The Art & Vital Importance of Being Salt & Light
SALT—used to season food (Job 6:6), and mixed with the fodder of cattle (Isa. 30:24, “clean;” in marg. of R.V. “salted”). All meat-offerings were seasoned with salt (Lev. 2:13). To eat salt with one is to partake of his hospitality, to derive subsistence from him; and hence he who did so was bound to look after his host’s interests (Ezra 4:14, “We have maintenance from the king’s palace;” A.V. marg., “We are salted with the salt of the palace;” R.V., “We eat the salt of the palace”).
A “covenant of salt” (Num. 18:19; 2 Chr. 13:5) was a covenant of perpetual obligation. New-born children were rubbed with salt (Ezek. 16:4). Disciples are likened unto salt, with reference to its cleansing and preserving uses (Matt. 5:13). When Abimelech took the city of Shechem, he sowed the place with salt, that it might always remain a barren soil
Salt is one of the most common substances on the earth and cannot be destroyed by fire or time. Also known as “white gold,” it is one of the most significant substances in history, along with iron, gold, and wheat. In ancient societies it was a valuable social and economic commodity
Sharing salt was a symbol of friendship and hospitality, and ancient conflicts concluded with a meal consisting of bread and salt as a symbol of friendship (Aristotle, Eudemian Ethics 7.2.46; Cicero, Treatise of Friendship 19.67). One who violated the eating of salt was a traitor (Demosthenes, On the Embassy 191). Salt was also viewed as a divine gift (Plutarch, Symposium 5.10.2; Homer, Iliad 9.214).
The biblical writings attest to various uses of salt and a variety of symbols associated with salt. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew term “salt” (מֶלַח, melach) occurs 22 times as a noun, four times as a verb, and four times as an adjective.
Salt as a Symbol of Life
In the biblical world, salt was associated with life due to its uses as a preservative, a purifying agent, and a seasoning. Many of the symbols attached to salt reflect its practical uses. For example, because salt can delay the rotting or decaying process when rubbed into meat, it is a symbol of incorruptibility. Salt was also a symbol of provision, and eating someone’s “bread and salt” left the eater obligated to the giver (Ezra 4:14). Other practical uses of salt attested in the ancient world include:
• purifying agent—ancient peoples rubbed babies with salt at birth (Ezek 16:4), and the prophet Elisha used salt to purify a polluted spring (2 Kgs 2:19–22);
• seasoning for food (Job 6:6–7; compare Isa 30:24)—tasteless salt was worthless and thrown out (Matt 5:13; Luke 14:34);
• fertilizer (Latham, Religious Symbolism, 204);
• facilitator for the burning of dung.
Salt as a Symbol for Death
Despite salt’s practical uses, too much salt can lead to death. For example, land that has too high of a salt content, such as salt flats, marshes, or pits, is typically incapable of producing good crops and thus unproductive and uninhabitable. Victorious armies in ancient times would sometimes use salt to render land infertile (Judg 9:45; Zeph 2:9; compare Deut 29:23
The Bible picks up on the destructive properties of salt in its associations of salt with barrenness, judgment, and disobedience. For example:
• Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt for her disobedience and became a monument to God’s wrath (Gen 19:26).
• Deuteronomy associates disobedience with salted land (e.g., Deut 29:16–28; see also Psa 107:34).
• Wisdom literature and the Prophets use terms like “salt” and “salty” synonymously with “barren” (Job 39:6; Jer 17:6; Zeph 2:9).
• Jeremiah contrasts those who have been blessed in the covenant with the cursed, who inhabit a salt land (Jer 17:6–8).
• Ezekiel prophesies that in the age to come, the water of the Dead Sea will be made fresh even though its swamps will remain salty (Ezek 47:9, 11).
• James associates fresh water with blessing and salt water with cursing (Jas 3:9–12; compare Ezek 47:7–9).
• Wisdom of Solomon sees the salty area around the Dead Sea as evidence of human impurity and sin (Wisdom 10:7).
It is possible that the association of salt with judgment for disobedience might also symbolize ritual cleansing, a break from the past, and the opportunity to move forward (compare 2 Kgs 2:20–21).
Salt and the Sacrifices
The “salt of the covenant” was an added element in several of the sacrifices (Ezek 43:24; e.g., the grain offering, Lev 2:13; compare Josephus, Antiquities 3.9.1; Jubilees 21:11; Testament of Levi 9:14) and an ingredient in the incense offered in the tabernacle. It served as a symbol of purity (Exod 30:35; compare Col 4:6; Sirach 49:1; compare Homer, Iliad ix.214). Salt was one of the temple supplies the people were instructed to provide the priests (Ezra 6:9; 7:22). Jewish believers still dip the weekly Sabbath bread in salt.
Light was the first thing God created after the heavens and earth (Gn 1:3). God also made individual lights such as the sun, moon, and stars (Gn 1:16).
Light symbolizes the blessing of the Lord. Job said, “He uncovers the deeps out of darkness, and brings deep darkness to light” (Jb 12:22). In his time of trouble Job recalled the days when God’s “lamp shone upon my head, and by his light I walked through darkness” (Jb 29:3)
The psalmist counted it a blessing when God himself lighted his lamp (Pss 18:28; 118:27; cf. 97:11; 112:4). In Proverbs, “The light of the righteous rejoices, but the lamp of the wicked will be put out” (13:9).
Light is closely linked with God; indeed, God can be said to be light: “The Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory” (Is 60:19).
The psalmist exulted, “The Lord is my light and my salvation,” and proceeded to ask, “whom shall I fear?” (27:1). God is said to be robed with light (Ps 104:2) and light dwells with him (Dn 2:22)
Darkness is no problem to God; darkness and light are alike to him (Ps 139:12)
The prophet Micah expressed his confidence in terms of light: “Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.… He will bring me forth to the light; I shall behold his deliverance” (Mi 7:8, 9)
A king is sometimes identified with light. Thus when the Israelites decided that King David should no longer risk his life on the battlefield they said, “You shall no more go out with us to battle, lest you quench the lamp of Israel” (2 Sm 21:17). This metaphor is carried on with God’s promise that David would continue to have a “light” in Jerusalem, which meant that the whole kingdom would not go with Jeroboam (1 Kgs 11:36; cf. 2 Kgs 8:19; 2 Chr 21:7). The king was regarded as the source of illumination for his people, and there may also be some thought that a descendant of David on his throne brings glory to that great king
Those who walk in the light of God’s countenance are blessed (Ps 89:15)
An extension of the Lord’s blessing is the light God gives to the world through his servants (Is 42:6; 49:6). God’s servants can guide others to the revelation and blessing of God.
Light is associated with justice when the Lord says, “A law will go forth from me, and my justice for a light to the peoples” (Is 51:4
Sometimes light is connected with good behavior: “The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day” (Prv 4:18)
“For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light” (Prv 6:23). In the case of Daniel, light is joined with “understanding and wisdom” to indicate how Daniel surpassed all the Babylonian wise men (Dn 5:11, 14). It is a perversion that regards darkness as light and light as darkness (Is 5:20; cf. Jb 17:12).
The OT uses the absence of light as a synonym for disaster. There are those who “grope in the dark without light” (Jb 12:25). Bildad saw the light of the wicked put out in punishment and death (Jb 18:5–17). The wicked will be “thrust from light into darkness, and driven out of the world” (Jb 18:18). In the aftermath of the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem was the lament, “He has driven and brought me into darkness without any light” (Lam 3:2).
