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Context No. 3205 of 4322 · Isaiah

Context · Reflection

Isaiah 20:1-6: in context

1In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it; 2at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loosen the sackcloth from off your waist, and take your sandals from off your feet.” He did so, walking naked and barefoot. 3The LORD said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder concerning Egypt and concerning Ethiopia, 4so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. 5They will be dismayed and confounded, because of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory. 6The inhabitants of this coast land will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is our expectation, where we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria. And we, how will we escape?’”

God asks a startling thing of Isaiah: to loosen the sackcloth from his waist and take the sandals from his feet and walk stripped and barefoot for three years, as a sign against Egypt and Ethiopia. So the king of Assyria will lead them away as captives, stripped and shamed, and those who trusted in them will despair.

It is a costly, humbling sign, the prophet becoming the message with his own body, embodying in his own humiliation the coming shame of the nations. And the point is sharp. The very nations Judah was tempted to trust for rescue from Assyria, Egypt and Ethiopia, would themselves be led away captive and shamed. To lean on these powers was folly; they could not save even themselves. Isaiah's uncomfortable sign was a mercy, a vivid warning against placing hope in worldly powers that will fail exactly when they are needed.

Where am I tempted to trust worldly powers for rescue, and do I heed God's warnings, however uncomfortable, that such trust will fail?

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