Exodus 30:35
make a fragrant blend of incense, the work of a perfumer. It is to be salted and pure and sacred. (NIV)
Today’s Reading: Exodus 30:34-38 and Colossians 4:2-6
God gives Moses the formula for a fragrant blend of incense that would be burned and offered up twice a day. This incense was made of fragrant spices that are difficult to identify today. There are four spices plus salt. The four spices are:
- gum resin
- onycha
- galbanum
- pure frankincense
The gum resin is literally translated as drops of stacte. This refers to the oozing gum resin from trees that could either be myrrh or a direct relation. It was rare and valuable during biblical times. Onycha is thought to be an aromatic powder derived from mollusk shells. Galbanum is a very strong smelling gum resin taken from the stalk of the Ferula plant. The odor is not pleasing and has a pungent turpentine-like scent. Frankincense is a resin from Boswellia trees.
The final ingredient is salt. The other four ingredients were to be measured in equal amounts. The amount of salt added appears to be at the discretion of the perfumer. This is a curious ingredient because salt is primarily used as a preservative in ancient Biblical times. However incense doesn’t go bad and doesn’t need a preservative.
We may find the answer in Leviticus. “Season all your grain offerings with salt. Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings” (Lev 2:13). God commanded that all grain offerings be seasoned with salt. Grain offerings wouldn’t need a preservative either.
Salt was a valued commodity in ancient times. So much so that salt was sometimes used as a unit of exchange. It would’ve been seen as a sacrifice to give up salt. Salt was a necessity of life. It was used by many cultures as a seasoning, preservation and disinfectant.
Being a preservative, salt is symbolic of the permanence of the covenant between God and the Israelites. The phrase Covenant of salt was another way of saying everlasting covenant. Adding salt to the incense offered in the Holy Place would be a reminder that the ability for the priests to approach God in prayer was based on the covenant relationship that God established.
Fast forward to the New Covenant that God established with us through Jesus. Jesus says we are to be the “salt of the earth” (Matt 5:13). Then we are also told by Paul, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone” (Col 4:6).
Both of these references to salt are referring to our roles on earth as a preservative. As Christ-followers, we are to remind the world of God’s covenant with us in Jesus. We are the hands and feet of Jesus to the world around us that is constantly searching for meaning.
In order to be the salt of the earth, we must be people of prayer. Remember that incense is symbolic of our prayers. When we approach God in prayer, we can only approach him on the basis of the finished work of Jesus on the cross. We do not come to God on our own merits. We come in the name of Jesus, relying on the new covenant with God. Our only access to the Father is through Jesus.
Christ in the Old Testament 
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