"You are the salt of the earth."
-Matthew 5:13a
Not too long ago I wrote about salt, and how salt is meant to be used collectively, not individually. This made me think more about the nature of salt, and then something funny happened. A huge snowstorm hit where I live, and guess what happens during a snowstorm? You buy salt. As I've stated before, salt is used to preserve and to flavor food, but it is also used to melt ice. I reflected briefly on the fact that salt is used in this manner, and I wondered if this applies at all to our lives as Christians. As you probably guessed by the fact that I am writing this, I believe that it does.
In the Bible, there is this idea of a "hardened heart". An example is in the book of Exodus, when Moses is instructed to speak to Pharaoh. God tells Moses to tell Pharaoh to let His people go, but adds something interesting. God tells Moses "I will harden Pharaoh's heart..." and "he will not listen to you". Isn't it weird that God instructs Moses to approach Pharaoh about the deliverance of the Israelites even though He knows Pharaoh will harden his heart?
I would be lying if I told you that I know why God instructs Moses to speak to Pharaoh even though Pharaoh would not listen. However, if we look forward in the book of Exodus, Moses obeys God. As promised, Pharaoh does not listen to Moses, and in response, God sends a plague on Egypt. In fact, God sends many plagues on Egypt because Pharaoh continually hardens his heart towards the Israelite people. If I were Moses, I can tell you that I would have a very hard time obeying God's commands to repeatedly approach Pharaoh. Why should I waste my effort trying to convince Pharaoh to do something that he clearly is not willing to do?
If you are familiar with the book of Exodus (or perhaps the word "exodus"), you know that eventually Pharaoh softened his heart and let the Israelites go. What caused Pharaoh to finally listen to Moses? It was the fact that Moses was persistent and obedient. Despite not seeing any results over and over again, he still approached Pharaoh again and again. Moses never gave up trying to reach Pharaoh, and eventually Pharaoh softened his heart.
So what does this have to do with salt? As I stated at the beginning, salt melts ice. How? Scientifically speaking, it combines with water and ice which lowers the melting point of the ice, and helps it melt at lower temperatures. This also prevents the water from refreezing during the night. That might be interesting if you didn't know that, but that's not the point I'm trying to make. How does salt melt ice? Slowly, yet surely. When we put salt on ice, it doesn't melt right away. Salt isn't some magical compound that is able to immediately melt ice. It has to work itself into the ice, and then it melts the ice slowly. However, eventually the ice does melt.
Even though it may have seemed that Moses was not accomplishing nothing in terms of melting Pharaoh's heart, I believe that Moses was indeed impacting Pharaoh during each plague. While Moses didn't see results, that did not mean nothing was happening. Do you know the most interesting part of how salt is used to melt ice? It is that the salt is not what causes the ice to melt. I didn't explain the science behind how salt works for no reason. Salt does impact how ice melts, but ultimately the sun is responsible for melting the ice. Without the sun, the ice will never melt.
Jesus is calling us to be the salt of the earth. We are expected to impact how the world responds to Christ. It's easy to think that all of our effort is wasted, but maybe we're forgetting that salt doesn't melt ice immediately. Also, we cannot really do anything to change someone's heart. Ultimately it is the Son that melts hardened hearts. We are just called to prepare the hearts of those who have yet to believe. Salt does not melt; it is used to melt. We do not change people's hearts; God uses us to change people's hearts. I want to challenge myself (and you) with this question- am I impacting people's hearts?
-Smart
Amen!
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