Isaiah 4:6: “And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.”
Isaiah was a prophet to the nation of Judah. His prophecies were filled with double meanings and not even he himself knew what it all meant and only future generations would see it’s fulfillment. One example is 7:14: “Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and call his name Immanuel.” Now this was a prophecy given to Ahaz when he faced the threat of the Assyrians who laid siege against Jerusalem. Ahaz thought he was a goner when Isaiah told him the Lord would give him a sign. That sign was that a child would be born and before the child reached an age of knowing right from wrong (age of accountability), the siege would end. A child was born to Ahaz and before that child reached the age of four, history tells us that the Assyrian army came down with the trots and had to abandon the siege. Yet, eight hundred years later there was another fulfillment of that prophecy with the birth of Jesus.
In verse 4:6 we have a similar on-going” prophecy. Isaiah is predicting a time when Judah would be totally devastated, laying in ruin. There would be total economic collapse, riots, invasion by a foreign army, disease, and famine. Yet, there would be a remnant. There would be those who would be called holy, separated, and removed. True, this is speaking of the time when Judah would be laid to waste, but those who are holy to God would be protected. But this is also a picture of the coming of Jesus who would make us holy to God and bring us into eternal protection from the consequences of our sin. I also see another application. This is a personal application.
And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow. The word tabernacle here is sukah. This word has a wide range of usages. It’s primary use is for a covering. It is used for a cloud that covers. This was the cloud that the children of Israel walked in during the daytime while in the wilderness. This cloud completely encompassed them. This was the presence of God. They spend forty years in the desert. The desert destroys. Without divine intervention no one can survive. For forty years the people of Israel faced the harsh reality of cruel and uncaring forces of nature – bitter cold by night and blistering heat by day. They survived by the miracle of the sukah, the protective cloud that surrounded them. Every year the Jews celebrate the Succoth, the Feast of Tabernacles. They dwell in little huts during this celebration to commemorate the protection of God during the wandering in the desert.
Here now in Isaiah 4:6 we, who are made holy through Jesus Christ. will have that same cloud of protection, the sukah. But it will be a cloud for salal (shadow). We can render this as shade or shadow but its Semitic root has the idea of a tingling or a pleasurable feeling. When all around us is devastation, famine, economic collapse, disease or whatever, God will encompass use with His presence and we will feel a tingling, we will be become a part of His pleasure. It will be a shelter from the storms of life.
But soft, check out the gematria of sukah. Sukah has a numerical value of 91. Samek = 60,
Vav = 6, Kap = 20, and Hei = 5 which totals 91. 91 is expressed in Hebrew as ze which means to leave, or to remove oneself. To enter this protection of God we must voluntarily remove ourselves from the cares of this world. The idea is not to physically remove yourself from the cares of this world, but mentally, by focusing your full thoughts and attention on God. In other words to focus on His holiness and worshipping Him.
There is an old sailor’s saying: “Under the shadow (sala) of God we will be smiling at the rainstorms.”
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