earth in the sight of man. Look at the scandals that have hit the great men of God over the years and see what the world thinks of them. Look at the scandals that we ourselves can get ourselves into and how it influences our fellow man. Big or small, we all will fall. God is there to restore the salt.

The good news is that God has 'the afterbirth of a mule' to re-salt us. Just like it would be a miracle of science to have a mule give birth, we have a miracle of faith that can restore us to where we need to be. That miracle is Jesus. Confess your sins and turn back to God and He will forgive you and let you be a witness again.

I know these to be true. Years ago I ran from God. I wanted nothing to do with Him because my life was not the way I wanted it to be. During that time I had lost my saltiness. A few years later I realized I was wrong, so I turned back to Him and asked forgiveness through Jesus. Now, I still have lost my saltiness to some people, but God is using me in many small ways, like this devotional you are reading.

So, are you salt? Or, do you need the 'afterbirth of a mule?'