Isaiah 20

Isaiah didn’t just give messages. He also became them.

In Chapters 7 and 8 of the Book of Isaiah, God names the prophet’s sons for him. Names weren’t just names in ancient Hebrew. They had bigger meanings. God sent a prophetic message through Isaiah’s two kids:

-- Shear-Jashub: A remnant shall return
-- Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz: Quick to the plunder, swift to the spoil (Because the Assyrians would sack Judah)

In Chapter 20, He tells Isaiah not to wear a robe (sackcloth) or shoes for three years:

In the year that the supreme commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it — at that time the Lord spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz.  

He said to him, “Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet.” And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot.  

Then the Lord said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot for three years, as a sign and portent against Egypt and Cush, so the king of Assyria will lead away stripped and barefoot the Egyptian captives and Cushite exiles, young and old, with buttocks bared — to Egypt’s shame.” 

— Isaiah 20:1-4 

The context for this prophecy was the cold war between Egypt and Assyria. The two heavyweights were on a collision course. Smaller countries like Judah were stuck in the middle.

The Egyptians were putting together a military alliance against Assyria. The Philistines, Judah’s neighbors to the east in modern-day Gaza, signed up. Ashdod was one of their major cities:

But the Egyptians could do nothing to prevent Ashdod from being sacked by King Sargon II of Assyria in 711 BC. It was ten years after the fall of Israel, and ten years before Judah narrowly survived its own destruction.

Hoping in Egypt was foolish. Assyria had the strongest military in human history at the time. Egypt was a fading power trading on past glory.

Isaiah was clear about what to do. There was a spiritual reality behind the geopolitical trends. God was using the Assyrians to punish the Jewish people for their rebellion. Trying to resist that punishment by siding with a different foreign power was foolish. The only real hope for Judah was to repent and pray for a miracle:

Those who trusted in Cush and boasted in Egypt will be afraid and put to shame. In that day the people who live on this coast will say, “See what has happened to those we relied on, those we fled to for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?”  

— Isaiah 20:5-6 

After the fall of Ashdod, Isaiah began walking around the streets of Jerusalem barefoot and in his undergarments. It would have been humiliating. As a prophet who advised the King of Judah, he was an important figure in their society. Imagine a Senator or Congressman walking along the street in Washington D.C. and begging for change.

The other prophets had similar experiences. Hosea married a prostitute and repeatedly took her back after she cheated on him. Jeremiah brought all of Jerusalem’s leaders out to a field to watch him break a pot on the ground. Ezekiel spent most of his ministry humiliating himself, from laying in the dirt to chopping off his hair, eating dung, and going mute.

They all had to swallow their pride and be foolish for God. It could not have been easy, especially for people who consulted with kings. But their pride wasn’t as important as getting His message out in the world. They were vessels for something bigger than themselves.

All Christians have the same calling. It’s not that any of us are Isaiah, Jeremiah, or Ezekiel. They were sent to their people at a specific point of time in history to give a specific message about the future. But we all have to be willing to be foolish for God in the eyes of man:

Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. 

- Galatians 1:10 

Just being a Christian is foolishness in the eyes of man. We were told that from the very beginning:

For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. 

- 1 Corinthians 1:21-25 

You can’t preach the gospel without talking about God taking on flesh through a virgin birth, living a perfect life, dying for our sins, and rising from the dead. It sounds crazy to modern ears. Who could possibly believe this stuff anymore? This is 2020. We aren't living in the Middle Ages.

The supernatural parts of Christianity was the biggest stumbling block in my journey to faith. Could I not respect Jesus as a moral teacher and live by his principles without believing in obviously made up fairy tales?

But supernatural forces are actually the most logical explanation for everything that happened in his life. That's why most people who study it with an open mind become Christians. It just requires a dramatic perspective shift for "modern" people. You realize that the assumptions that are the building blocks of your modern belief system are just that -- assumptions. This is how the first Christians described the process:

Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord -- Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here -- has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit." Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, [emphasis added] and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

-- Acts 9:18-20 

Pretending the supernatural doesn't exist to make yourself look better to people who don't share your beliefs doesn't help anyone. It also makes Christianity less appealing.

If you apologize for what you believe and water down your principles to make them more appealing to a bigger audience, then why believe any of it? People respect confidence. People respect strength. You have to stand for something. It’s OK to look ridiculous to those who don’t know the truth.

There were a lot of people in Jerusalem who wrote off Isaiah as a crazy person when he walked around barefoot and shirtless for three years. Yet everything he predicted came to pass.

People walking in darkness aren’t supposed to understand those in the light. They live in the same world but see different things. As Drake said, we walk the same path, but got on different shoes; live in the same building, but got different views.

Following God starts with this simple truth. It doesn't matter what other people think of what He asks of us. Our identity doesn’t come from them. Our identity comes from what Jesus did on the cross.