Bible Study: Salt of The Earth

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Today is Monday February 01, 2010 and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of Leviticus, chapters 1-3. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can Click Here to read them or copy & paste this URL onto your browser: http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-february-1

Title: Bible Study: Salt of The Earth
The book of Leviticus is the third book of the Old Testament/Bible and contains twenty-seven chapters. The author of the book is Moses and it was written to the people of Israel. This book was a manual of worship for Israel, it was provided to give them instructions on how a sinner could fellowship with God. It relates to the coming of Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the sinner in order to allow him to know God. The purpose of the book was to show Israel how to live as a holy nation in fellowship with God and to prepare them to extend God's plan of redemption to all nations. What we are to learn from the book is that God only redeems and fellowships with us if we willingly come to Him through Jesus Christ. The first three chapters of the book of Leviticus explain the offerings that the people were to bring to God in order to be able to fellowship with Him, the offerings were actually voluntary and set according to a persons wealth, if one was not able to afford cattle to offer as a sacrifice, God allowed what they could afford. He gave every person the opportunity to be redeemed from their sins, regardless of their financial status. “And the LORD called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man of you bring an offering unto the LORD, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the flock. If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD.........And if the burnt sacrifice for his offering to the LORD be of fowls, then he shall bring his offering of turtledoves, or of young pigeons.” - Leviticus 1:1-3,14. The offering symbolized the person giving his own life in full submission to God without a selfish motive. If the person owned a herd, then he offered a bull. If, however, the he possessed only flocks, then his offering would be a lamb or a goat; for either of these men to offer pigeons would have been offensive to God. But, if the person were so poor that he did not own a herd or a flock, then an acceptable offering could be the less expensive turtledoves or young pigeons. You know, today some religions will ban a person from the church if they could not afford to give tithes and offerings, but God never turns away someone who truly wants to be forgiven and get right with Him. Praise God!

Besides sacrificial offerings the people were oblation offerings (given as a form of thanks), known as meat offerings, this was in the form of flour, grains, fruits, or vegetables. “And when any will offer a meat offering unto the LORD, his offering shall be of fine flour; and he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon: And he shall bring it to Aaron's sons the priests: and he shall take thereout his handful of the flour thereof, and of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof; and the priest shall burn the memorial of it upon the altar, to be an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD: And the remnant of the meat offering shall be Aaron's and his sons': it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the LORD made by fire.......... No meat offering, which ye shall bring unto the LORD, shall be made with leaven: for ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the LORD made by fire. As for the oblation of the firstfruits, ye shall offer them unto the LORD: but they shall not be burnt on the altar for a sweet savour. And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.” - Leviticus 2:1-3,11-13. The term "meat" was, and still is, properly given to any kind of provision, and the greater part of this offering was to be eaten for food, not burned. Leaven is the emblem of pride, malice, and hypocrisy, and honey is of sensual pleasure this is why this was forbidden to be given and an offering. Salt was required in all the offerings, including sacrificial offerings, salt makes things savory and preserves food, representing the savoriness and acceptableness of Jesus Christ as a meat offering for His people. As we accept Christ as our Savior we send up not only the sweet smell of His blood, but the sweet savory, salted meat offering of His body, who is well pleased with his sacrifice.

Incidentally, Christian's are represented as the salt of the earth, so it is very important that as Christian's we keep ourselves savory. Jesus said, “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” - Matthew 5:13. What Jesus is referring to here is people who get saved and really have no interest in God, when we accept Jesus as our Savior we are seasoned by the knowledge and grace that comes only from Him. While works do not save you, grace does, but if we say that we have accepted Christ as our Savior and really do not mean it, that is as salt that has lost it's flavor. God will cast out all who are not sincere in wanting to be saved. However, praise God, for those who truthfully want to fellowship with God for when they call on Jesus, even if they lose their flavor, they are re-seasoned with the salt of God's grace and are savory to Him one again.

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and week.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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