“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.” Matthew 5:13.
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16.
“Little children, guard yourselves from idols.” 1 John 5:21.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
The teaching of My Son that He preached to His disciples on the mountainside is a sermon of seeing with the heart. And today we will continue on to the next part of the sermon on the mount that comes after the beatitudes, which we now finished with our last Life Lesson. The next part is about the role of My followers, My children, in bringing My glory, which is My goodness, My presence, and My Power, to earth.
My glory is what lights the Kingdom of Heaven. I want you to shine that light in the earth but letting out what I have lit in your spirit when you were born again from the imperishable seed of My Word, which is the Word of faith. “For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” 2 Corinthians 4:6.
First, My Son likens His followers to salt in the earth. “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.” Matthew 5:13. Why salt? And if you are offering the world My Word, the gospel of your salvation in Jesus, the gospel of the Kingdom, and I have enabled you to do the works of Jesus and greater, how could you go flat?
First think about salt, it has healing value, it has value as a preservative keeping meat from spoiling and poisoning the eater, and it adds flavor to bland food. Do you recall the words of Job? “Can something tasteless be eaten without salt, or is there any taste in the white of an egg?” Job 6:6.
Salt mixed with water is commonly used in wound care as it creates conditions that make it difficult for bacteria to grow, therefore preventing wound infection. It is also used in water to gargle and even currently, a concentrated form of salt water, called saline, is often used in medicine for cleansing of incisions during surgeries. Salt water cleans and promotes healing by osmosis. The chemical comprising salt – sodium chloride – forces the liquid in cells to move out of the body when it comes in contact with them. If those liquids are bacterial, they’ll be forced out too, effectively helping cleanse the skin. This process, which is effectively dehydration of damaged cells, is considered antibacterial and, by virtue, anti-inflammatory.
Your presence and teaching, your very lives who are members of the Body of Christ, bring cleansing and freedom from sin. Contact with you should force out sickness, sin, and evil.
If you recall salt was part of every offering that was presented to Me under the Old Covenant as I instructed Moses, “Every grain offering of yours, moreover, you shall season with salt, so that the salt of the covenant of your God shall not be lacking from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.” Leviticus 2:13. And again, when speaking of the allotment to the Levites, I told them “All the offerings of the holy gifts, which the sons of Israel offer to the LORD, I have given to you and your sons and your daughters with you, as a perpetual allotment. It is an everlasting covenant of salt before the LORD to you and your descendants with you.” Numbers 18:19.
The Levites were to be the preachers, teachers, and keepers of My Word and of the sacrifices of atonement for the sin of the people and for their own sins as well. They were the salt to My people. To them I entrusted the cleansing and healing for those with leprosy and other uncleanness. They were the ones who preserved and kept the Word fresh before the eyes of the people so they could have lives of freshness and flavor. But there is more to this.
After Israel and Judah split, when the salt became flat in Solomon’s later years by his turning to idol worship and leading the people there, I will get back to that in a moment, when Abijah became king, Jeroboam, the king of Israel whose salt had also become flat by turning from Me to idols and leading the people in idol worship as well (from which they did not break away to return to Me and finally were taken out by the Assyrians, never to return, and their place trampled underfoot), entered into battle with Judah with 800,000 men while Abijah brought the army of Judah which consisted of 400,000 men. Abijah stood upon the mountain and spoke to Jeroboam and the people of Israel who had come against their own brothers in war, saying: “Listen to me, Jeroboam and all Israel: Do you not know that the LORD God of Israel gave the rule over Israel forever to David and his sons by a covenant of salt? 2 Chronicles 13:4-5. A covenant of salt. And he spoke further explaining, “So now you intend to resist the kingdom of the LORD through the sons of David, being a great multitude and having with you the golden calves which Jeroboam made for gods for you. Have you not driven out the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron and the Levites, and made for yourselves priests like the peoples of other lands? But as for us, the LORD is our God, and we have not forsaken Him; and the sons of Aaron are ministering to the LORD as priests, and the Levites attend to their work. Every morning and evening they burn to the LORD burnt offerings and fragrant incense, and the showbread is set on the clean table, and the golden lampstand with its lamps is ready to light every evening; for we keep the charge of the LORD our God, but you have forsaken Him. Now behold, God is with us at our head and His priests with the signal trumpets to sound the alarm against you. O sons of Israel, do not fight against the LORD God of your fathers, for you will not succeed.” 2 Chronicles 8-12. Do you recall the silver trumpets the priests were to blow to alert Me to come to fight for My people? Numbers 10.
But Jeroboam did not listen, but instead set an ambush to come from the rear, so that Israel was in front of Judah and the ambush was behind them. When Judah turned around, behold, they were attacked both front and rear; so they cried to Me, and the priests blew the two silver trumpets and raised the shout, a war cry, and I routed Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. Thus the sons of Israel were subdued at that time, and the sons of Judah conquered because they trusted in Me, the God of their fathers. Abijah pursued Jeroboam and captured from him several cities, Bethel with its villages, Jeshanah with its villages and Ephron with its villages.” 2 Chronicles 13:14-19.
And you beginning to see how salt can go flat? By turning away from Me and My Word to the idols of the unbelievers. Do you recall reading what Paul wrote to Timothy? “Make every effort to come to me quickly, because Demas, in his love of this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.” 2 Timothy 4:9-10.
You who have My Word and have Jesus are the salt of the earth, how would that salt go flat and be thrown out and trampled underfoot? If your heart turns away to idols. Which can be money, lust, and the thorns and traps of the world the flesh and the devil. You are no longer cleansing out the toxins but letting them flow in. Your salt has become contaminated.
Let us look at salt that went flat and was thrown out and trampled underfoot. Adam is the first example. He was walking in the abundance and the blessing, commanding and ruling over the works of My hands and his heart turned away from Me and My Word and went to another “god” and focused only on his wants, needs, and his own glory, and he was thrown out of Eden and instead of him trampling on the devil underfoot, the devil trampled him underfoot and chained him in the curse and toilsome labor like a slave. He went from ruler to a slave to evil. His salt went flat and his light went out, at least it went to a very dim flicker. The spirit of a man is the lamp of the LORD searching out the innermost parts. His spirit died to Me and became alive to sin.
Look at Saul, he was anointed king and was head and shoulders above all the others in Israel. And he began as a victorious and respected king, bringing righteousness and justice to Israel. And then his eyes turned away from Me to self-glory and he made an idol of himself and became filled with jealousy for the good in David and his salt went flat and he led Israel into killing My priests and consulting mediums and witchcraft. He was thrown out and trampled under foot by the enemy, which of course, under the façade of the Philistines, was Satan.
Solomon was the wisest and richest man that ever lived and had the brightest and most prosperous kingdom in the world at that time. Kings and queens of nations came to hear his wisdom and behold the wonders he had built. They brought him treasures that increased the wealth of Israel. He had peace on every side and the people of Israel were prosperous. But then his heart turned away from Me to the foreign wives that he took in disobedience to My Word and commands, and he built altars on high places to their “gods” and offered sacrifice to them. His salt became flat and his life vanity. He no longer sought My fellowship or worshipped Me. He, in his first love for Me, wrote, “But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day.” Proverbs 4:18. But after turning his heart away from Me to idols he wrote, “I became great and increased more than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. My wisdom also stood by me. All that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart was pleased because of all my labor and this was my reward for all my labor. Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 2:9-11. He had been salt to Israel but now he went flat and he led Israel in the sin of idol worship. The light of Israel’s golden era did not grow brighter it became to flicker under the bushel basket and go out.
I had called them to be a light to the nations, like the golden lampstand, but now the wicks were not being lit any longer.
How did that happen? It all began by a slip into sin. David saw a woman named Bathsheba bathing in her roof garden and committed adultery and then had her husband killed, whose name was Uriah, which means the Light of the LORD, and the light began to dim in Israel. His sons rebelled, Absalom was killed in his rebellion to take the kingdom, and David lost heart and took to his bed and Solomon sought power and finally murdered the sons of David that were in his way. But he at that time had a heart to live My Word and keep My laws as David had and sought for wisdom from Me and a hearing heart. And I gave him a hundredfold in every area of his life and in the kingdom.
But he gave in to Satan and followed the lusts of his flesh and turned away from Me to idols and after that began a chain reaction of a nation who had been so with Me to a people stout against Me. Why? He had broken the covenant of salt I made with David.
As David’s time to die drew near, he charged Solomon his son, saying, “I am going the way of all the earth. Be strong, therefore, and show yourself a man. Keep the charge of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His ordinances, and His testimonies, according to what is written in the Law of Moses, that you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn, so that the Lord may carry out His promise which He spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your sons are careful of their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’” 1 Kings 2:1-4.
Solomon’s sins with idols divided Israel and Judah. But now the people had tasted the debased styles of idol worship and Israel, led by rulers from the tribes of Ephraim and Dan, became only idol worshippers and forsook Me totally. The rulers made the salt go flat among the peoples of Israel so that despite the warnings of My prophets Elijah and Elisha they refused to leave their idols, eventually causing them all to be thrown off the land by their abominations and trampled underfoot in the nations never to return. And in the book of Revelation in the tribulation period in the tribes to be saved, who are the lights and evangelizers of those years when the church has been caught up already, you will find the tribes of Ephraim and Dan are missing from the roster of twelve tribes being replaced by Joseph and Levi. Revelation 7:4-8.
The sins of Judah in turning to idols would fluctuate depending on the heart of the descendant of David that reigned over them. Kings who had hearts fully turned to Me such as Jehoshaphat and Hezekiah kept the salt and the light burning in Judah but finally all that came were kings that did evil in My sight who would not even listen to prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, but instead killed them. Till they were thrown out by the land to Babylon. But then the salt of Daniel and Esther and Nehemiah and Ezra opened the way for them to miraculously come back and build the temple again.
But then the light waned and the salt went flat at the time of Jesus when the Pharisees led the people away from the truth of My Word and the long awaited Messiah. They opened the door to the enemy army of the Gentiles who threw them out to all the nations and trampled My land underfoot. The Jewish leaders had failed to recognize the time of their visitation. The Light of the world came to them but they put it in a tomb. “And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” Luke 21:24.
But how can you get the salt salty again? Resurrection power. Israel was born again in one day on May 14, 1948 and the scattered salt that had been flat returned to Israel and the land bloomed again. “Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons.” Isaiah 66:7-9.
And think about Judas Iscariot. Judas was one of the twelve disciples. He was salt. But his salt became flat. How? The idol of money and the hurt pride of offense. He stole from the common purse of the disciples and Jesus and when Jesus rebuked him for his criticism of the woman who anointed the feet of Jesus with costly perfume, he immediately went to betray Jesus. Like King Saul his salt went flat seeking personal ambition and power. His love for his master was gone. He called Jesus “teacher,” when all the other disciples called Him “Lord,” on the night he betrayed Jesus at the Passover meal.
“For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.” Hebrews 6:4-8.
And yet if Judas had repented and waited a few days, he would have come back forgiven and made new by resurrection power. But it all looked lost to him. Jesus was gone and he had done it. He could not get over it. He judged and condemned himself before Jesus had borne the sin and released him with resurrection power.
Now, Peter’s salt also went flat the night of the arrest of Jesus in the garden, from fervent zeal to fearful denial. But he waited a few days and I raised Jesus from the dead and Jesus went to Peter separately and brought him back with resurrection power from flat salt to fresh, tasty salt. And Peter never lost his saltiness again. Everything he said or did was seasoned with salt.
“Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.” Colossians 4:6.
“For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you season it again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” Mark 9:49-50.
You are salt and you are light. Both speak of healing (laser light is used in surgery like a scalpel, used to heal and regenerate, and to take off tattoos and birthmarks, cleansed in light), cleansing, preserving, renewing, and restoring. Walking in the light you will not stumble. Light drives away darkness. You have been rescued from the realm of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of My beloved Son who is the Light of the world and that Light is the life of men. I have called you out of darkness into My own marvelous light and I ask you to let that light shine in the dark world. Do not hide and bury your talents, put them on the lampstand for all to be bathed in that light. Be the good and faithful servant who invests your talents and doubles them. How about returns them to Me a hundredfold? I will tell you more about this another time.
I love you. “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.” Matthew 5:13. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16. I have lit your lamp, let it shine. And don’t leave your first love for Me, never let it get stale because of the cares and attractions of the world, stay salty.
Now do you understand why John, the apostle of love and light, ends his first letter to you cautioning, “Little children, guard yourselves from idols.” 1 John 5:21.
For You light my lamp; the LORD my God illumines my darkness. For by You I can run upon a troop; and by my God I can leap over a wall. Psalm 18:28-29.