“Season every one of your grain offerings with salt. Do not let the salt of the covenant of your God be missing from your grain offering; offer salt with every offering you bring.” – Leviticus 2:13
In the Old Testament, we see different kinds of offerings: burnt offerings, guilt offerings, grain offerings such as the one mentioned in the verse above, and others described mainly in Exodus and Leviticus. In this verse, we notice a particular requirement for the offerings: SALT must not be missing.
Everything God commanded concerning the tabernacle also has a spiritual meaning. Today, after Jesus’ perfect sacrifice for us, we no longer need to sacrifice animals to have our sins forgiven. We are cleansed by the blood of Jesus when we confess our sins and repent. God’s Word also says that we need to be a living sacrifice to him. Knowing this and reading the verse above, I realised that I cannot simply offer myself to God in just any way. THERE HAS TO BE SALT.
Did you know that, as well as flavouring food, salt can preserve and purify it? Research this mineral a little, and you will discover how many things it can do. But I want to mention one particular example: salt can be used to fertilise the soil and prevent decay. This immediately reminds us that Jesus called us the salt of the earth and explains why he emphasised that it must retain its flavour. Salt that has lost its flavour cannot purify the earth; it can do nothing.
If salt needs its flavour to be everything it is and to do everything it does, then someone who says they belong to God and do things for God likewise needs holiness. In other words, offering yourself to God is of no use if you lack holiness. Holiness makes the difference. The salt in the offerings symbolised purification and God’s covenant with his people – a holy people, set apart for him.
“Without holiness, no one will see the Lord.” – Hebrews 12:14b
What a revelation! How can someone who is impure bring purification? The Lord counts on us to make a difference through our sanctification to him. This does not mean that you will never make another mistake; if you do sin, you have an advocate. But it does mean that you need to remain on this continual path of sanctification, refusing to settle into complacency or become friends with things and practices God detests.
“Therefore, brothers and sisters, I appeal to you by God’s compassion: present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your reasonable worship.” – Romans 12:1
May you, as a worshipper, intercessor and child of God, be encouraged to pursue holiness and give up everything that contaminates you. For a child of God who lives in holiness is an offering that pleases God.
Pray with me:
“Lord, forgive me for the times I did things for you while there were areas of sin in my life, without repentance and without truly seeking transformation. I know that it is the blood of Jesus, which forgives and washes me, that makes me accepted as your child. But often I continued in sin, and the blood of Jesus had not cleansed me because my sin was still active and had not yet become a dead work. Forgive me for my hypocrisy: for all the times I knew what was right and did not do it, and for all the times I preached and demanded what was right from others while I was not living it myself. Transform me into the salt of the earth. May I always be a child who walks in holiness and can therefore make a difference in this dirty, flavourless world. Help me to be humble, confessing my sins when I go wrong and not turning back on my journey, because I am not justified by myself but by Jesus. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
Pastor Andressa Priscila Baumgartner
