“IF SALT HAS LOST ITS’ TASTE” Thoughts from today’s Bible readings – Sept 21st
Jesus told his disciples, “You are the salt of the earth” [Matt 5 v.13]. We know that salt is invaluable to enhance the flavour of most foods, so the words of Jesus at the end of Luke ch. 14 today jumped out at us. ” “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. “
The next, and final words in our chapter are, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Today we could ‘translate’ that as, ‘He/she who has a mind to read, they must read and absorb the full meaning of what they read.
Our chapters in Ezekiel continue their dismal account of how God’s nation, in Ezekiel’s day, had completely lost their sense of spirituality – they had no “taste” for eternal matters. It is exactly the same today: such is the ungodliness in the world, it is beyond being restored: the only solution is for divine judgement!
And how awesome will that be!
We are in awe of the potential for some of the Bible passages which describe this to be frighteningly literal – from a human point of view. Ponder what Paul was inspired to tell the Thessalonians! The time will come “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction …” [2nd Thess. 1 v.7-9] But among the final verses in the Old Testament we read – “But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise…” [Mal. 4 v.2] Let us “fear” – that is, be in utter awe of what God must be!
Finally – back to our initial thoughts – we must heed the words of Jesus that come immediately before his words, “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste…” He had just said, ” any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” We must see other things in our lives as having no eternal value at all – they destroy the “taste” in whatever salt we have. Serving our Lord must dominate our thoughts – and resultant actions.