THE COVENANT OF SALT

Scroll down past Sermon for more info

Nobleton Community Church
29084 Sentinel Street PO Box 224
Nobleton, Florida 34661

Rev. Paul V. Lehmann, Pastor
813-389-8683
Nobletoncommunitychurch.org
info@nobletoncommunitychurch.org

OUR VISION IS:
To experience SPIRIT-FILLED WORSHIP AND PRAYER
To be involved in EVANGELISM, DISCIPLINING AND TRAINING PEOPLE
To use our SPIRITUAL GIFTS
To SERVE AND REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST, BOTH
“ACROSS THE STREET AND ACROSS THE WORLD”

Nobleton Community Church
Date October 5, 2025
Text Numbers 18:19; II Chronicles 13:5; Matthew 5:13
Pastor Paul Lehmann

Listen to live audio here

In the Middle East, a very important part of life is the covenant of salt. We find this covenant mentioned in the Old Testament, in the verses that Val read.

What is this covenant of salt? Bishop K.C. Pillai from the Indian Orthodox Church writes in his book, “Light Through an Eastern Window,” that in the East, the taking of salt is a pledge, a promise of fidelity. If I come to your house and eat your food, which has been seasoned with salt, I can never betray you or do you harm. Even if you commit a crime and I am asked to testify, I cannot do it because I have eaten your salt. Perhaps I may come to you and try to persuade you to do the right thing, but I would die before I would break the covenant of salt. In fact, the penalty for so doing is death.

We might wonder, what do we Christians in the West have to do with this covenant of salt? It sounds like a pagan custom, for I might add, at the very least, something to do with the Old Covenant. It is true that it is an Eastern custom, but not necessarily a pagan one, for we find in the New Testament verse that Val read—Matthew 5:13, Jesus is saying “You are the salt for everyone on earth, but if salt no longer tastes like salt, how can it make food salty or tasty?” All it is good for is to be thrown out and walked on.”

In the East (and in other parts of the world), they not only have what we call table salt, but they also have salt that comes in 20 or 30-pound stone jars. This jar stands on the floor of the kitchen, and is like brown rock salt. The top of the jar is covered with a stone slab. Every morning, the kitchen floor is washed with water, and in the course of time, the bottom of the stone jar becomes soaked with water so many times that the salt in the bottom of the jar actually loses its saltiness. By the time the salt is used down to the point from which the saltiness has been washed away, the remainder is simply thrown out into the street, and it is walked on, instead of a dirt path.

The person who falls away from living a Christ-like life, and has no testimony of the Living Christ in him, or her, is like the salt in the bottom of the jar: pressed by the crush of materialism from the top and washed away at the bottom by the dampness of “churchianity” in places where the truth of the gospel is not preached and the church is cold and weak. Let us, therefore, take care that we do not find ourselves at the bottom of the salt jar, lest we be thrown into the street and walked on. Christians who have lost their saltiness are truly walked on by the world, for there is no more criticized person than the one who professes Christ as his Savior and behaves otherwise. They are hypocrites.

In Mark 9:49-51, Jesus speaks again of salt: “Everyone will be salted with fire. “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other. “

And Paul writes in Colossians 4:6: “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer every one.”

A very interesting example of the making of a salt covenant in the Old Testament is found in Judges 4:17-25. This is the story of the battle that was fought between Sisera and Barak. Sisera, however fled on foot to the tent of Yael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there were friendly relations between Jabin, King of Hazor, and the clan of Heber the Kenite. Yael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come, my Lord, come right in, don’t be afraid.” So he entered her tent, and she put a covering over him (like a shawl)

This is the first of the covenants Yael made with him.

Taking a guest into your home and covering him with a mantle means the protection of the household is over him. She or someone in her household would guard the tent all night to make sure no one would get to him.

The nature of this first covenant was PROTECTION.

Then the second covenant was a covenant of salt. Sisera said, “I’m thirsty. Please give me some water.” She opened a milk skin and gave him a drink, and covered him up. This is the verse in which there is the hidden covenant of salt. The milk, which would have been kept in a milk skin in a tent, would not have been sweet milk as we keep in our refrigerators. It would have to be buttermilk, prepared with salt to keep it from spoiling. You notice that Sisera only asks for water. Yael could have given him only water, but she instead gave him milk. Thus,

she made A SALT COVENANT with him that she would not betray him.

He told her: “Stand in the doorway of the tent. If someone comes by and asks you, “is anyone here?” Say NO!

Then this is a third agreement between them:

THE PROMISE THAT YAEL WILL LIE FOR HIM

IF ANYONE SHOULD COME.

But Yael, Heber’s wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.

This verse seems to turn the whole situation upside down.

Yael invited Sisera into the main living quarters of her tent. But every tent had a separate women’s quarters. It is off limits to men and is protected; Even in our day, not even the police may violate the privacy of the women’s quarters. Wars have been fought over this matter. Sisera slipped into or under the curtain to the women’s part of the tent for extra security. He must have thought he needed even more security, because he sealed his own death by going into that part of the tent. His unbelief in Yael’s covenants caused him to commit this fatal error. And so, the penalty for breaking the salt covenant is death.

The peg in the temple also has significance in the Eastern way of thinking. If Yael merely wished to kill him, she could have chosen any number of other ways to do it. Why the peg in the temple? Because she was attacking his unbelief. She drove the peg into his head where the unbelief resided. So he died. His unbelief killed him.

Like Sisera, we have received a covenant of salt; ours is from God. We have God’s word that He will never forsake us; that He will supply all our needs out of His riches in glory. He will give us Eternal Life If we cannot believe this, but remain in the security of God’s word; if we do not believe the covenants He has made with us, then, like Sisera, we will die the death of unbelief.

Yael was faithful to God and supported Israel. Sisera turned his back against God and Israel,

As further proof that Yael’s actions were justified, look in the next chapter (Judges 5:24,25): “Most blessed of women be Yael, the wife of Heber the Kenite,” most blessed of tent-dwelling women. He asked for water, and she gave him milk; in a bowl fit for nobles, she brought him curdled milk (or buttermilk)

She also received praise for having killed him. Earlier in the fourth chapter, the Lord indicated that Sisera would be destroyed in the battle; Yael was merely the instrument in the hands of God to accomplish this purpose.

The covenant of salt is still made in the East today.

Supposing you are the owner of a flock of 55 sheep, and a man comes to buy them from you. The cost is $1100. He pays you $300 down and says he will pay the remaining $800 in one month. If he tries to sign a paper for the $800, you can never be sure that he will not try to wriggle out of the agreement somehow. But if he makes a covenant of salt with you, there can be no doubt that you will get your $800. He will even make his eldest son promise that, if anything happens to him before the time comes to pay, the son will pay it.

Again, supposing that you were traveling in the Middle East and found yourself far from a city when night falls. You come upon a tent, and most likely the occupant is one who supports himself by highway robbery, since these people camp out away from other people. You may go to the tent and say to the man. “I am an American. I did not reach the city before nightfall, and I have lost my way. Would you take me in for the night? He says, “But don’t you know I am a thief? Do you want to spend the night with a thief? You may now say to him. “Yes, but I will make with you a covenant of salt for my protection. He bows low and says, “Come, you blessed of God.” He gives you a seat, probably on the floor of the tent, and says. “How much money do you have?” (Now, for an American to even let them know you have money with you is unheard of), but you bring out your money and count it out to him: one thousand dollars. Then he puts the money in his pocket. He calls for food that has been salted, such as olives or dried meat, and you take the covenant of salt together.

You may now go to sleep, in whatever bed the man can give you, but this thief will never sleep while you are there. He places himself in the doorway of the tent to stand watch, and also walks around the outside of the tent with his gun in hand, watching and protecting you while you sleep. In the morning, he gives you what breakfast he can, probably tea and bread, counts out your money to you, and then guides you safely where you want to go. And he will not take any money for his service, because he counts it a service to God.

`Bishop Pillai says, he often thinks that if a man who is a thief, uneducated, and not even a Christian can be honorable by the taking of the covenant of salt, that we who are children of God should surely be all the more faithful and true to God.

We should be the salt of the earth, the ones on whom God can depend. And our speech should also be salted, so others can know that we are truly living our faith. This is one of our problems today; people have trouble telling the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian. We should be living such a witness that others may see Jesus in us, and be won to Christ. :

Every day we eat God’s salt, because we work and eat by God’s grace, but: Some of us dishonor Him by not keeping our word to Him. We could say that there are greater thieves and liars inside the church than outside of it; for those outside only lie to each other, but those within lie to God. When we give money in the offering, we think that’s all I can give to the church. But the money we give is to God. We also may say to God, “When I have extra money, I will give more.” But then we get extra income, and we still give what we are used to giving. We also sing songs about giving ourselves to Him. I surrender all. All to Jesus. I surrender, all to him I freely give. I will ever love and trust him, in his presence daily live. Or we sing, “Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold,” as we decide that a “big” bill is too much to give, and we place a dollar in the offering. If we are “salted,” we would put in all the big bills if God tells us to. Too often, we say everything in words, but take no action. In Galatians 6:7, we read, “Be not deceived, God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. “ This verse serves as a reminder that people will face the consequences of their actions, emphasizing the importance of living a life of truth and righteousness rather than being led astray by deception or unfruitful behavior.

In Genesis 6:3, we read, “ My Spirit will not contend (or strive) with man forever, for he is mortal and his days shall be 120 years.” It is only by God’s grace that any of us are still alive, after all the lies we have told Him.

There is little or no divorce among the high caste Hindus in India, because of the salt covenant that the bride and groom make when they repeat their vows at the wedding. Whenever the husband is tempted to mistreat his wife, or the wife thinks of nagging her husband, they remember their covenant of salt and adjust themselves accordingly.

The covenant of salt has been used in churches in India, where each person comes forward and each one takes a pinch of salt on their tongue, and they promise to do whatever God requires of them. To tithe, to establish a family or individual devotional time, or to stand by the local church, to stop criticizing or gossiping about people in the church. This can be a solemn occasion, where God holds us accountable for vows that we make to Him.

As we remember what Christ did for us this morning, let us truly not partake in an unworthy manner. Let’s ask for forgiveness of our sins, and make that covenant with him—not because of SALT, but because of his shed BLOOD on the cross for us.