As our chapter opens the Assyrians have captured a great city of Philistia, called Ashdod. "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." (Isaiah 20:1-2a)
Ashdod was one of the top five largest cities in Philistia. You may recall that earlier in the book of Isaiah we found Isaiah delivering a prophecy against the Philistines, who were ancient enemies of the people of Israel. Although the descendants of Jacob were probably not sorry to see the Philistines defeated in a battle, the fact that Ashdod had fallen meant that the Assyrians were continuing to advance toward them. The news that Ashdod had fallen would have been quite alarming.
In the year that this news comes, the Lord tells Isaiah to do something unusual. "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." (Isaiah 20:2b) Prophets tended to wear rough clothing, like sackcloth, to signify sorrow over the sad spiritual condition of their nation. It was also a sign of humility. Isaiah is to humble himself even further by removing the garment of a prophet and by removing the sandals from his feet as he walks throughout the land proclaiming the message of the Lord.
Some versions of the Bible use the word "naked" when describing how Isaiah walked throughout the land. Many scholars dispute that translation since the Bible does not encourage immodesty. It would have been a shame and disgrace for a child of God to appear in public unclothed and this is why so many scholars believe that all Isaiah was asked to do was remove his outer garment and to walk around wearing the long undergarment.
People will stop and stare at him as he does this, which is what the Lord intends, because Isaiah's appearance is to be a sign to everyone. "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 captives and Cushite exiles, young and old, with buttocks bared---to Egypt's shame.'" (Isaiah 20:3-4)
The text above lends credence to the theory of some scholars that Isaiah actually was naked, but that is still not necessarily so, for conquerors had a habit of cutting off the undergarment robes of their captives just below the buttocks in order to humiliate them. An example of this occurred when some of David's men were poorly treated by King Hanun of the Ammonites. David sent an envoy to the king as a gesture of goodwill but Hanun ordered his soldiers to cut off the men's garments at the buttocks and to shave half their beards off. (This passage can be found in 2 Samuel 10.) It's possible that Isaiah wore his undergarment shortened, or that he wore only his undergarment, or that he was unclothed.
Whatever actually happened here in regard to how much or how little Isaiah is wearing, the purpose is to provide a visual aid to go along with the prophecy he is delivering. "Those who trusted in Cush and boasted in Egypt will be dismayed and put to shame. In that day the people who live on the 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)
In Chapter 19, when we studied Isaiah's prophecy against Egypt, we found him ending on a hopeful note: someday there will be a widescale turning to the Lord in Egypt. But that doesn't mean Isaiah's nation of Judah should ally itself with Egypt and with Egypt's Cushite king against Assyria. Assyria will conquer Egypt and will take captive many Egyptians and Cushites. At this time in history the Egyptians and Cushites are idolatrous heathens and the Lord's people are not to place their trust in pagans but in the Lord. The Lord is Judah's strength; all other help will fail.
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