Metaphysical meaning of Tel-melah (mbd)
Tel-melah, tel-me'-lah (Heb.)--hill of salt; hill of the covenant; oath hill.
A Babylonian city from which some of the Jews who could not prove their lineage returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel (Ezra 2:59).
Meta. A lifting, in consciousness, of the thought of preservation of life and of the sureness, the inviolability, of Truth but a failure to cleanse oneself from the errors of sense (hill of salt, hill of the covenant, oath hill, a city of Babylonia from which there returned to Jerusalem Levites who were unable to prove their lineage). Salt represents a preservative quality. "Ye are the salt of the earth," Jesus said to His disciples. By some of the Eastern peoples a covenant sealed by an exchange of salt was considered very binding.
The mind of Spirit expressing in and through man tends toward lengthened life, and God omnipresent in the universe keeps life in existence. Lot's wife looked back and became a pillar of salt. This teaches us that if we continue to long for and keep the mind's eye fixed on the things of sense, which we should leave behind after we have turned consciously to God and Truth, we shall become like salt that has "lost its savor" and is "good for nothing"--we shall be of little worth in either the old life or the new (see Matt. 5:13). Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden of Eden lest they should partake of the tree of life and live forever in their limitations and errors. So we should be faithful in holding for the cleansing, purifying presence of the Christ to put away every. thought of and desire for that which belongs to the worldly, carnal, and adverse in us; thus we shall become new vessels and shall be able to contain aright the wondrous and abundant life that Jesus Christ came to bring to light.
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Preceding Entry: Tel-harsha
Following Entry: Tema
