July 20, 2010
Expiration
I just purchased some iodized salt and the ‘best used by’ date on the bottom is June of 2015. Since believers are the ‘salt of the earth’, it gives me cause to wonder what my expiration date might be. I’d like to think it would be the date that will appear on my death certificate. However, Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.” (Matt 5:13 NIV) I suppose if you ever find yourself in a heap and walked on by men, then you can rightly conclude you’ve passed your best used by date.
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2 comments:
Gail;
-----My first inclination is to object that finding yourself in a heap and walked on by men indicates the loss of saltiness. Elijah ran to Mt. Horeb and hid in a cave after the people killed the prophets. Jezebel had trampled the message he delivered at Mt. Carmel where God consumed his water soaked offering, and so he had ran and hidden himself in a heap. Yet, after God had challenged his opinion of the situation, he got up and confronted Ahab again. Even though he was in a heap and walked upon, he was found to have not lost his saltiness.
-----But he had not remained trampled into a heap. If after God had split the rocks with a wind, rumbled the mountains with an earthquake, and struck up a fire, Elijah had refused the small voice and cowardly retreated back into the cave, then his trampled heap would certainly have been a verification of lost saltiness. In other words, the fact that Elijah took his salt off the market did not mean he had no salt to sell. Indeed, after the Lord changed his mind, he took that salt straight to Ahab.
-----Occasionally we see everything we thought to be solid as split in two, shaken up, and burned. We find ourselves in a heap and consider ourselves as having been trampled. But do we still have salt? If we do, God’s small voice will certainly follow, and it is by our saltiness that we will hear and obey. But if we do not have saltiness, whether or not His voice comes, we will not hear. Then as long as we continue to see ourselves in a trampled heap, we have no saltiness.
-----The fire which consumed Elijah’s offering was to convince the people to bring their salt out of hiding, and to forebode Baal’s prophets of their saltless doom. It was not a message for Elijah; he already knew. Neither was God’s voice to Elijah in the split rocks, the earthquake, or the fire, because Elijah knew God’s abilities. So the small voice was for Elijah. We also know God through Christ and have the guidance of His Spirit as the small voice calling out amongst our situations. When we have been disastrously thrown into a heap and trampled at the will of others or by our own, whether we deserved it or not, it is not the shock and horror of the situation we are to find. That is not God’s voice, and finding it is to the diminishment of our saltiness. So as long as we find ourselves trampled in a heap, we will continue to loose saltiness. Rather, those situations call for us to find God’s small voice by our salty stand regardless of circumstance. And it is when we find His voice instead of “situation” that we are found to be salty still.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
PS
-----The second sentence of the second paragraph will actually make sense when properly written as, "...had Elijah refused the small voice..." instead of, "...Elijah had refeused the small voice..."
Steve
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