A Sprinkling of Salt
Joshua 21
After the tribes were given their allotment of the Promised Land, the Levites came and asked for their allotment. The Levites were not given a specific tract of the Promised Land. Instead they were given cities in each portion that was allotted to the tribes. The Levites were responsible for making the Word of God known among the nation, so instead of them being concentrated in one section of the land, they were scattered throughout the nation like one would sprinkle salt on a meal.
The Church is like the Levites. Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, said that we are to be the salt of the earth in Matthew 5:13. Peter likens the Church to a holy priesthood. The Church is to be living the Word of God throughout the world. As the saying goes we are to bloom where we are planted.
Jesus also warned in Matthew 5:13 that if our salt became tasteless our salt would become worthless. The Greek word for tasteless salt is used four times in the New Testament. Jesus used it twice to describe tasteless salt. Paul used it twice to describe worldly wisdom that was foolishness. From Paul’s use we can understand that Jesus was saying that though the Church is scattered throughout the world like salt, the wisdom the Church shares is to be God’s wisdom, not the world’s wisdom.
Let me ask you this; when someone shares with you a problem or difficulty they are going through do you open your Bible and give them God’s wisdom or the wisdom you got from the internet, TV, YouTube, or whatever? Wisdom apart from God is foolishness. When you interact with people, does your interaction bring savor, healing, health, and preservation to their lives or foolishness? Here in the United States we are blessed with prosperity. Do we give thanks for what we have been given or think and talk like everything we have is a result of our effort and ability? Israel was prosperous as well which is why God told them that with their offerings of thanksgiving they were to season them with salt in Leviticus 2:13.
We live in a time when access to information abounds, but not all of that information is accurate or true, and much of the so called wisdom is not based on God’s Word but on the ever changing wisdom of the world.
Paul writes in Colossians 4:6, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” ESV
I’ll let Paul have the last word.
Pastor Dave