You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It is good for nothing anymore, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. Matthew 5:13 What does it mean to be salt? In biblical lands all contracts were sealed by salt covenants. Salt is a stable element; it does not break down. Dried meats and fish were therefore stored in salt. Salt became one of the most important symbols of biblical culture. It came to stand for God's own fidelity, His steadfastness, His reliability and trustworthiness.

In the markets of those days, there were no fixed prices. Each morning people brought their goods to the village square, laid them out and began to call out their wares, like circus barkers do today. But no one would pay the first stated price - they had to haggle back and forth until agreement could be reached. That was hot work. Enterprising boys sold water and grape juice (there being no fountains or Coke machines). This is what Isaiah 55:1a is talking about when it says, "Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters."

The boys also called out, "buy wine and milk" (emphasis mine - wine in this instance meant grape juice). But why milk? If, for instance, a man sold a camel but didn't have it with him, and the buyer didn't have the money with him, they would go to the boy who sold milk, which was actually buttermilk, and drink some together because there was salt in the buttermilk. That was an act of taking a "covenant of salt." Both believed that if they did not do as they promised, God would destroy them. Keeping a salt covenant was of highest priority. Men were afraid to break such a covenant.

Remember that when Abraham's servant was sent to find a wife for Isaac and found Rebekah, he would not eat until the ketura (the bride price) had been agreed upon. Eating a meal would then seal the marriage contract with a salt covenant because there would be salt in the food (Genesis 24:33).

Most married readers have placed a piece of cake in their spouse's mouth during the reception ceremony. Today we follow the custom but have lost the meaning. That act was as important as the entire wedding ceremony! The couple was entering into a salt covenant, meaning they were saying that if they break their vows to one another, let God destroy them! Today we have become flippant; we'll try marriage, and if it doesn't work we'll bail out. How extremely dangerous before God! We don't know what we are doing.

But the couple placed the cake in each other's mouths. To put something into the mouth ceremonially was to place it into the soul. Speaking of his repenting David said, "For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping." (Psalm 102:9). He literally put ashes on his forehead, chest and tongue. That was the custom that signified he was repenting with his mind, heart and soul. At the beginning of a banquet, the host would tear off a piece of bread, dip it in a drink, and put that sop into the honored guest's mouth. That said, "I honor you with a salt covenant in which I promise to protect your soul from now on." When His disciples asked who would betray Him, Jesus answered, "That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him. So when He had dipped the morsel, He took it and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot" (John 13:26).

That is the gracious loving nature of our Lord Jesus Christ, promising on a covenant of salt to protect from now on the soul of the very one who was about to betray him! Judas failed to avail himself of the promise; he hung himself, but Jesus' promise demonstrated the wondrous grace of our God. How little we have understood the marvelous significance of our reception custom! When we put that cake into our new spouse's mouth, we are promising, on a covenant of salt, to protect his or her soul, from then on - forever!

Colossians 4:6 says, "Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were, with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person." That calls upon us always to "Say what you mean and mean what you say," as my father used to drill into me. We are the salt of the earth; our words must never fall to the ground. God wants a people on whom He can depend to be true in every moment, a salty people whose integrity never wavers.

But what if salt has lost its savor? Salt blocks were purchased from salt mines. When all the good salt had been picked out, only pebbles and sand remained. Or, later on, a somewhat more refined salt would be kept in wooden kegs, sitting on blocks of stone on the kitchen floor. Servants would slosh watery mops across the floor, cleaning. Water would slosh up against the salt keg, seeping through to ruin the bottom layers. The ruined salt would then be scraped off. In both cases the worthless salt would be thrown onto the street, literally trodden under foot by men. When we lose our salt, and man can no longer trust us, transactions fail, and we are very really "trodden under foot." When we lose our trustworthiness, our salt is ruined. How shall it be restored? By repentance and prayer, but especially through the eucharist. When we receive His body in communion, we have received His salt into us. His blood washes us clean, but His body restores our salt. Jesus knew we would often falter along the way. Therefore He taught us to pray in repentance and for forgiveness, and He gave us the sacrament of communion, that our salt may be restored to us.

The call upon us? Keep your salt! Be steadfast. Be trustworthy. What you say you will do, do at any cost. God wants a people true to Him in every moment, at all times. Keep the covenant you made with your beloved.

Be true. Be salt.