The Salt Covenant (Covenant Relationship with each other and God)

"…all offerings must be seasoned with salt…"- Numbers 18:19

Today when we think of salt it is different from how people thought of salt in the Old Testament and even the New Testament. Today we go to the grocery store to purchase salt and it is fairly inexpensive, but in the OT Salt was worth more than money. Salt was highly prized for several reasons including bringing flavor to food and it was used as a preservative, but also purifies and even with some salt used in healing. It is important that although good covenants can lift one another bad one can do some damage if God is not doing the sealing of the Covenant. We all have the power to loose or bind His Spirit, covenant therefore with the wrong people can be harmful, so a great amount of caution and wisdom is required when entering into salt covenant one with the other. Most covenants are from God and His people, but the salt Covenant in the Old Testament was with two or more men. What changes things in the New Testament is that if we carry His Spirit and enter covenant with those not of His Spirit then the covenant is not godly, cause harm and bind God and His will. 

Salt is and was an important ingredient of life in the Old Testament according to Leviticus 2:13; Numbers 18:19, where it becomes part of Yahweh's or God's  Covenant with His people and was directed to be part of all the grain offerings in the Temple, which symbolizes the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament and the body in the New Testament. Salt because of its nature has the ability to drive off demons if we understand the Salt Covenant that we have with each other and God. Salt is not used by witches and is not served in the witches sabot, which is the root word for sabotage today. It is not the salt that is powerful but the Salt Covenant that God has with man if man walks in His precepts and ways. 

To enter into Salt Covenant with another as salt had a great deal of value both Spiritually and monetarily, men carried salt with them in a pouch and used it as money often. To enter into Salt Covenant with another was to pour the salt on a table or surface and the other in the covenant would do the same on top of the others salt and would mix the two's salt together. The point of the covenant was that you could not separate one persons salt from the other. They then often broke bread and dipped the bread in the salt and shared the bread symbolizing the bond that had been created between the two. It is important to note that the bread was unleavened, because if there is, but a little leaving it spoils the whole loaf and the covenant.  In looking first to the Old Testament we can see in the Tabernacle that there were twelve loaves of bread, one loaf representing each one of the twelve tribes and the bread was broken and the priests ate of the bread. In the New Testament we see that in the Lord's table, "My body is broken for you." We are the body the priests if we have been broken so we can love one another in covenant relationship with God and man. The covenant was a life time commitment of equality, transparency, holding nothing back from the other and that one would be there for the other at moments notice. It meant that they would be brothers to walk together in life being as one blood in agreement, in the good or the bad as their salt could not be separated. It also meant that they were equal one with the other. 

At the end they divided the salt and both took equal amounts of the salt and put it in their pouch. Mind you the covenant could only be made by two of God's people and it was not a thing of the flesh but a spiritual covenant not only with each other but with God, much like a marriage covenant between married people as they become one with each other in spirit. In either the marriage covenant or the salt covenant it is important those in the covenant are equally yoked or neither is likely to be in agreement. The only way people can really be in agreement on anything is because of the Spirit of God. God is the one who makes the bonds of God with man and each other. Covenants are about relationships with God and each other and representing His will one to the other. 

Today in the church we tend to go more for preaching and teaching and building buildings instead of walking in covenant relationship with Him or each other. II Samuel 7:5-7  "Go and tell My servant David, ‘Thus saith the LORD: Shalt thou build Me a house for Me to dwell in?  For I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle.  In all the places wherein I have walked with all the children of Israel, spoke I a word with any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to feed My people Israel, saying, "Why build ye not Me a house of cedar?"’ What is being said here is that God is saying to David that He does not dwell in building but He dwells in the hearts of men if we desire to walk with Him and His ways or covenants. Man's ways are to build buildings, God's way is to build people. We find in Ephesians that the five fold gift ministry was created and designed by God to edify or build the body and each member. Jesus said that His house was a house of prayer. In prayer we are not really to seek stuff but to seek Him and desire to walk with Him. He knows that we have needs. Simply put the more time we spend seeking Him and walking with Him the less preaching and teaching there will be or will be needed and the more we will become like Him, but also understand the more we become like Him the more we will love others including our neighbor. It is the only way to love Him and each other, by walking with Him so He will dwell with us and we with Him.

If we are to be Godly and do what God desired and to have His heart, we also need to understand that God's greatest desire is to walk with each one of us in life. God is not about teaching and preaching but about love and unity and caring for Him and each other. God created man in His own image and with His own will so man could or would choose to walk with God. We should want to walk with God out of love, but being that God is everything it is also for provision and safety. When relationships or covenants are formed in marriage or salt around God these covenants are all as eternal as God is. The only way anyone of us is able to walk with each other or Him in agreement is because of Him if we are focused on Him. 

When the marriage covenant is reduced to just the flesh and is not a spiritual union then anyone can bring the two together and the marriage either will not last or they will never be in agreement or love. With God's way one ordained of God can represent God and seal the union in the Spirit between the two and they become one flesh. The Salt Covenant is much the same in that the two become one in Him and because they are in Him they can walk with each other in life. The Salt Covenant should be how the body is with each member of the body, not just with Him and us as individuals but with Him and each of us so we all can walk together and be in agreement in love and unity, which is not about teaching and preaching or building buildings but about walking with each other, caring for each other and each others needs. Can one deny himself or herself food or love? No, of course not and if we are one with the other neither should we. 

In scripture we are to be the salt of the earth (Mat.5:13) bringing two things, flavor (Job 6:6),  but also the Divine as salt was a symbol of purity in God's power and Holiness  (Ezk.16:4) and (Mark 9:50), not willing to accept false anything, but only stand love and unity in Truth. Salt represents Truth and while we as flesh cannot live without salt, neither can the Spirit in us live without Truth. Deprivation of either salt or Truth and people go insane. Salt is essential for the brain to function properly. To break Salt Covenant with each other as they were both God's people was to no longer desire truth or unity with the other or God. We look at the marriage covenant and although in the New Testament there are possible reasons for divorce, but it is not God's will. God's will is to forgive and for both to be closer to Him. 

Salt can be dissolved in water, but the salt still remains, much like a true believer can be in the world yet not of the world in how the world operates (Jam.6:13). In addition salt when exposed to extreme heat does not stop being salt as the real believer will not loose its flavor if subject to the fires of life (Mat.5:13; Mar.9:49-50; Luk.14:34). It should also be noted that salt was created by extreme pressure in the earth and so are true believers as they are put into the fires of life often so they can grow and become stronger and we will survive if we stand in Truth, love and unity. What we do to each other in the covenant we do to Him, good or bad and all people that are in Salt Covenant are VERY dependent on each other and God to even get through the fires of life.