Leviticus 2:11-16: a reflection

11“‘No meal offering which you shall offer to the LORD shall be made with yeast; for you shall burn no yeast, nor any honey, as an offering made by fire to the LORD. 12As an offering of first fruits you shall offer them to the LORD, but they shall not rise up as a pleasant aroma on the altar. 13Every offering of your meal offering you shall season with salt. You shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your meal offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt. 14“‘If you offer a meal offering of first fruits to the LORD, you shall offer for the meal offering of your first fruits fresh heads of grain parched with fire and crushed. 15You shall put oil on it and lay frankincense on it. It is a meal offering. 16The priest shall burn as its memorial part of its crushed grain and part of its oil, along with all its frankincense. It is an offering made by fire to the LORD.

Among the instructions for the grain offering is a small but meaningful requirement: Every offering of your grain offering you shall season with salt; you shall not let the salt of the covenant of your God be lacking. With all your offerings you shall offer salt. Salt was to accompany every offering, and it is called the salt of the covenant, a sign of the enduring, faithful bond between God and his people. The offerings were to be seasoned with the salt of covenant faithfulness.

Notice the significance attached to the salt. Salt preserves; it endures; it does not spoil or fade. And so it became a sign of the lasting, faithful covenant between God and his people, a bond meant to endure. Every offering was to carry this salt, as if to say that what is offered to God should be marked by the same enduring faithfulness that characterizes his covenant, not a fleeting or half-hearted thing, but seasoned with lasting commitment.

That speaks to the quality God desires in what we offer him, and in how we follow him. God is not after a fleeting enthusiasm that soon fades, but an enduring faithfulness, the salt of the covenant, that lasts. And Jesus told his followers, You are the salt of the earth, calling us to be a preserving, enduring presence in the world. Let your devotion to God be seasoned with the salt of lasting faithfulness, not a passing fervor that fades, but a durable commitment that endures. Offer God not the fleeting and half-hearted, but the faithful and lasting; and be, in the world, salt that preserves and endures, marked by the enduring faithfulness of the covenant God has made with you.

Lord, you required that every grain offering be seasoned with salt, the salt of the covenant, a sign of the enduring, faithful bond between you and your people; what was offered to you was to be marked by lasting faithfulness. Speak to me about the quality of what I offer you. You are not after a fleeting enthusiasm that soon fades, but an enduring faithfulness that lasts. And Jesus called me the salt of the earth, to be a preserving, enduring presence in the world. Let my devotion to you be seasoned with the salt of lasting faithfulness, not a passing fervor that fades, but a durable commitment that endures. Help me offer you not the fleeting and half-hearted, but the faithful and lasting; and help me be, in the world, salt that preserves and endures, marked by the enduring faithfulness of the covenant you have made with me. Make my commitment to you lasting, not fleeting.