Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

We take salt for granted because it is both abundant and available.

This has not always been the case for Americans.

Back in 1778 the salt supply began to run short in Boonsbourogh.

This was a serious problem, for the pioneers needed salt to cure their meat and hides, and they also considered it one of their few pleasures among their many hardships.

They had to make their own salt by filling large kettles with salt water, and boiling it down.

It was an enormous job, for it took 840 gallons of water to get a bushel of salt.

That bushel was very precious, and worth a cow and a half.

Daniel Boon use to make his own salt like this, and not only was it hard work, it was dangerous.

The springs, called salt licks, where they got the water were always risky places to be.

The Indians kept an eye on them for taking scalps, and white hunters kept an eye on them for game.

Boon had to take a large armed party with him to get the water, for without a show of force you could easily lose your life in your search for salt.

We cannot really conceive of the price men have paid to get salt.

The risk and the labor they endured is foreign to us.

We flop down a little change, and we are set for weeks, and even months with our salt supply.

It is beyond us to imagine ever needing to pray for salt.

In our culture we often need to pray for help to leave it alone, for it can create high blood pressure, and other health problems.

But this has not been the case for all believers in all cultures.

A missionary family in the Congo, many years back, used salt in trading with the natives.

The natives just loved it, and would make good trades for it.

But they ran out before the next shipment arrived, and were really feeling the loss.

Their health was even being affected.

They prayed that somehow they could get a supply of salt.

They never dreamed how God might answer such a prayer.

A white man who lived alone in the Congo wanted to give the daughter of the missionary a gift.

The nearest toy store was a thousand miles away, so he decided to make her a doll.

It was a Raggedy Ann type doll, and she so loved that gift she hugged it and squeezed it until one day the insides began to leak out.

They discovered it was stuffed with salt.

The whole family was so grateful they knelt on the floor and thanked God for their salt-baby.

It was a precious gift to them all.

It was a gift better than money to them, but salt and money do have something in common.

They have both been used to pay men for their labor and service.

In Roman times salt rations were part of the Roman soldiers pay.

It was very important to them, and revolts were threatened when salt was not received.

Can you imagine going on strike because your company did not supply you with salt?

You can if you realize the word salary means

salt money.

The saying, a man is not worth his salt, comes from ancient times, and means he is not worth what he is being paid.

Salt cakes have been used for money in Tibet, Abyssinia, and China once ranked it next to gold in value.

Salt has been like money because salt has always been of great value to man.

Man is a mammal, and all mammals are salt craving creatures by God's design.

We have all watched monkeys search through each others hair and pick out something, and then eat it.

Most of us have assumed they were finding fleas, or lice, but Zoology experts tell us they are searching for salt.

Salt exudes from the pores, and remains on loose bits of skin.

It is these salty chunks of skin they are looking for.

Much like humans digging into their bag of chips, the monkeys are enjoying a salty snack.

Salt is a necessity in the mammal diet, and where salt is lacking animals have been known to journey hundreds of miles to get to a salt spring to satisfy their need.

Salt has played a major role in the history of man.

A Latin proverb says, "Nothing is more useful than the sun and salt."

Tacitus, the Roman historian, tells us that during the reign of Nero two German tribes fought a war for the control of an area that produced salt in abundance.

We need to see salt from this historical perspective so we can see, that for most believers in history, when Jesus said, you are the salt of the earth, they would hear this as Jesus saying, you are a vital and valuable part of the whole earthly system.

Jesus left the church in the world to have an influence on it, and to make a world of difference in it.

As the salt of the earth, and the light of the world, Jesus expected His followers to have an impact on every aspect of human history.

One of the great values of a liberal arts education is that it makes you aware that the expectation of Jesus was fulfilled.

Christians have penetrated every field of human knowledge, and have had an influence on its development.

God likes salt.

That sounds strange to our ears, but it is a Biblical fact.

We read in Lev.

2:13, "You shall season all your cereal offerings with salt, you shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be lacking from your cereal offerings; with all your offerings you shall offer salt."

In Num.

18:18, God refers to the everlasting covenant of salt, and in II Chron.

13:5 we read, "The Lord God of Israel gave the kingship over Israel forever to David and his sons by a covenant of salt."

Salt is a major factor in Old Testament worship, and the Jews used an enormous amount of salt.

It is easy to see why this was a necessity with all of the sacrifices, and much of the meat needing to be preserved for the priests and their families.

It is no wonder it became a Jewish proverb, "The world can get along without pepper, not without salt."

Salt is a vital and valuable part of life, and so it makes sense why Jesus said we are the salt of the earth.

What salt does in the physical realm, Christians are to do in the world of people.

Salt does two basic things that we want to focus on.

It prevents, and it promotes.

Sometimes it does both at the same time.

It prevents ice from forming, and thus promotes safe driving.

This two-fold power and influence of salt is what Jesus wants us to be as Christians.

He wants us to be salt that works as a preventer and a promoter.

I. SALT AS A PREVENTER.

Salt is a great preventer of decay and corruption.

It was to the ancient people what the refrigerator is to us.

Preservation of foods depended upon the use of salt.

If Christians do not prevent corruption in the world, they are worthless salt in this area.

Christians have

many times prevented the evil influence of men from making life totally rotten.

Many are the stories of such preserving influence in the days of Hitler.

Corrie Ten Boom is familiar to most, but there were many others who did not become famous like her.

Hans and his wife were just married, and they planned to leave Holland for the mission field.

Just then the Germans invaded, and all doors were closed.

One day Hans found a little Jewish boy in the alley.

His mother had been taken by the Gestapo, and he was left homeless.

They took him in as the first of 450 Jewish orphans they adopted.

It was forbidden to hide a Jew, but they had 450 hidden in the homes where they had persuaded people to take the risk.

Hans had to keep all 450 names and addresses in his head, for keeping a list could be fatal to all of them if it was found.

They knew a Christian printer who printed up 450 ration books a month for them, so that food could be purchased.

This was also a crime, but it was a crime according to those who held them prisoners in their own land.

Hans was once picked up by the Gestapo, and was asked if he was hiding Jewish children.

He did what David once did in the Old Testament when he was taken by the enemy.

He acted like a idiot.

He let his jaw hang loose, and acted dumb.

The officer said, "He is crazy-kick him out."

He was pushed out on the sidewalk.

He was a worthless nobody to them, but he was vital salt to preventing evil from being so rotten that the whole society would decay, and lose its sense of all that was right.

His saltiness kept basic values alive, so people could still taste the delicious and exciting side of life.

Thousands of Christians prevented Hitler's Germany from being the putrid carcass it would have been had all submitted to his satanic goals.