Worth your Salt?
Are you worth your weight in salt?
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ARE YOU WORTH YOUR WEIGHT IN SALT?
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The word "Salary" derives from the Middle English "salaire", from the Latin word salarium, meaning a payment made in salt (sal) or for salt, from salarius meaning pertaining to salt. So when someone asked if you were worth your salt, they were in fact asking if you were worth the wages they were paying you.
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Now you can take this with a grain of salt if you wish, but in Biblical times salt was more valuable than gold. It was the food preserver par excellence and was sought after by kings and queens everywhere. Do you ever notice that when you are going to do something you ought not to be doing you look over your shoulder? There is an old saying "throw a grain of salt over your shoulder" that has its basis in an old superstition which said that when you did something you should not have done, throw salt over your shoulder and the salt would blind the devil, who would be either looking over your shoulder or sitting on your left shoulder while hopefully an angel would be sitting on your right shoulder trying to steer you right. Many are able to tune out the angel - and so use a lot of salt.
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Now you can take this with a grain of salt, but to throw salt away in Biblical times would have been the equivalent of throwing gold dust away as it was the most valuable of all the things people might have possessed. It permitted people to travel further from home base and also stock their food larders with out fear of the food - especially meat - spoiling. Not only was it a food preserver but it was used as currency as well. Roman soldiers were often paid in salt - which is where the word salary comes from - they received a salarium.
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Of course when someone is said to have tried to "rub salt in it" we known that they have tried to agitate and old wound that leaves the person smarting from their ‘salty’ remarks. I am sure we all have had salt rubbed in to an old wound.
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Then there are those who are said to be the salt of the earth. We have all met such people. Jesus, teaching his disciples what it meant to be a follower told them that they were to be the ‘salt of the earth’.
.
Now this you can’t take with a grain of salt. You are to be worth your salt. Remember that when Jesus spoke about Christians being "salt of the earth" salt was a precious commodity, more precious than gold, and also a life preserver, so when you are among your family, friends and neighbours, you are to bring the flavour of God into conversations and your actions. As Eugene Peterson writes in his version, "You are to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness?" Jesus taught his listeners that God considered them precious, so precious, vital, life sustaining, even life-giving. Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth."
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M. GENESIS 19 ADULT VERSION OF LOT’S WIFE & SALT
T. NUMBERS 18:8-19 EVERLASTING COVENANT OF SALT
W. 2 CHRONICLES 13 DO NOT BREAK THE SALT COVENANT
T. EZEKIEL 16:1-8 UNFAITHFUL, UNSALTED JERUSALEM
F. MATTHEW 5:13 YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH
S. MARK 9:38-50 DO NOT LOSE YOUR SALTINESS.
ARE YOU WORTH YOUR WEIGHT IN SALT?
.
The word "Salary" derives from the Middle English "salaire", from the Latin word salarium, meaning a payment made in salt (sal) or for salt, from salarius meaning pertaining to salt. So when someone asked if you were worth your salt, they were in fact asking if you were worth the wages they were paying you.
.
Now you can take this with a grain of salt if you wish, but in Biblical times salt was more valuable than gold. It was the food preserver par excellence and was sought after by kings and queens everywhere. Do you ever notice that when you are going to do something you ought not to be doing you look over your shoulder? There is an old saying "throw a grain of salt over your shoulder" that has its basis in an old superstition which said that when you did something you should not have done, throw salt over your shoulder and the salt would blind the devil, who would be either looking over your shoulder or sitting on your left shoulder while hopefully an angel would be sitting on your right shoulder trying to steer you right. Many are able to tune out the angel - and so use a lot of salt.
.
Now you can take this with a grain of salt, but to throw salt away in Biblical times would have been the equivalent of throwing gold dust away as it was the most valuable of all the things people might have possessed. It permitted people to travel further from home base and also stock their food larders with out fear of the food - especially meat - spoiling. Not only was it a food preserver but it was used as currency as well. Roman soldiers were often paid in salt - which is where the word salary comes from - they received a salarium.
.
Of course when someone is said to have tried to "rub salt in it" we known that they have tried to agitate and old wound that leaves the person smarting from their ‘salty’ remarks. I am sure we all have had salt rubbed in to an old wound.
.
Then there are those who are said to be the salt of the earth. We have all met such people. Jesus, teaching his disciples what it meant to be a follower told them that they were to be the ‘salt of the earth’.
.
Now this you can’t take with a grain of salt. You are to be worth your salt. Remember that when Jesus spoke about Christians being "salt of the earth" salt was a precious commodity, more precious than gold, and also a life preserver, so when you are among your family, friends and neighbours, you are to bring the flavour of God into conversations and your actions. As Eugene Peterson writes in his version, "You are to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness?" Jesus taught his listeners that God considered them precious, so precious, vital, life sustaining, even life-giving. Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth."
.
M. GENESIS 19 ADULT VERSION OF LOT’S WIFE & SALT
T. NUMBERS 18:8-19 EVERLASTING COVENANT OF SALT
W. 2 CHRONICLES 13 DO NOT BREAK THE SALT COVENANT
T. EZEKIEL 16:1-8 UNFAITHFUL, UNSALTED JERUSALEM
F. MATTHEW 5:13 YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH
S. MARK 9:38-50 DO NOT LOSE YOUR SALTINESS.
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