2 Kings 2:20    Bring me a new bowl," he said, "and put salt in it." So they brought it to him.

 

This is one of the stories about Elisha. He was living in Jericho at the time, when the people of the town came to him and told him that the water of the town was bad and the land unproductive. This is when he makes this pronouncement and proceeds to put salt in the local spring and declare God's healing over it.

 

Why a new bowl? I'm not sure, we are not told, but two thoughts come to mind. First a new bowl would be completely clean, not having been used before. To be part of the cleansing work of God we are called to be clean and holy. We saw yesterday how we have been given new lives. This bowl represents those lives. The second possible reason is that being new, as we've already noted, it wouldn't be contaminated with anything and so it is going to be the salt and only the salt that purifies the water.

 

Today we know that salt has a purifying or healing effect and indeed Jesus called us the salt of the earth (Mt 5:13), and our lives are to bring cleansing by the work of the word and the Spirit through us. Our words and our deeds are to have this same cleansing effect in the world, but the words and deeds are to come through new, cleansed lives that rely for nothing from the old life, only from what the Lord does in us and provides through us. New holy lives are needed, therefore, to bring the cleansing and healing salt that the world needs.