Isaiah 7:23
23 And it shall come to pass in that day, [yowm] that every place [maqowm]
shall be, where there were a thousand ['eleph]
vines [gephen] at a thousand ['eleph] silverlings, [keceph] it
shall even be for briers [shamiyr] and thorns. [shayith] KJV-Interlinear
23 And
it will come about in that day, that every place where there used to be a
thousand vines, valued at a thousand shekels of silver, will become briars and
thorns. NASB
The last three verses of
his chapter describe the great desolation that the land of Judah would become.
The currency of those
ancient days, was silver in the form of a coin called the shekel.
The shekel was both a
weight standard and a coin.
Before the invasion, the
land was prosperous and valuable. Any given
vineyard would be worth a silver coin for each vine. And larger vineyards had
vines that numbered into the thousands and were thus quite valuable.
But, agriculture in Judah
required constant maintenance, constant cultivation and as a result became
valuable.
That is a subtle
principle that describes the spiritual life of the individual. Your spiritual life requires constant maintenance,
constant cultivation and nurturing. The person
who maintains their spiritual life will become extremely valuable as a result.
And on the reverse side
of the table, when cultivation does not take place, then thorns and briers
result. The land, or the soul of the
individual, become worthless or without value.
And so it will be when
Judah is overrun. The population will be
decimated, leaving no one , or virtually no one, to cultivate and care for the
vineyards, or anything else for that matter. The result, the land will be
overrun with briers and thorns, and will become virtually useless. A vineyard that was once worth a thousand
pieces of silver, will now be worth nothing.
That is a dramatic drop in value, from one-thousand down to nothing.
In any decent economy,
when times are tough, you can at least get fire sale prices for property, but
when the prices drive down to zero, then that indicates phenomenal destruction
and desolation. Not to mention that there will be virtually no one to even make
an offer, nor anyone to receive an offer, and no one to do the work.
So, when you ignore or do
not take care of your own soul, then you are more or less investing in your own
destruction and worthlessness.
And note one important
thing, your investment in your spiritual life, is more than just mere lip
service, it is a commitment to a daily study, to constant residence in
fellowship, to continual learning and growth each and every moment of the day,
throughout your entire life.
The spiritual life is not
a once a weekend activity, not a once reading through the Bible and then you
know it, not a rendition of spiritual rhetoric, not the quoting of verses as
though that will communicate wisdom.
The spiritual life is
just like the garden that requires constant maintenance throughout the
year. Let it go and weeds will overtake
the garden, productivity will fall, and its value will vanish.
You are the garden,
doctrine is the gardener the water the nutrition required. Withhold doctrine and you will have what?
