[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Friday, July 25, 2014

[Paul]

Hello and good Friday once again to most of you, although as this is being written it's Saturday for those of you in the Land Down Under and in Kiwi Country.  I hope that you're making plans to do what you do for the weekend.  I sure am.

We all know about a certain mineral and additive known as salt.  Well, Sonia Randall, a writer from Oregon, is going to tell us some things about salt that we didn't know, or at least I didn't.  Here is her article entitled "Salt of the Earth," rendered as follows:

Salt.  You put it on your french fries.  It comes on chips and pretzels and makes everything taste better.  You probably think you already know all about it.  It preserves food and makes things taste better.  What else is there to know?

Salt has been one of God's most precious gifts since ancient times.  Medieval rulers considered it "white gold." In the Mediterranean, people used salt cakes as currency.  In some places it was traded--ounce for ounce--for gold.  Many trading routes in southern Europe centered around the salt trade.

Salt was important to the ancient Hebrews too.  It was essential to preserve meat in the hot climate, but Leviticus 2:13 says God instructed them to use it with all their sacrifices.  They had a ready supply of it on the southern shores of the Dead Sea, then called the Salt Sea.  Numbers 18:19 tells us tells us that the term "covenant of salt" referred to the bond of love between God and God's people.  Elisha purified spring water with salt (2 Kings 2:21).

When they were rebuilding the temple, King Artaxerxes ordered ordered that the Jews be given as much salt as they wanted, along with other building supplies (see Ezra 7:21-22).

Even Jesus referred to this precious commodity in Matthew 5:13, "You are the salt of the earth"--a phrase still used today to refer to people who are unusually good and admirable.

Other ancient peoples considered salt a symbol of the binding relationship between one person and another.  Friends who ate bread and salt together committed themselves to unbreakable friendship.  In medieval times, to eat the king's salt was to owe him complete loyalty.  At banquets a bowl of salt was placed in the middle of a long table.  Those seated "above the salt" or closer to the host were highly honored guests.  Less honored guests were seated "below the salt," another phrase still used today.

Evaporation of sea water is the oldest and cheapest method for obtaining salt.  It is called solar salt.  Another type called rock salt is obtained from underground deposits where ancient seas have dried up.  The ancient Chinese, who valued salt highly, were the first to develop elaborate mining methods to recover rock salt.  They developed a deep drilling technique which is regarded as one of ancient China's greatest innovations.  Mining became an important industry wherever salt was available.  This deep drilling also helped increase knowledge about the geologic layers inside the earth.

As more salt was produced, God showed people more uses for it.  It is now involved in the production of dyes, soap, glass, pottery, paper, plastics, pesticides, cleaning fluids, and antifreeze.

Salt is the only mineral we add to our foods for flavoring.  Even the biblical Job exclaimed "Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt?" (Job 6:6a).

In ancient times it was used to preserve food but now it has more applications than any other mineral.  God's covenant of salt is still a blessing.

And there you have Sonia's article which I hope proved of interest to some, if not all, of you.

Several other things of interest are worth noting about salt.  In the United States, there are at least two Salt Rivers, in Kentucky (near Elizabethtown) and Arizona.  And we can't forget Utah's Great Salt Lake.  In Austria there is a city not far from Munich, Germany called Salzburg, "Salt Town," located on the banks of the River Salzach.  And I'm sure that if one researched a bit more he/she could find out more info about this mineral.  Oh yes, there's also a town in southwestern Virginia about 15 miles from Bristol called Saltville which literally came into existence because of the trace in, what else?, salt.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Lord willing, tomorrow there will be another Daily Thought article for you.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul