The Salt of the Earth

Some years ago I heard a song that I believe was named “The Hands of an Angry God,” and it seems to me that it was a Scott Wesley Brown song, but I haven’t been able to find any mention of such a song by him, anywhere, but I did find a reference to a song that was, at least, very similar by Steve Camp, but I can’t find it in his discography, either. I personally really liked the song, even though I found it somewhat convicting. I suspect that the song was not as popular as I think it should have been because a lot of other people were convicted by it as well. The verses talk a lot about why God is angry at mankind in general (and the listener, specifically), but then the chorus talks about the sacrifice that God made on the cross. “The hands of an angry God are pierced and bleeding…” We, as a people, have done much to make God angry. We, as a people, deserve to have the wrath of God poured out on us. We, as a people, should be extremely grateful that God has chosen to make a way for us to escape. In the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, before God sent His angels to destroy the two cities, He told Abraham about His plan. Abraham, understandably, became very concerned, because, although he knew the type of people that lived in those cities, he also knew that his nephew Lot lived there. Abraham attempted to bargain with God. “Wilt thou destroy the righteous with the wicked?” That was a gamble, in and of itself, because he hadn’t seen Lot in some time, and couldn’t be completely sure that Lot hadn’t adopted the lifestyle of the Sodomites, but he thought Lot was still a righteous man. Abraham probably wondered to himself why a righteous man would live in Sodom, but he had faith in his nephew. But, in keeping with his assertion that God would not destroy the righteous with the wicked, he asked God if he would destroy the city if He found fifty righteous there. God assured Abraham that He would not. Abraham talked God down to ten (which, of course, was easy for God, since He already knew there weren’t ten moral people living in the entire city of Sodom). Think about that for a moment, though. How many people lived in Sodom? We don’t know, but probably several thousand, maybe tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands. How big of a percentage is ten out of the population of an entire city? I think we can safely say less than one percent. Statisticians sometimes use the term, ‘statistically significant.’ To be statistically significant, a result must be unlikely to have occurred by chance. It is entirely possible for a result to be statistically significant, and still not be actually significant. The point is that there was a very small number of righteous people living in Sodom when the angels arrived and met with Lot. The experts would probably say that the number of moral people was not statistically significant. I would have to agree, if only because God destroyed the city anyway; at the same time, though, He offered them an escape so those people were clearly actually significant.Jesus said that we are the salt of the earth. Salt can be used for a lot of different things, but these days we mostly use it just to add flavor to foods that we eat. Not too many years ago, though, sailors used salt as a preservative. Meat that was salt-cured could be eaten many days after, without refrigeration, and with no ill effects. Think about that for a minute: If Lot had a bigger family, Sodom might not have been destroyed, they might have been able to preserve the city. We are the salt (the preservative) of the earth. We have a tremendous responsibility to remain righteous, because salt that has lost its savor is good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under feet of men; if we stop being righteous (if we lose our savor-the quality that makes us salt), then we are no longer serving as a preservative, and all we are is dirt (fit to be walked on); just as we were before God gave us life (we become spiritually dead-even if our bodies are still walking around).

Are You Taking That Literally?

I have heard some people say that the Bible is the literal Word of God, and I agree with that, but then I have also heard people say that they take the Word of God literally. That's not the same thing, although it sounds very similar. The thing to remember is that, even though the Bible is the literal Word of God, that doesn't mean that there are not figures of speech in it.

Do you think that when Jesus said, "Ye are the salt of the earth," that we were immediately transubstantiated into salt? (wasn't that the punishment for Lot's wife?) Or was He merely stating that, just as salt can be used as a preservative to keep certain foods from going bad, that it is only because there are some people left on earth that God thinks are worth saving, that He hasn't gone ahead and destroyed the whole planet (in other words, we are the preservative for the earth). Unfortunately, sometimes it takes a lot of prayer to understand exactly what is meant by some of the passages in the Bible. Fortunately, God wants us to understand, so He will give us understanding, if we ask for it.

One of the most amusing arguments that I have heard, as far as not believing the Bible, is, "Do you have a paddle strapped to your weapon?" This is not so much a figure of speech as just an anachronism. God was trying to teach Israel a little something about sanitary hygiene, without getting into the explanation of why it's a bad idea to just provide a place for flies to gather and spread germs. I think most of us know, these days, that if you aren't where you can flush it, you should bury it. Besides, that is Old Testament law, and we are not under the law, but under grace.

By the way, while I am on the subject, I have heard a lot of people (many of whom should have known better) say the 'The Law' is the Old Testament. The Jews divide up what we call the Old Testament (what they call the Tanakh) into three parts: The Torah, the Neviim, and the Ketuvim. By the way, they don't arrange the books in quite the same order that we do, either. It starts out the same: The Torah contains Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy (although those books are called Bereshit, Shemot, VaYikra, BaMidar, and Devarim, respectively). The Neviim contains Joshua, Judges, First Samuel, Second Samuel, First Kings, Second Kings, but then goes to Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the Minor Prophets (Yehoshua, Shoftim, Shmuel A, Shmuel B, Melachim A, Melachim B, Yisheyah, Yermiyah, Yechezchial, and Treisar). Ketuvim contains everything else. My point is this: Ketuvim is the Hebrew word for writings, basically, this is the poetry of the Tanakh; Neviim is the Hebrew word for Prophets, so all the books written by prophets are included in the Neviim; Torah is the Hebrew word for law, so all the books of the law are in the Torah, or the books of Moses--also known as the Pentateuch (although Pentateuch comes from the Greek, so I guess it would be improper to refer to those books as the Pentateuch unless you were also using the Greek names Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). Did you catch what 'The Law' actually is? The five books of Moses--which would explain why the Law is sometimes referred to as the Law of Moses.

In summary, the Bible should be taken to be the literal Word of God, but not everything in it should be taken literally, and 'The Law' refers to the five books of Moses.