Jericho had been destroyed by the Lord when Israel first entered the Holy Land, Joshua 6, and it had been placed under a curse:
Jos 6:26 Then Joshua charged them at that time, saying, “Cursed be the man before the LORD who rises up and builds this city Jericho; he shall lay its foundation with his firstborn, and with his youngest he shall set up its gates.”
It had been rebuilt only shortly before the story we have read
1 Kings 16: 34 In his (Ahab’s) days Hiel of Bethel built Jericho. He laid its foundation with Abiram his firstborn, and with his youngest son Segub he set up its gates, according to the word of the LORD, which He had spoken through Joshua the son of Nun.
Jericho was a lovely place to live. The climate was good and the ground was fertile. There was only one slight problem – there was no water! Or, more precisely what there was polluted and apparently made the area around barren and possibly caused the animals and women to miscarry. This picture reminds me of our western world today, even in a time of recession. We are well provided for by science and commerce. Most of us have more than enough to eat and drink. We live in comfort – even luxury compared to people of Old Testament times or those in the 3rd world today. We are rich and increased in goods and have need of nothing, though you would not think so from our complaints!
Yet despite this plenty there is barrenness – spiritually speaking. Men and women are searching desperately for something to satisfy them – a meaning to life. They are spiritually thirsty yet though they drink deeply of human religions, riches, power, sex etc. they can never live, spiritually, for they are drinking from a polluted, toxic, spring. Even the Church is barren. Our spiritual lives are shallow and we see more miscarriages than new-births. Even the hardy perennials are wilting and turning yellow for lack of pure water. It sometimes seems that only the most prickly cacti have survived!
What did Elisha do when confronted with this problem of pollution and barrenness? He threw salt into the spring. It was a strange thing to do – especially if, as is likely, the problem was that the water was brackish – ie it contained salt! Nevertheless, the result was a dramatic, lasting change. Barrenness was replaced by fruitfulness.
Pollution
David Wilkerson, who died recently, said: “Do you see the picture? The poisoned waters of Jericho signify the polluted word being preached from the town’s pulpits. These men of God had never dealt with their own sins, so their sermons were full of poison from corrupted hearts. And their lifeless, flesh-oriented sermons were causing spiritual death among the people.
Show me a preacher in the pulpit who no longer believes God’s word is infallible – who has rejected the virgin birth, who is hooked to a secret sin, who no longer weeps over the sin he sees in God’s house – and I’ll show you a church that’s dying because of the poison spewing out of his heart.
What was the cure for the poison in Jericho? It was to purify the water supply. And that’s just what Elisha did. He took a clean vessel, filled it full of salt and poured it into the fountainhead of the city’s water. Soon all the waters were cleansed, and life sprang up all around.
Of course, the salt Elisha used represents the gospel of purity and holiness. And the clean vessel he used represents ministers who have been cleansed by Christ’s blood and sanctified by the Spirit’s purifying fire, prepared to preach a pure gospel. Beloved, only these things can stem the evil tide in God’s house: clean, pure vessels who walk in holiness and preach a pure word with fresh anointing.”
I think that he is right and this is a picture of a place where God’s word is preached, but it is not Christ, the living water that flows forth, something is added or something taken away so that the preaching is polluted – ie not Christ. I’m also sure that decades of wishy-washy or false teaching is one of the reasons for our current spiritual barrenness. It didn’t happen overnight, but the toxins have gradually accumulated and the effect is now quite noticeable.
How can we recognise polluted preaching? As David Wilkerson said one of the signs of such pollution is a lack of belief in the infallibility of Scripture. Preachers who don’t believe in the Genesis account of creation, the virgin birth of Christ or His bodily resurrection. Nowadays the pollution is often much more subtle – the water doesn’t taste bad at first, but it still has an insidious effect on us over time.
Other signs are that the person and work of Christ are diminished or the role of man is elevated. For example, Jehovah’s witnesses claim that Jesus is ‘a god’ not ‘the God’ and almost all religions and cults teach that we must earn our salvation by works of one sort or another. Many so called Churches portray Jesus as nothing more than a good example, stripping away all off the supernatural.
Why do people put up with such polluted water? Often it is that they know no better.
A group of explorers in Africa came across some natives who for centuries had made their home on the banks of this one particular river. They showed the explorers the polluted stream that they drank from. It was filled with dirt and every contamination imaginable. The natives had developed a method of swishing over the top of the water to get the bigger chunks out before scooping it up to drink.
One of the explorers took his canteen and poured out a large cup of crystal-clear water and handed it to one of the aged women of the tribe. She took the cup, pressed it to her lips, and didn’t put it down until she had drained it. Then through an interpreter she said that she had never dreamed that there was anything in this world as sweet and wonderful as that.
A new bowl
David Wilkinson suggested that the new bowl represents ministers who have been cleansed by Christ’s blood and sanctified by the Spirit’s purifying fire, prepared to preach a pure gospel. This bowl was probably a cheap earthenware container and Paul tells us in 2Co 4:7 that we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. The treasure, we are told is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God v6. The bowl was new and, of course, we are a new creation in Christ 2Cor 5:17. The bowl is, therefore, probably a picture of the believer – we who have been cleansed by Christ’s blood and are being sanctified by the Spirit’s purifying fire, prepared for the Master’s use. 2Tim 2:21
Salt
So does salt represent the gospel of purity and holiness as David Wilkinson suggests? Its use in OT sacrifices does suggest that and the preaching of the pure Word of God has often turned barrenness into fruitfulness. However, the main NT reference to salt is where Jesus said that His disciples are the salt of the earth – Mt 5:13. What did Jesus mean by this? Well, there are several characteristics or uses of salt that are relevant:
• Flavour – this is probably the primary meaning as Jesus went on to ask: but if the salt loses its flavour, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men – Mt 5:13. This was something that the Israelites would have understood. The rock salt from the Dead Sea area, which they used, was full of impurities so that the outer layer was generally lacking in flavour. This layer was therefore discarded.
A man who visited a salt mine said he broke off a piece of the mineral that had been exposed to the elements. He was surprised to find that even though it had sparkle and looked good, it had absolutely no flavour! But digging deeper, he found that the salt which was still in close contact with the rock retained its full tang and taste.
Are we so contaminated by the things and mindset of this world that we have no flavour? If so what use are we? Are we maintaining close fellowship with our Lord, the divine Rock? Do we add flavour to the world we live in? Do we, like Elisha, leave places we visit better than when we arrived? Do we sweeten bitter spirits and to make barren souls fruitful, by our kindness and witness? Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt. Col 4:6
• One of the main uses of salt, until recent years, was as a disinfectant and preservative. Salt was used to treat wounds so that they did not become infected and meat so that it would not rot. Like spiritual salt, the Church of Christ should, through the indwelling Holy Spirit, kill spiritual germs and restrain the advance of moral decay in the world about us. Where this salt is lacking, the world around us becomes more and more like hell itself.
A young American lawyer boasted that he was going West to find some place where there were no churches, no Sunday schools, no Bibles. Before the year was over, he wrote to a classmate. a young minister, begging him to come out where he was and start a Sunday school and preach, and “be sure to bring plenty of Bibles,” closing his letter with these words, “I have become convinced that a place without Christians and Sundays and churches and Bibles is too much like hell for any living man to stay in.” --Echoes
Our modern western society is far along the same journey. May God grant us the same change of heart, before we learn the folly of Godlessness the hard way! Even now, it seems to me, that God has given us up to uncleanness, Rom 1:24. It is as though He has said, So you want to live without me and my standards. OK, well let’s see how you get on on your own! And, most surely, the wrath of God is being revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness – Rom 1:18.
May God stir us up to pray for our nation, that He would send revival to His beloved Son's Church, turn the hearts of the people back to Himself and deliver us from the wrath that otherwise awaits us. May He use us to hinder decay in the world about us – even though we make people sting in the process.
• Salt also performs another function.
It has been said, “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.” I think that is errant nonsense. Place a salt tablet inside his lower lip and he will want to drink. The Bible says that we are the salt of the earth. We ought, therefore, to be able to make people thirsty for the water of life. One way to do this is simply to tell them about the wonders of the eternal life that Christ gives and to dwell upon that for a while. The frequent result is to see a spiritual thirst develop in the other person. – D. J. Kennedy
May we make men and women around us thirsty for the Living Water. What the people of Jericho really needed was not salt, but pure, life giving water. The salt was a means to an end and not an end in itself. So too, we are not to bury people under salt, that just makes dry, shrivelled corpses! We should just give them just enough salt to make them thirsty for Christ Himself!
Outcome
21 Then he went out to the source of the water, and cast in the salt there, and said, “Thus says the LORD: ‘I have healed this water; from it there shall be no more death or barrenness.’” 22 So the water remains healed to this day, according to the word of Elisha which he spoke.
Elisha acted under the direction of God and in His power. He might have done some trick to make the waters taste better for while, but this was a permanent change. When God intervenes in our lives He can make the evil which springs from our hearts and lips – that which causes barrenness – into a spring of clear water which brings life to all it touches.
Jn 4:10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” ... 13 “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 “but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
Jn 7:37 “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive.
This water of life is there for all that are thirsty to drink. Salvation is offered to all without distinction and without charge. May we faithfully declare the pure gospel so that men and women may come to know Christ so that He, by the Holy Spirit, may bring life where there was once only barrenness.
Re 21:6 And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.
Let me leave you with two crucial questions:
• Are you thirsty for more of Christ?
• Do you make others thirsty for Him?
If so then may God grant us to know more of His beloved Son and, if not, then may He make us thirsty by His Spirit, so that we may never be satisfied with this world’s polluted water supplies.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled. Mt 5:6
