The Covenant of Salt

Last time we explored how the covenant of blood establishes the most basic of relationships between us and God—that of servant and master. We compared it to the citizenship in his Kingdom and equated it with the first step in the ancient Hebrew betrothal process. So let’s move on and deepen our relationship through the Covenant of Salt.

The Meaning Behind the Covenant of Salt

Salt, vital for both flavoring and preservation, is so ubiquitous today we often take its availability for granted. In ancient times, it was exceedingly valuable because it was expensive and hard to come by. This made it a serious matter to strike a covenant of salt with someone.

Old Testament Hebrews always carried a small pouch of salt with them. When two people wanted to establish a relationship of perpetual fellowship, friendship, and hospitality, they took their salt and mixed it together in a bowl. Then they each took a bit of bread, dipped it in the salt, and ate together. The remaining salt was distributed back into the two pouches.

This was meant to be an eternal covenant because the only way to break it was to dig into those pouches and return the individual grains of salt to their original owners.

Abraham began his relationship with the Lord in a basic covenant of blood memorialized by his circumcision. That fellowship expanded to include a salt covenant when he met and shared bread with Melchizedek in Genesis 14:18–21 and the three travelers in Genesis 18. Ever after, he was known as the friend of God (James 2:23).

Betrothal and the Covenant of Salt

We see the covenant of salt demonstrated in the second phase of the ancient Hebrew betrothal process.

In the first phase, the bridegroom drank the Cup of Sanctification with his prospective bride, initiating a blood covenant between them. He would serve as her head and she would serve as his body. That having gone well, he would then offer the second cup—the Cup of Bargaining.

This marked the juncture where they started hashing out the details of a marriage contract, called a ketubah. It was a lengthy process so it was accompanied by a shared meal which would naturally require bread and salt to be on the table.

The ketubah included written genealogies of the betrothed couple and their families along with their separate and joint histories. It also delineated how responsibilities would be divided between bride and bridegroom. How did he plan on defending, protecting, and providing for her? How would she prepare herself to take on the role of wife?

This process reflected the way God had always pursued Israel. When he delivered the Torah (Pentateuch) to them through Moses on Mount Sinai, he presented it as a type of ketubah. It set forth his plan for the union he proposed. It detailed their history together, clearly defined what God intended to do for them, and showed how Israel was to respond as his friend and future bride.

The Cup of Bargaining

The Feast of Pentecost became a memorial of God delivering the Torah and parallels this stage of the betrothal process. The blood poured out at the altar acted as the Cup of Bargaining. The salt of the covenant was sprinkled on each sacrifice. And the two loaves waved by the priests at the ceremony were the shared meal eaten in his presence.

The “bargaining” occurring during this part of the betrothal process came in the form of good-faith wrestling between the two parties as they discussed and clarified the details of the ketubah. This inaugurated a new and closer relationship between bride and bridegroom–that of friendship. Servants weren’t expected to ask questions, (as Jesus said, in John 15:15, “A servant does not know what his master is doing”), but friends are different. Friends debate, discuss, dialogue.

As we dare to press closer to God, we too will have to come to grips with how (and even whether) we intend to abide by the parameters in his Word. A salt relationship with him allows us to question, to seek an explanation, work through our doubts with him. In that, we drink the Cup of Bargaining with him, settling in for the long haul of hashing things out together in the atmosphere of a shared and salt-laden meal.

Bargaining in the Covenant of Salt

A friendship with our Bridegroom will involve more than our master/servant relationship will. It carries additional responsibilities and requires more time, attention, and communication. Friends, after all, want to be involved with one another. They want to share each other’s burdens and know what matters to their covenant partner. In the process, there will be times of wrestling between them in order to maintain their peace.

So we struggle and wrangle with the terms of God’s ketubah as we enter the covenant of salt with him. As we go over his ketubah with him, we share moments of joy in remembering great victories, shed tears of shared sorrows, and look forward to the future it promises us. But friendship also opens the door to tension. Why can’t I do this thing? Why won’t you do that? The good news of the Salt Covenant is we have permission to haggle and question and debate with him. So bridegroom and bride, we and our Maker, stay at the table until bargaining is done because both of us want this relationship to work.

It was the Covenant of Salt that gave Abraham the nerve to parley with God about Sodom in Genesis 18. It was what emboldened Jacob to wrestle with God in Genesis 32. It allowed Paul to beg God to remove a persistent thorn in 2 Corinthians 12 but also enabled him to give in to God when he said his grace would suffice.

Tabernacle Analogy

So let’s return to the tabernacle analogy we used last time. A blood covenant relationship allowed people to live in the encampment surrounding the tabernacle. To approach any closer, we’d have to step through the gate and enter the courtyard.

And inside the gate, the Covenant of Salt makes us in the face. Our concept of Jesus trotting to the slaughter as a little lamb is blasted away by the sight and sound and smell of the incredible price of his gift of salvation. The height and depth and width of his love is made manifest in the sheer multitude of sacrifices on the altar. And there in that horror, we drop to our knees as we see the presentation of salt in each offering extending the hand of friendship to us. How can we not bring our own contribution forward, seasoned with salt, and accept his offer of perpetual friendship?

As we seal up our covenant with the shared meal of communion, let us thank God for presenting his Covenant of Salt with the Cup of Bargaining–permission from a great God to wrestle with him as friends on top of his gift of salvation.

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