Isaiah 1:8: “And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.”
This is a passage that seems to go unnoticed by most Christians as its meaning tends to be obscure. Yet, it presents a very sobering thought, to me and maybe to others.
The daughter of Zion is often a reference to Mt. Moriah, a small mountain near Jerusalem where the temple stood. In a figurative sense the prophet is saying that the temple will be left as a cottage in a vineyard. The word cottage is sort of a misleading translation of the word succoth. Many of you immediately recognize this word and when you hear it you do not think of a cottage as we consider a cottage. When we hear the word cottage we think of a comfortable little, sturdy house. However, when you hear Succoth you think of a flimsy little booth which the Jews stay in during the feast of Tabernacles. This is really what is being referenced.
During a time of harvest, whole families would live in the fields or vineyards to do their harvesting. They would set up lightly constructed booths made of brushwood that they would live in so as to protect their fields from thieves and to be near the field so they can begin the harvesting the first thing in the morning without having to make a journey to their fields each morning. After the harvest, the little shack would be left to face the elements and would gradually fall apart during the storms that would come over the year.
The word for lodge is molown which is an inn, an overnight stop over. It was really nothing more than a shelter where rather unsavory individuals would spend the night.
So what the prophet is saying is that because of the rejection of his people, he will leave them or abandon them and their temple would fall into ruin like a temporary booth set up during harvest time.
But there is also a secondary meaning behind this as well. There is a gradually deterioration to the elements and/or a take over by unsavory individuals. I have seen many believers, churches and ministries that were once very cutting edge, dynamic, filled with the power and presence of God harvesting lost souls. Now they are like booths in the field that have been abandoned after harvest. They are deteriorating and they don’t even realize it. They live on the glory of the past, but the presence of God is no longer there. They try to pump it up with a lot of shouting and fast music and make people think their booth is still filled with the presence of God and it is still harvest time, but in reality the harvest is long past, the harvester has left and their booth is in decline, and deteriorating. Yet, they dance around to the music and sing heart touching songs and say, “Oh, feel the presence of God, He is still here, but it is not the presence of God, it is just the effect of the music on one’s emotions. In ancient times they used to burn fragrances, use certain essential oils to create a feeling of euphoria, a sense of peace, tranquility and they would say, “See this is the presence of God, but it was not the presence of God, it was only the effect of the fragrances upon the emotions. The presence of God has long since left those churches or ministries which are in decline but people do not realize it, the substitute fragrances or music for the feel good.
Worse yet, some are like the lodges in the garden. They are becoming filled with unsavory type people. They are compromising with the world, trying to keep things going by using the marketing tools of the world and the wisdom of the world. They take surveys of the neighborhoods to see what the people want and what will bring them out to their churches or ministries. They seek to attract the media with their good works so as to attract more people and finances to the ministries or churches. But all the time their succoth, their booth in the harvest field has long been abandoned by God the one who will do the harvesting.
We need to occasionally sit back and take a good look at lives. We need to determine if we are just living on the glory of the past. We need to ask if our spiritual lives are not just empty abandoned booths. If our yahoos and praise alleluias are coming from a deep love for God or are just echoes of past glory. If maybe we are not sustaining ourselves through unsavory means. Maybe we are just playing worship music as the ancients burned oils or fragrances to create that good feeling that was once the presence of God in our lives. We are saying our praises, loud prayers, and prophecies etc to convince everyone we are still in the midst of the harvest. When there lies within us unconfessed sins and a booth that has long been abandoned by God.
When Moses came down from the mountain he had to put a veil over his face because the glory of the Lord was shining so bright. Yet Moses kept the veil over his face long after the glory had faded away. Why would he do such a thing? The Apostle Paul revealed Moses’s little secret in II Corinthians 3:13 “And not as Moses, [which] put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is faded.” Moses kept the veil over his face long after the glory faded because he did not want the people to see that the glory had faded. He was afraid the people would lose confidence in him as a spiritual leader because the glory had faded.
How like many of us Christians, the booth has long been abandoned, the glory has faded but we like the people of old who kept burning their oils of frankincense and myrrh to fabricate the tranquil, peaceful feelings they once felt with the presence of God, we keep playing our worship music slow or fast and dance around to fabricate the good feelings we once received from God rather than use these tools to prepare us, to calm us, relieve our stress so we can enter the presence of God and meditate on His Word and hear his voice without the distractions of the flesh. We use these tools as a veil over our face to cover up the fact that our booth has long been abandoned, the glory of the Lord has long faded away.
When a husband and wife have a disagreement, they don’t feel in love, they don’t even feel like they are married. But they are married and once they come to their senses they will sit down and talk things out, they will reconcile, the will repent, they will tell each how sorry they are. If they try to touch each other before repentance, they will only feel repulsed. They will try to touch each other, try to create those feelings again, but they will not feel that peaceful joy of each other presence until they repent and apologize. Even after a time of expressing their repentance they still do not feel the joy of their marriage and their touch still does not feel right, so they sit down to a quiet dinner. Perhaps she will light some candles with a gentle fragrance, he will put on a CD and play their favorite song and then as the fragrances of the candle and the music of their favorite song calms their spirits, ease their trouble minds, they begin to look into each other’s eyes and touch each other again. So too with God, we go out and sin and separate ourselves from God, we must first repent, tell God how sorry we are, then we can burn our fragrances, play our music and let these natural things that God created to sooth our troubled minds. Then God is ready to enter again into our abandoned booths, look into our eyes and once again touch us. This time it is not the joy or peace created naturally from the music or fragrances, it is the joy of the Lord and the peace of God.
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