{"id":5545,"date":"2014-07-16T00:05:07","date_gmt":"2014-07-16T07:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=5545"},"modified":"2014-07-15T15:34:44","modified_gmt":"2014-07-15T22:34:44","slug":"salt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2014\/07\/16\/salt\/","title":{"rendered":"Salt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Then the men of the city said to Elisha, \u201cBehold now, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad and the land is unfruitful.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said, \u201cBring me a new jar, and put salt in it.\u201d So they brought it to him. <\/p>\n

He went out to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, \u201cThus says the LORD, \u2018I have purified these waters; there shall not be from there death or unfruitfulness any longer.\u2019 \u201d <\/p>\n

So the waters have been purified to this day, according to the word of Elisha which he spoke. Then he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up by the way, young lads came out from the city and mocked him and said to him, \u201cGo up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead!\u201d <\/p>\n

When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two lads of their number. He went from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria. 2 Kings 2:19-22)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is always something to complain about. The sun is shining, but the crops are withering. It\u2019s raining, but the picnic is spoiled. Elisha had became the chief prophet in Israel after Elijah had gone to heaven in a chariot. People came to him with their problems and questions, seeking answers from God. One day he visited a city where conditions were good\u2014but they pointed out that their water supply was bad, rendering their land unproductive. Elisha responded by asking them to bring him a new jar filled with salt.<\/p>\n

Why salt? Is salt a way to fix a bad spring? Was Elisha a chemist who realized that the spring of water was missing a certain ingredient? No. He told the people that it is God who purified the waters. God fixed the problem. The salt was symbolic, a picture to make it clear that something had happened, that God had intervened. Salt was used for preserving meat and adding flavor to what otherwise might be unpalatable. It was a symbol of purification. All grain offerings were required to have salt in them (Leviticus 2:13). A covenant of salt (Numbers 18:19) was an indissoluble covenant. Thus, the salt also signified that the water of the spring would remain good from that day forward. They needn\u2019t fear that if they planted crops that the water wouldn\u2019t be there for them.<\/p>\n

Later, set upon by a mob cursing and mocking him, Elisha asked God to curse them. So God did: forty two youths in the mob were attacked by bears. God protects his people; they have no reason to be afraid. It is only their enemies who should be afraid. Was the city\u2019s bad water or the insulting youths major problems? Probably not. God solves the problems, not because of their size, but simply because they are ours. That\u2019s how much we matter to God.<\/p>\n

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Then the men of the city said to Elisha, \u201cBehold now, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad and the land is unfruitful.\u201d He said, \u201cBring me a new jar, and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5545"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5548,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545\/revisions\/5548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}