The Watchtower and the Winepress

 

A few years ago, I found myself in my juicing era. It likely started from a social media trend, where juicing suddenly became the cure for migraine headaches, bloating, and all other ailments. I fell for this trend too and purchased an excellent quality juicer, eagerly awaiting its arrival in the mail. I went to the grocery store and stocked up on a variety of healthy vegetables and fruits.

I gathered our girls, and we were excited to make our first cup of juice. However, our initial juicing experience was somewhat disappointing. Despite all the fruits and vegetables I had bought and the hard work of cleaning and peeling them, we only ended up with one tall glass of juice to share among the five of us. We were annoyed at how much waste there was; it was surprising to realize how much work and produce was needed to make just one glass of juice.

As I studied various sections of the scriptures, I discovered that juicing played a significant role in ancient life, particularly with pomegranates, figs, and especially with grapes and winemaking. I found beautiful stories in both the Old and New Testaments describing the ideal vineyard that God Himself watches over (Isaiah 5). (Matt. 21:33). These stories of God's vineyards consistently include similar structures: a watchtower and a wine press. The watchtower and the wine press are almost always mentioned together.

Over time, I have come to realize that the watchtower and the wine press hold significant spiritual meaning in our lives. The watchtower, as described in Habakkuk 2:1, is a place where an individual stations themselves to watch for incoming messengers or intruders. The prophet Habakkuk describes himself as someone who is positioned on the watchtower to receive messages from God. Those stationed at the watchtower are always in a state of quiet waiting and stillness. Spiritually, this resembles how we New Testament Christians wait on God's word. We watch and wait for Him to speak to our hearts as we meditate on His word.

Then there is the wine press. The wine press closely relates to my juicing experience. While watching and waiting on God's word, we often process a great deal of reading. Sometimes it feels like we've gone through chapter after chapter without extracting much "juice" from it; but God often uses very little of what we've processed to speak to our hearts. For me, it is often just a few words that I find the Holy Spirit is highlighting, or sometimes a particular phrase. In these few words or phrases, God always has a new lesson for me to learn, providing me with instruction and direction.