Gospel Of Isaiah

 “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to Me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, My steadfast, sure love for David.” - Isaiah 55: 1 - 3 ESV

Isaiah son of Amoz is often thought of as the greatest of the writing prophets. His name means “The Lord saves.” He was a contemporary of Amos, Hosea and Micah, beginning his ministry in 740 B.C, the year King Uzziah died. Isaiah wrote during the stormy period marking the expansion of the Assyrian empire and the decline of Israel. He warned Judah that her sin would bring captivity at the hands of Babylon. Although the fall of Jerusalem would not take place until 586 B.C, Isaiah forth tells the destruction of Judah and proceeds to predict the restoration of the people from captivity. God would redeem his people from Babylon just as He rescued them from Egypt, a deliverance that prefigured the greater salvation from sin through Christ.

Chapters 55 - 57 of Isaiah are often referred to as the Gospel of Isaiah. Why? Because they bring a message of love. A message of hope. A message promising a future. Even as we ponder on this portion today, I submit to you that there is nothing more misunderstood than the Gospel of Christ. Because the magnanimity of the meaning of the word gospel itself is misunderstood.

You see, we’ve over thousands of years reduced the gospel to be about everything from a mere insurance policy post death to a magic mantra that gives us everything we want in this life. Yet, no matter what we believe the gospel to be, at the heart of our struggles to understand and make sense of the Gospel is one question - what does it take for God to love His people / His creation? The answer I would like to submit to you is - Nothing! You heard me right - it is Nothing!

Let’s examine these verses to understand as to why that is the case. Let’s start with the seeming paradox in these verses. 

Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Come buy without cost this verse tells us. What is to buy without cost? I mean if it’s free, it’s there for the taking right? Not exactly. For nothing is ever truly free.

Seneca the Younger, a Roman philosopher who lived during Christ time on earth is known to have said, “Our stupidity may be clearly proven by the fact that we hold that “buying” refers only to the objects for which we pay cash, and we regard as free gifts the things for which we spend our very selves….we are eager to attain them at the cost of anxiety, of danger, and of lost honour, personal freedom, and time; so true it is that each man regards nothing as cheaper than himself.” From this piece of wisdom my dear brothers and sisters stems the modern day idiom - “There is no free lunch!” 

You see, Seneca articulated what most of us unwillingly accept in our everyday lives - that we can’t get something for nothing. At the very least we end up giving up ourselves or our souls in return for the thing we would deem free. Yet, from God’s perspective, that is the highest price to pay. Why are we so willing to part with the most significant piece of us? Because we’re trying to fill a gap, a hole in us, a thirst.

We try everything in life to quench our thirst, our longing, to find satisfaction. We try to find it in our careers, our pursuits of knowledge, our personal relationships, our belongings, wealth, power, glory. Yet we feel empty. We feel something missing. We try to immerse ourselves in other ways to fill our emptiness, we try to dissuade our senses with drugs, alcohol, we surround ourselves with people who mean nothing and we only perpetuate our empty condition, if anything, making it worse! We find that through it all Life is Vanity, Not Profitable, Unnecessarily Busy, Vexing the Human Spirit, all ending up in Death. The worst part is despite knowing this truth, we continue to perpetuate this cycle; as if refusing to acknowledge it would somehow change things for us.

It was hence, 350 years after Christ, Augustine wrote, “For Thou hast formed us for Thyselves and our hearts are restless, till they find rest in Thee.” 

This bring us to the next part of this scripture portion which reads,

Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.

One of my favourite books of the Bible is Ecclesiastes. Because, the whole message of Ecclesiastes is to point people back to God. Just like the prophets did. Just like our Lord Jesus did. Jesus used the culture and traditions of His time, of water being used during rituals in the feast of Tabernacles to tell people that If anyone thirsts, they should go to him and drink, referring to John 7: 37. Jesus was in essence giving meaning to the very portion we’re dealing with today.

During the 17th century, Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician, scientist and inventor wrote in his book Pensees, “What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.” This statement gave rise to the popular expression, “The God shaped hole in your heart that only God can fill.” He wrote to people who were thirsty, who were empty and whom he knew were struggling with God at an intellectual level, pointing them back to God and telling them that only God could fill their emptiness; very much like Ecclesiastes does.

Which then leads us on to our 3rd verse:

Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.

In verse 3, God tells us what the reality is behind all this imagery in the previous 2 verses.

In verse 1, we’re told to, “Come to the waters . . . come, buy wine and milk.” In verse 3, God  explains, “Come to me.” Because God is our living water. God is our nourishing milk. God is our exhilarating wine. 

It is hence the Psalmist would write, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:25–26; 42:1–2; 63:1–3).

But we can be even more specific. He goes on to say in verse 3 that when we come to Him, He makes a covenant with us. What kind of covenant? The same kind of covenant that he made with King David in 2 Samuel 7 — a covenant of “steadfast, sure love.” This means that, when you come to God, He binds himself by an unbreakable oath to pursue you with goodness and mercy all your days right into eternity — with ever-refreshing water, and ever-strengthening milk, and ever-exhilarating wine, forever and ever!

Which brings us to a practical question - Is God’s love for us conditional or unconditional? The answer is yes, it is both.

Buddha is famously known to have said to his disciples as he died, to continue ‘Striving without Ceasing.’ Strive for what? For peace, for tranquility, for Nirvana and to reach the ultimate form of life; where one would finally be accepted into the Supreme Consciousness. In stark contrast, Jesus would say, “It is finished!” You see, on the Cross, Jesus fulfilled the conditions for us to have God’s love unconditionally. And hence verse 1 tells us to buy without cost.

Amazing paradox in the imagery in this portion. It is expensive to Jesus, but free to you. Jesus saying, “It is finished!” is to say that He has traversed every inch of the infinite distance between God and us. There’s nothing left for us to do but to admit… that you need what He has done. To admit that we are that sinful, that we’re that lost and yet we can be that loved. You see, our pride won’t admit that free love is possible. Because we innately understand that nothing is free. So, we’re suspicious of even this invitation of free love that God is willing to give us. 

Yet, if we realize that, God’s act on the Cross and our admittance in submission is the biggest cost we have to bear, hearing God’s voice then transforms us from slaves into children and our duty becomes a choice. It’s in knowing that this love was expensive for God so that it could be made free for us, that we understand that this love is conditional and yet unconditional. It is therefore that we’re to buy at no cost; for He bought it for us. So now, we continue buying for the cost He has already paid.

And this my dear brothers and sisters is the heart of the gospel. What do I need to attain God’s love? Have Nothing! All we need is need! All we need is nothing! That we have nothing! We need to be willing to accept that we can’t earn God’s love. But therein lies the problem. Most people don’t have nothing. We’re still attempting to buy spiritual blessings with our earthly possessions. We can’t see beyond what we can qualify / quantify and even without realizing it, we try to propagate a gospel that couldn’t be farther away from the heart of what God intended. As a result, we attempt to buy God’s love by doing things or be a particular way.

We come to God with all our baggage, refusing to let go of our pride, our egos, our heads crowded with our thoughts on how our lives should be, what God owes us, our wants, our struggles, our passions, our failures and our disappointments in Him; instead of just coming to Him to enjoy His love. Our hands, our minds and our lives are so full, we have no place to receive the blessings He has to give us.

Though we’re called to just come and enjoy, we find even that task too much to bear, because to start with most times; we fail to even just show up - without nothing! 

Reminds me of the words of the beautiful hymn, Just As I Am, Without One Plea:

Stanza 1 reads

Just as I am, without one plea,

but that thy blood was shed for me,

and that thou bidst me come to thee,

O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Stanza 3 reads

Just as I am, though tossed about

with many a conflict, many a doubt,

fightings and fears within, without,

O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Stanza 6 reads

Just as I am, thou wilt receive,

wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;

because thy promise I believe,

O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

The gospel my dear brothers and sisters is much more than a post death insurance policy for another world or even a mantra to get all we want in this life. The gospel calls us to seek to live out the gospel daily as local covenanted communities of disciples, make more disciples, and serve our neighbors. In doing so, we confront the kingdom of darkness and extend God’s rule in our lives, communities, and nations. May we take up our cross and imitate our King and make all nations imitate him.

Imagine with me, schools, farms, government, companies, entertainment houses, etc., are filled with disciples who understand and live out the gospel. We are called to serve our King in all spheres of culture and life so that people and the patterns of the former kingdom of darkness are transformed into the patterns of the kingdom of light. (Romans 1:1,2)

Therefore we’re reminded by these scripture portion today to do 4 things:

1. Come,
2. Buy without Cost,
3. Eat and Drink,
4. Enjoy.

Now, each of us is somewhere in the space of one of these four steps outlined earlier. In response to what we’re called to do by these verses, we need to examine our hearts and our lives:

1. If you don’t know God or are distant from God, you need to come, draw near.
2. If you have drawn near in recent days or just this morning, but hold back from any transaction analyzing and appraising, you need to buy. I admit it is a strange transaction: there is no price and you are spiritually bankrupt. But you must take this water and milk and wine, and count it yours just as much as if you had bought it, for there is one who has bought it on your behalf.
3. If you have made the transaction and hold the water and milk and wine in your hand, you need to eat. God is a person to be experienced. He is food and life and joy for the soul.
4. Finally, if you have eaten, delight yourself in the Lord. And say with the psalmist, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).

Painting Courtesy: Unknown Artist

Evangelism In Times Of The Coronavirus

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” - Jeremiah 31: 31 - 34 ESV

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” - Hebrews 8: 8 - 12 ESV

In case you are wondering, no, i didn’t make a mistake and paste the same portion twice over. What we see here is that Hebrews 8 quotes Jeremiah 31 - almost word for word.

Now, what strikes me as fascinating is not the fact that the latter of these two books of the Bible quotes the former despite them being written almost 700 years apart (Jeremiah being between 670 BC to 540 BC and Hebrews in the 1st century, after Christ’s death). Rather, I would like us to draw our attention to the fact that in Jeremiah 31:31-34 we find what many scholars will call the most signficant prophecy of the Old Testament. It is the only reference to a "new covenant" in the Old Testament, and is no doubt the most significant of Jeremiah's prophetic utterances. By stating that the Lord God will write His law on the heart of the individual, this passage finds its fulfillment only in the true believer in Jesus Christ and His covenant with sinful humankind. To give some context to Jeremiah, the words are addressed to a people in exile, far from home and bereft of hope. The covenant between God and Israel, the covenant made so long ago at Sinai, is broken. God has not protected Israel from harm and they have been taken into exile. Into such a situation, the prophet Jeremiah speaks words of promise. But he frames those promises in terms of the very relationship in question. The prophet speaks of a covenant -- like the one made at Sinai -- between Yahweh and Israel. He points people to the truth that God will not forget God's promises made so long ago at Sinai: "I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God." (Exodus 29:45; cf. Exodus 6:7 ESV) "And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people." (Leviticus 26:12 ESV) As such, in this new covenant, God promises, "And I will be their God, and they shall be my people." (Jeremiah 31:33 ESV). The relationship is not new. Israel knows this God, and God knows these people. The promises Jeremiah speaks build on a long and shared history between Yahweh and Israel, a history marked by wavering on the part of the people and by faithfulness on the part of Yahweh. God continues to love this wayward people; they continue to be God's treasured possession. The Old Testament bears witness to the fact that the first set of stone tablets was broken (Exodus 32:19), the second set written again (Exodus 34:1) and hidden away in the Ark of the Covenant (Deuteronomy 10:5). The book of the law, containing the stipulations of the covenant, likewise was stored beside the Ark (Deuteronomy 31:24-26) and mostly forgotten until it was rediscovered in the reign of King Josiah (2 Kings 22), in the early days of Jeremiah's prophetic career. Unlike the old covenant, however, written on stone tablets that can be broken and scrolls that can be lost, the new covenant will be written within the people, on their very hearts. No need for remedial religious education, because everyone will know Yahweh, from the king to the stable boy, from the oldest elder to the youngest child. "For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." - Jeremiah 31: 34 ESV. The people have not demonstrated a great aptitude for faithfulness during the many years of the old covenant, so this time Yahweh will do it differently. This time, the covenant relies solely on His mercy, His ever-present grace in forgiving disobedient people and calling them back into relationship with him.

How will it come to pass? I would like to submit to you that it will be through you and me! This will come to pass as you and me go about propagating the gospel like our master commanded us to in Matthew 28; yes even in times of the Coronavirus. Why? Because we are ‘Covenanted to Engage’ under this new covenant.

We are living through a unique, era-defining period. Many of our old certainties have gone, whatever our view of the world and whatever our beliefs. Whether you are a Christian or not, the Coronavirus pandemic is perplexing and unsettling for all of us. How do we begin to think it through and cope with it? In times of crisis, meaning, purpose and hope is what we look for. So, yes, we should be focused on evangelism especially in times such as this. In a New York Times article on March 10, 2020, Italian journalist Mattia Ferraresi wrote: “Holy water is not a hand sanitizer and prayer is not a vaccine….” When life seems predictable and under control, it is easy to put off asking the big questions, or to be satisfied with simplistic answers. But life is not that way right now—not for any of us. It is not surprising that, whatever your faith or belief system, the big questions of life are breaking through to the surface, demanding attention. Coronavirus confronts us all with the problem of pain and suffering. This, for most of us, is one of life’s hardest problems. Experience rightly makes us suspicious of simplistic answers and facile attempts to come to terms with it. It is therefore I believe that we each need to make sense of Coronavirus in three different ways: intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. All are important—and together they present a formidable challenge to anyone who seeks answers to dealing with the Coronavirus pandemic and in turn the God shaped hole in them as Pascal would put it. In his new book Coronavirus and Christ, John Piper writes: “God’s all-knowing, all governing sovereignty over all things will keep us from jumping to the conclusion that God’s fingers in the Coronavirus discredit His holiness or righteousness or goodness. We will not be so naïve as to equate human suffering with divine unrighteousness. Or to conclude that God has ceased to be holy or good when He governs His world. Make no mistake, our God is sovereign even over the Coronavirus. Make no mistake, the Coronavirus was sent by God. It is a bitter season. And God ordained it. God governs it. He will end it. No part of it is outside His sway. Life and death are in His hand.” Job is known to have said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21 ESV) The Lord gave. And the Lord took. The Lord took Job’s ten children. Spiritually, we often forget that in the presence of God, no one has a right to life. Every breath we take is a gift of grace. Every heartbeat, undeserved. Life and death are finally in the hands of God. It is hence Dueteronomy 32: 39 ESV reminds us, “See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.” So, since nothing surprises Him, confuses Him, or baffles Him, His infinite power rests in the hands of infinite holiness and righteousness and goodness—and wisdom. And all of that stands in the service of those who trust His Son, Jesus Christ. And what God did in sending Jesus to die for sinners has everything to do with the Coronavirus. How, you ask? The connection is seen in Romans 8:32 ESV: “He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will he not also with Him graciously give us all things?” This means that God’s willingness to send His Son to be crucified in our place is His declaration and validation that He will use all His sovereignty to “give us all things.” It is guaranteed by the blood of His Son. And what are these “all things”? They are the things we need to do His will, glorify His name, and make it safely into His joyful presence. Three verses later, Paul explains how it works in real life—in the time of the Coronavirus. What does it look like when God’s infinite, blood-certified commitment to give us “all things” meets the Coronavirus? Here’s what he says: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. (Rom. 8:35–37 ESV) Emotionally, we are to remember that Jesus expresses the sweetness of God’s sovereignty for His disciples as beautifully as anyone: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Matt. 10:29–31 ESV) Not one sparrow falls but by God’s plan. Not one virus moves but by God’s plan. This is meticulous sovereignty. And what does Jesus say next? Three things: You are of more value than many sparrows. The hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not. Why not? Because God’s meticulous sovereignty— whether we live or die—serves His holiness and righteousness and goodness and wisdom. In Christ we are not His dispensable pawns. We are His valued children. Intellectually therefore, we are to remind ourselves that knowing the same sovereignty that could stop the Coronavirus, yet doesn’t, is the very sovereignty that sustains our soul in the midst of the crisis. And not only sustains, but sees to it that everything, bitter and sweet, works together for our good—the good of those who love God and are called in Christ (Rom. 8:28–30) I would like to submit to you that if we can internalize these truths Intellectually, Emotionally and Spiritually, at such a time as this, when the world longs for meaning, purpose and a hope, we are called to stand and show the way. And in doing so, we would be fulfilling our God given purpose of bringing the nations to Him - all so that His law shall be written on their hearts, towards ensuring His Kingdom come, His will be done! To this extent we would do well to remember that our job here is not to Imagine, like John Lennon’s famous song; how beautiful the world would be without the Coronavirus now. Lennon tells us to imagine that there’s no heaven, no hell, but only sky. And then he says that such imagining is easy. Just try. Right. It is easy. Way too easy. The Coronavirus demands hard reality, not easy imaginings. God and His word are the reality we need—the Rock under our feet.

The last question that then needs answering for us is what God is doing through the Coronavirus? John Piper writes about the same:

1. God is giving the world in the Coronavirus outbreak, as in all other calamities, a physical picture of the moral horror and spiritual ugliness of God-belittling sin.
2. Many people will be infected with the Coronavirus as a specific judgment from God because of their sinful attitudes and actions and some others for reasons we cannot fathom.
3. The Coronavirus is a God-given wake-up call to be ready for the second coming of Christ.
4. The Coronavirus is God’s thunderclap call for all of us to repent and realign our lives with the infinite worth of Christ.
5. The Coronavirus is God’s call to His people to overcome self-pity and fear, and with courageous joy, to do the good works of love that glorify God.
6. In the Coronavirus God is loosening the roots of settled Christians, all over the world, to make them free for something new and radical and to send them with the gospel of Christ to the unreached peoples of the world.

Even as the world imagines and struggles to make sense of the situation and tries to find meaning, purpose and hope, we’re called with dependence on the Holy Spirit, to discern which gospel metaphors people need to hear most. We must communicate a believable gospel, especially in times such as these:

• To those searching for acceptance in all the wrong places, we can point them to perfect acceptance in the gospel of justification.
• To those searching for fulfilling relationships, we can point them to profound, personal union with Christ.
• To those who struggle with tolerance, we can show them the uniqueness of Christ in the gospel of redemption.
• To those who fear disapproval or demand the applause of others, we can share the gospel of adoption, which offers an enduring approval and produces humble confidence.
• To those in abject physical need, we must share our physical blessings and through it our hope in Christ alone.
• To anyone longing for a new start, there is the hope of new creation.

Yes, now more than ever we need to mobilize ourselves to evangelize the world! Let’s pray!

Painting Courtesy: https://www.catherinetimotei.com/

References from:

1. https://www.preceptaustin.org/jeremiah_31_commentary
2. https://www.abideinchrist.com/messages/jer31v31.html
3. https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1089
4. https://www.rzim.org/read/rzim-global/where-is-god-in-a-coronavirus-world
5. Coronavirus and Christ: John Piper - https://document.desiringgod.org/coronavirus-and-christ-en.pdf?ts=1586278809
6. https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/how-to-share-a-believable-gospel

Covenant of Salt

You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt. - Lev. 2: 13 (ESV)

Before we get into the core of this verse, let us understand the grain offering. The grain offering (also called the meal offering or cereal offering) was one of the main offerings presented by the Jews in worship to the Lord. It was formally instituted in Leviticus 2 for use in the Jewish tabernacle. It would later be practiced in the Jewish temple as well.

In Leviticus 2, the teaching regarding the grain offering includes four main sections: the uncooked offerings (Leviticus 2:1-3), the cooked grain offerings (Leviticus 2:4-10), the ingredients involved (Leviticus 2:11-13), and the grain offerings given as first fruits (Leviticus 2:14-16). Unlike the burnt offering (Leviticus 1), the grain offering did not include meat. Therefore, it did not include blood. Also, since it originated in the wilderness years in the desert, the grain offering likely was relatively uncommon and may have involved offering grain seeds rather than mature grain.

The grain offering also differed from the burnt offering in other significant ways. For example, only a portion of the grain was burned. The priests could use the rest for food. The opposite was true of the burnt offering in which only a small portion could be kept to eat. Also, while the burnt offering was for atonement of sin, the grain offering's focus was worship. A person could add grain to it to varying degrees. 

Another important aspect of the grain offering was that it had to be pure. No leaven (yeast) or honey could be added to the grain. Both would cause the grain to decompose faster. Oil and frankincense were also to be added, ingredients often associated with joy or celebration. Salt was also included.

The reason for the salt is what we’ll be focusing on today. More specifically as many of your bibles might read today, the covenant of salt is what we’re interested in understanding. Though it is used only three times in Scripture, it has great significance to the believer in Christ today. 

The first time this phrase is found is in Leviticus 2:13 where the order of the words is “salt of the covenant.”  The context of this passage is the grain offering, which was to have salt added to it.  But the Spirit didn’t stop with just the grain offerings.  He had Moses write in the same verse that the Israelites were to “add salt to all your offerings.”  Thus, all offerings made by the Israelites to the Lord, not just grain offerings, were to have salt added to them. Notice here that the offerings were to be seasoned with salt, which is identified as the salt of the covenant.

The second usage, found in Numbers 18:19, is also in the context of offerings.  This time, however, the word order is “covenant of salt”.  In Numbers 18, the Lord tells Moses to instruct Aaron and the Levites that it is their responsibility to take care of the Tabernacle.  Moses was also to let them know that all the holy offerings the Israelites gave to the Lord back,  He would give to Aaron and his sons as their portion and regular share. This was their allotment, as they were not going to receive any inheritance in the Land because God was their inheritance.  All the offerings, except for the burnt offerings, belonged to them.  God was letting them know that He Himself was going to provide for them through the offerings given by the people.  “All the holy contributions that the people of Israel present to the Lord I give to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. It is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord for you and for your offspring with you.” - Num. 18: 19 (ESV). The priests were to serve God and trust Him for their livelihoods and they could base their trust on this covenant of salt.

The last time the phrase is found is in 2 Chronicles 13:5.  In this particular passage the Lord gave the kingship of Israel to David and his descendants forever through a “covenant of salt.”  

So, what does this covenant of salt mean? It is biblical phrase for a two-way agreement, the inviolability of which was symbolized by salt. An Ancient Middle Eastern saying, “There is bread and salt between us,” meant that a relationship had been confirmed by sharing a meal. Salt symbolized the life and enduring nature of the alliance. In the OT salt appears in the relationship between God and Israel. As a purifying agent and preservative in the cereal offering, salt symbolized the indissoluble nature of the covenant between God and Israel. 

As salt was regarded as a necessary ingredient of the daily food, and so of all sacrifices offered to The Lord(Lev 2:13), it became an easy step to the very close connection between salt and covenant-making. When men ate together they became friends. Therefore the Arabic expressions, "There is salt between us"; "He has eaten of my salt," which means partaking of hospitality which cemented friendship. This is the context of "eat the salt of the palace" in Ezra 4:14. In the Ancient Near Eastern part of the world, covenants were generally confirmed by sacrificial meals and salt was always present. Since salt is also a preservative, it would easily become symbolic of an enduring covenant. So offerings to God were to be by a statute forever, "a covenant of salt for ever before the Lord" (Num 18:19). David received his kingdom forever from the Lord by a "covenant of salt" (2 Chron 13:5). But this phrase is not only used in the Middle Eastern part of the world. This is the most likely origin of the hindi phrase ‘namak haraam’ (generally used in the context of one who has betrayed) or one who has been unfaithful to the salt eaten together. This same sort of context is found all across the Eastern part of the world, because this context of salt was used in place of verbal agreements. India and the North East is no exception. In the Rongmei tribe of North East India, there is a concept of ‘Tsagoitai’, wherein two parties trying to reach a settlement after a disagreement would negotiate and then the guilty party would give the other salt in order to acknowledge that they are wrong and they have now reached a peaceful settlement. In the context of Nagaland, India, the land for Patkai Christian College was negotiated over a deal with the village elders of Chumukedima and to seal the deal, the college founders gave the village elders a bag of salt and a rooster. You yourselves might be familiar with similar practises of salt and food being used to come to an agreement in your context and upbringing.

Why is this salt so important to people of that time? There is a book written on it. Salt: A World History. The author chronicles how salt was the root cause for wars waged and agreements made; in short how salt was influential in shaping the history of the world. For our understanding, let's remember this was around 3,000 years ago. Salt was like gold, rare and only for the wealthy. This was the reason why when the British made salt even more inaccessible to the common man, Gandhi led the salt march to Dandi to give the common person access to salt. For traders, salt was used to pay wages for a long time. 

Salt was carried by many travelers. They each had a pouch containing salt. When two travelers came into agreement on something, they'd seal the agreement with an exchange of salt. I give you a pinch of mine, you give me a pinch of yours, and we both place that salt in our pouches. It implies that for either of us to break the agreement, we'd have to find the salt that was given and return it to take back our agreement. Or, in other words, it was a lasting agreement since it was going to be next impossible to segregate the salt that belongs to you in the pouch. 

What is God trying to say with the use of salt? God is using like He always does, our cultural context and limited understanding to explain things to us. God is saying that He wanted us to exchange salt with us. That God wanted to enter into an everlasting agreement with us. God provides the salt from the earth and we exchange it with Him in an offering, thus sealing an agreement. The terms of the agreement are simple. He will be our God and we will keep our trust in Him and depend on Him. Why? Because we have exchanged salt!

I want you to understand the implications of this statement. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” - Rom. 5: 8 (ESV) We may have walked away from God, but He still kept up His part of the covenant of salt He made with us aeons ago. He had no need to make a covenant with us in the first place. He is God. But the continued motif of God doing His part to make Himself available to us is very clear. We his creation are to choose to return to Him and submit ourselves whole. Despite Him being more than able to control us as robots, He will not. He would rather use reason, intellect, emotions and conversations to draw us to Him. Why? Because He is the God of Amazing Grace. God’s tenderness and compassion avalanche upon us from the peaks of his steadfast love and mercy.

Perhaps a quote from the French philosopher Blaise Pascal will put things in their proper context: “To make a man a saint, grace is absolutely necessary and whoever doubts it, does not know what a saint is or what a man is.” Why? Because every saint was once a sinner and every man has a future in the Lord Jesus. Let us make no mistake Church. If we are able to partake of God’s eternal blessings for us, it is purely because of His grace. In his devotional about the same, while meditating on Lev. 2: 13, Richard Hawker wrote in The Poor Man's Morning Portion, “Ponder over these words, my soul; and looking up for grace, and the divine teachings, see whether Jesus is not sweetly typified here. Was not Jesus the whole sum and substance of every offering under the law? The Holy Ghost taught the church this, when he said the law was a shadow of good things to come, but the body is of Christ. And did not the church, by faith, behold him as the Salt which seasoned and made savory the whole? Moreover, as all the sacrifices were wholly directed to typify Him who knew no sin, but became sin for his people, the seasoning the sacrifice with salt, which was also a type of Christ’s purity and sinlessness, became a sweet representation to denote that the sinner, when he came with his offering, came by faith; to intimate that he looked for acceptance in the Lord as his sacrifice, and for preservation in the salt of his grace, in Christ Jesus. And who then, among believers now, would ever approach without an eye to Jesus, and the seasoning with this salt all his poor offerings. Lord, grant that the Salt of the covenant of my God may never be lacking; for where Jesus is not, there can be no acceptance. Lord, let me have this Salt in myself, and may every renewed presentation of myself be there salted. Then shall I be as the salt of the earth, amidst not only the putrefactions of the world, but the corruptions of my own heart. Lord, say to us, and impart the blessing of thyself in saying it, Have salt in yourselves; and then shall we have peace with thee and with one another.” In those last few words, Hawker is actually referring to Mark 9:50 (ESV), “Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

It is therefore we celebrate this covenant of salt that the Lord shared with us. That in the light of this salt, we might stand strong no matter what. Because He is our God and He has not forgotten us, despite us constantly forgetting Him. Even when we rebel and sin, like each one of us seated here has, He grants us grace and how it abounds! He seeks us and keeps us, for all He wants of us. It is in remembrance of this grace and the duty it behooves us to remember that we are Covenanted to Engage. We're to engage the world around us with the truth of Christ.

I’ll end with this true story. A boy was born in 1725. The only godly influence in his life was his mother, whom he had for only seven years. When she died, his father remarried, sent him to a strict military school. The boy rebelled and ran away at the age of ten. A year later, he renounced school forever and became a seaman apprentice. He hoped to step into his father's trade and learn to navigate a ship. Gradually, he gave himself over to the everything else other than God. He did that until he entered the military service, where discipline kept he in check. Still, he rebelled. His spirit would not break, and he became increasingly more and a rebel.

He despised so many things in the military that he finally deserted, only to be captured and beaten publicly several times. After enduring the punishment, he again fled. He entertained thoughts of suicide on his way to Africa, the place he could get farthest from anyone that knew him. 

Somehow, through a process of events, he met a Portuguese slave trader and lived in his home. His wife hated the boy, now a young man. She beat him, and made him eat like a dog on the floor of the home. If he refused, she would whip him with a lash. He fled penniless, with only the clothes on his back, to the shoreline of Africa where he built a fire and attracted a ship that was passing by. The skipper was surprised to learn that he was a skilled navigator. He lived on board for a long period of time. It was a slave ship; it was not uncommon for as many as six hundred Africans to be in the hold of the ship, being taken to America.

He went through all sorts of narrow escapes with death only a hair breath away on a number of occasions. One time he opened some crates of rum and got everybody on the crew drunk. The skipper, incensed with his actions, beat him, threw him down below, and he lived on stale bread and sour vegetables for weeks. He brought the young man above to beat him again, and he fell overboard. He couldn't swim so he harpooned the young man to get him back on the ship. He lived with the scar in his side, big enough for anyone to put a fist into, until the day of his death.

On board, he was inflamed with fever. He was enraged with humiliation. A storm broke out, and he wound up again in the hold of the ship. To keep the ship afloat, he worked alone as a servant of the slaves. There, bruised and confused, bleeding, diseased, he was the epitome of the degenerate man.

Remembering the words of his mother, he cried out to God, calling upon His grace and mercy to deliver him. The only glimmer of light he found was in a crack in the ship in the floor above him, and he looked up to it and screamed for help. God heard him. 

Thirty-one years passed, He gave up his former lifestyle and married his childhood sweetheart. He entered the ministry. In every place that he served, rooms had to be added to the building to handle the crowds that came to hear the Gospel that was presented and the story of God's grace in his life. He died in 1807 and the tombstone above reads:

Born 1725, died 1807. A clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he once long labored to destroy. He decided before his death to put his life's story in verse. This person was John Newton and that has become this song we love, Amazing Grace.

Let us pay attention to the fact that we are sinners who God calls saints and that we are so only because of His grace, because of the covenant of salt that He chose to share with us. Let us remember therefore that we are called to be the salt of the earth, for we are made whole only due to this covenant of salt that keeps God’s faithfulness in our lives. Let our lives be a song for His glory, for He who saved us deserves much better than who we are. I say this to you even as i ponder as did A C Craig on the fact that, “The paradox of the pulpit is that its occupant is a sinner whose chief right to be there is his perpetual sense that he has no right to be there, and is there only by grace and always under a spotlight of divine judgment.” 

Painting courtesy: Alicia Ludwig https://mojarto.com/prints/ludwig-alicia/seeing-blue-ii-227362