{"id":21971,"date":"2022-06-08T21:32:20","date_gmt":"2022-06-09T04:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2022-directions-copy\/"},"modified":"2022-06-08T21:47:21","modified_gmt":"2022-06-09T04:47:21","slug":"2022-salt","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2022-salt\/","title":{"rendered":"Salt Of the World"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-0  avia-builder-el-no-sibling  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/CreativeWork\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><p style=\"text-align: right;\">Israel Biblical Studies<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-21973 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/salt-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/salt-2.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/salt-2-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In His famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says that the faithful are like the \u201csalt of the earth\u201d (Matthew 5:13). Today this phrase is understood to mean an honest person with true character that can endure hardship like salt. But what did this really mean when it was spoken two thousand years ago in the original Hebrew?<\/p>\n<p><strong> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-21972 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/salt-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/salt-1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/salt-1-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>A Natural Preservative<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Jesus called his followers \u201cthe salt of the earth,\u201d but the Gospels do not explain the meaning of this famous saying. As is the case today, in the days of the Bible salt was used to season and preserve food from rotting in the warm climate of Israel.\u00a0<strong>Jesus was telling his followers to behave morally<\/strong>\u00a0in order to improve the quality\u00a0<strong>and preserve the goodness of the world<\/strong>\u00a0around them.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-21975 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/salt-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/salt-4.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/salt-4-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>A covenant of salt<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Because of its protective powers, salt became a symbol of integrity. Salt was added to all sacrifices in the Temple (Lev. 2:13), and it was also a central part of a ceremonial meal eaten to seal a pact, as seen in the covenant God made with David (2 Chr. 13:5).\u00a0<strong>The Bible refers to this type of unbreakable covenant as a \u201ceverlasting covenant of salt\u201d<\/strong>,\u00a0<em>brit melakh olam<\/em>\u00a0(\u05d1\u05bc\u05b0\u05e8\u05b4\u05d9\u05ea \u05de\u05b6\u05dc\u05b7\u05d7 \u05e2\u05d5\u05b9\u05dc\u05b8\u05dd).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-21974 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/salt-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/salt-3.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/salt-3-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>retrieve the Real Biblical Meaning<\/h3>\n<p><strong>To be the \u201csalt of the earth\u201d is be resolutely upstanding, unbreakable, like a covenant of salt<\/strong>. When Jesus spoke the Sermon on the Mount twenty centuries ago, he said the words \u201csalt of the earth\u201d in Hebrew \u2013\u00a0<em>melakh ha-aretz<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 and everyone understood him.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-21976 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/salt-5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/salt-5.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/salt-5-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":21973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[35],"class_list":["post-21971","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_entries-english-writer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/21971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21971"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/21971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21977,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/21971\/revisions\/21977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21971"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=21971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}