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 2:13)
A covenant of salt is a perpetual covenant (Num. 18:19; 2 Chron. 13:5). In its ability to preserve, salt is the opposite of leaven and honey. Its symbolic meaning is plain: the purifying and preserving principles of holiness and truth must never be wanting in our covenant relations with God.
“Every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt” (Mark 9:49). Fire purifies, salt preserves. To be salted with fire means not only purification but preservation. God desires a pure people, a clean people, a holy people, a people whose sins are forgiven. The keeping power of God is theirs for the asking. Not only are they to become clean and holy, but they are to be kept so. The fire with which they are to be “salted” does not destroy, but purifies. We are first to be cleansed, then we are to be kept. “Salted with fire!”“Salted with salt!” Purified and kept pure! Wonderful provision!