Salt - Glenn Conjurske
Salt
by Glenn Conjurske
Salt is used a number of times in the Bible as an emblem—-generally an emblem of holiness, but with various particular applications. Salt is not merely abstract holiness, but active or applied holiness. It is displayed holiness. Thus in general it represents the judgement of God, though in a particular application it may also represent a preservative against the judgement of God.
To begin with the latter, “Ye are the salt of the earth.” (Matt. 5:13). Salt it is which preserves the earth from the judgement of God which hangs heavy over it. I am aware of no better example of this than the dwelling of Lot in Sodom. God was purposed to destroy Sodom, and made known his purpose to Abraham. Abraham responds with “Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? … That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked, and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Gen. 18:23 & 25). The plain implication of this is that it would not be right for the Lord to destroy the righteous with the wicked, or to put no difference between them, and in this Abraham spoke the very truth. God therefore let him know that he would not destroy the righteous with the wicked—-would in fact spare the whole city for the presence in it of ten righteous souls. This plainly illustrates the preservative action of the salt.
But if God lets us know that he would not destroy the city, for the sake of ten righteous souls, the angel who came to destroy Sodom gives us a stronger statement still, affirming that he could not destroy the city for the presence of one. To Lot he says, “Haste thee, escape thither, for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither”—-till thou be come, that is, to Zoar, entirely beyond the reach of danger (Gen. 19:22). Thus was Lot “the salt of the earth”—-not by his preaching or testimony—-certainly not by “mingling with Society,” as modern Evangelicalism would have it—-but by his presence there. We are the salt of the earth, not of the world. It is our presence upon the earth which preserves it from judgement, however wicked the world around us may be. It is not by changing the world, or by saving it or improving it, that the salt preserves it from judgement, but by its presence upon the earth. And mark, Zoar itself was marked out for the general destruction which overtook Sodom and Gomorrah and all the cities of the plain. “Stay not in all the plain,” Lot was told. Yet he pled for Zoar, that he might flee there, and the angel told him, “See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city, for the which thou hast spoken.” (Gen. 19:21). Lot’s presence there preserved it. The fact is, Zoar was nothing changed, nothing improved, at the moment that Lot stepped within its borders—-not a whit better than it was when the judgement was purposed against it—-yet at that moment it became safe from the judgement which fell upon all the other cities of the plain.
Lot’s wife was turned to a pillar of salt—-a monument of the judgement of God—-for she was no doubt mingled indeed with that godless society, and could not bear to part with it. She no doubt loved the world, and “Where love is, there the eye is,” as the old proverb truly says. The eye follows the heart. Therefore she must look back, even in the very day of judgement, and even though she was solemnly warned against it, and therefore the judgement of God overtook her with the rest.
But the overthrow of the cities of the plain resulted in a more permanent monument of the judgement of God than this pillar of salt, namely the Salt Sea, which now lies where Sodom and Gomorrah once stood. And this sea is not only a monument of the judgement of God, but an emblem of it—-indeed, one of the most remarkable emblems in the Bible. The Jordan River represents death, and it flows without ceasing into the Salt Sea. Thus the very topography of “the holy land” bears witness continually that “it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgement.” And what a true and awful picture of that judgement do we see in the Salt Sea—-a sea from which there is no outlet, and in which there is no life. We call it the Dead Sea, but the Bible always calls it the Salt Sea. It is the Bible’s emblem of the final and irrevocable display of the holiness of God, in the second death.
But the servants of God are called to a display of holiness here and now. “Let your speech be always with grace,” says Paul, “seasoned with salt.” (Col. 4:6). While grace is mild and sweet and gentle, salt is pungent. It stings and bites. And while salt is intolerable as the main ingredient, the dish is also intolerable which contains no salt as a seasoning. “Take away the salt,” says an old Hebrew proverb, “and you may cast the meat to the dogs.” Nay, God himself says a stronger thing: “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.” (Matt. 5:13). It may not be necessary for every man to have exactly the same amount of salt in his speech, and it is a great matter to have the spiritual wisdom to mingle grace and salt in their proper proportions. Nevertheless, the testimony which contains little or nothing of the bite and sting and pungency of salt is good for nothing. “Reprove, rebuke, exhort,” says Paul (II Tim. 4:2). This is salt. Yet this is to be done “with all longsuffering.” This is grace. And again Paul says, “Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.” (I Tim. 5:20). This is salt. It is active holiness, holiness at work, holiness displayed.
It is salt which we see in the Lord Jesus Christ, our perfect pattern in all things, when he eight times pronounces woe upon the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23, repeatedly calling them hypocrites, blind guides, fools, serpents, and vipers. And all of this he spoke not in secret, but “to the multitude.” How many of those who call themselves the servants of this Christ today speak so? They may believe themselves called of God to preach and print, yet the fact is, they do not have it in them to speak as their Lord spoke. “Have salt in yourselves,” their Lord has told them (Mark 9:50), but they have it not—-not enough of it, at any rate, to make itself felt. They are soft and easy, fearing to give offense, and so failing to do the work of God. They would rather edify, as it is called. What they put forth is simply insipid. It contains nothing to convict and shame, nothing to offend, and so nothing to secure holiness. Can anyone imagine that the scribes and Pharisees were not offended at this biting discourse of the Lord? Salt does give offense, and there is no help for it, but it also convicts and shames, especially when it is mingled with grace, and so heals and saves. It was not with honey that Elisha healed the waters of Jericho, but with salt. (II Kings 2:19-22). Ere that “the water was naught, and the ground barren”—-a true enough picture of the ministry of saltless preachers and writers and editors, whose soft and sweet and tame and insipid stuff, if it does not leave folks in a worse state than it found them in, at any rate leaves them no better. To all such the Lord and Master says, “Have salt in yourselves.”
But observe, salt is not harshness, not coldness, not scolding and nagging, not vindictiveness. These, alas, too much characterize the ministry of some, but these are not salt, but pepper. These are not holiness, but unholiness. Though there is certainly a time for the display of indignation, yet the most scathing denunciations may be uttered with tenderness and tears—-and are more likely to be effectual if they are so.
I have often pictured the Lord Jesus preaching the woes of Matthew 23 with tears running down his cheeks, and a voice choked with emotion—-though I can also picture him uttering them with his eyes flashing fire. He may indeed have done both in the same discourse. Salt does not consist of harshness and belligerence, but of a firm, consistent, vigorous, and uncompromising stand against evil and error. This is what we see in the Lord Jesus Christ, who said concerning the world, “Me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.” (John 7:7). This we see in John the Baptist, in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and in Peter and Paul. Yet we know that Jeremiah and Paul, at any rate, preached with rivers of tears. Salt does not exclude love or tenderness, but that love and tenderness which exclude salt are only wood, hay, and stubble—-“good for nothing,” in the words of the Lord Jesus.
Glenn Conjurske