Isaiah’s Nakedness: A Symbol of Obedience and Judgment

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“In the year when King Sargon of Assyria sent his commander in chief to capture the Philistine city of Ashdod, the Lord told Isaiah son of Amoz, “Take off the burlap you have been wearing, and remove your sandals.” Isaiah did as he was told and walked around naked and barefoot. Then the Lord said, “My servant Isaiah has been walking around naked and barefoot for the last three years. This is a sign—a symbol of the terrible troubles I will bring upon Egypt and Ethiopia. For the king of Assyria will take away the Egyptians and Ethiopians as prisoners. He will make them walk naked and barefoot, both young and old, their buttocks bared, to the shame of Egypt. Then the Philistines will be thrown into panic, for they counted on the power of Ethiopia and boasted of their allies in Egypt! They will say, ‘If this can happen to Egypt, what chance do we have? We were counting on Egypt to protect us from the king of Assyria.’””Isaiah 20:1-6 NLT

Here is a short but profound chapter in Isaiah, containing themes that, in many ways, continue the previous few chapters, containing as they do prophetic warnings of God’s judgment yet to come. It may be interesting to note for us Scottish readers that the name of King Sargon’s command-in-chief was “Tartan”. However, Isaiah was told to remove “the burlap” that he had been wearing, the idea being to imply shame. It’s highly likely the prophet kept a loincloth on, but nevertheless what he was wearing, or the lack of it, was seen as a humbling state of undress. Given the customs of the day, anyone who saw the prophet in public undressed in this manner would not forget the image.

This was an extraordinary command for the prophet, and he lived this way for three years, becoming a living illustration of God’s impending judgement. He probably endured embarrassment, ridicule, misunderstanding and criticism, yet he obeyed anyway. We pilgrims should note that faithfulness is not measured by public approval but by obedience to God. Sometimes God asks us to forgive when others demand revenge or He asks, even expects, us to remain honest when dishonesty would benefit us. We must speak the truth graciously and wait patiently rather than forcing events. Obedience to God often looks foolish before it proves wise. Jesus said, “If you love me, obey my commandments” (John 14:15). How often have we read that short verse without ever realising what it could mean in practice? And yet in our society, there are men and women who are prepared to stand on street corners, giving out tracts or Gospels, or preaching the Good News about Jesus. In the city of Dunfermline, where I live, occasionally a man walks around wearing what is called a sandwich board, displaying a number of Bible verses and encouraging people to turn to God before it is too late. But how would we respond if God asked us to do the same? We could also take note of the faith of men like Abraham and Noah. Hebrews 11:8, “It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going”. That was a big ask in those days, to leave a place of comfort and head into the unknown to live in a tent. And then we have the story of Noah in the previous verse, “It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith”. Imagine the hassles he received! And then we have Samuel’s rebuke to Saul in 1 Samuel 15:22, “But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams””. Jesus’ command “If you love me, obey my commandments”is something we pilgrims must take seriously.

Isaiah’s near-nakedness symbolised humiliation and captivity, and that was the message that he took to people around him. It wasn’t a brief act carried out on a Saturday afternoon in a shopping mall somewhere. Isaiah’s message was in the public square for three years and his actions would have become well known in his nation, as the word spread around. The people had ample time to consider their positions and attitudes, their sins and evil acts, because God gave them the time. But the inhabitants had a false sense of security, thinking that the Egyptians would come and save them. In our verses today, we read, “they counted on the power of Ethiopia and boasted of their allies in Egypt”. But we find that the Assyrians and the Egyptians themselves would suffer the same fate as the inhabitants of Ashdod. At times like this, we pilgrims should stop and consider where we are placing our own security. 

The image of the near-naked Isaiah in a way points to Jesus. There on the cross we read that He was publicly humiliated as we read in John 19:23, “When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they divided his clothes among the four of them. They also took his robe, but it was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom”. Naked on the cross of execution, stripped of His garments, mocked and shamed, Jesus bore all of that for us, and it is the more remarkable that He knew what was coming. Unlike Isaiah, who merely portrayed judgement, Jesus actually bore our judgement.

Isaiah wore the sign of another nation’s shame, but Jesus carried our shame so that we might be clothed with His righteousness. In Hebrews 12:2, we read, “We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honour beside God’s throne“. Similarly, we read in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ”. However, in both Isaiah’s and Jesus’ acts of obedience, something was demanded of the people. That was, they had to accept the message and be obedient to what God required before they could experience the benefits of His grace.

Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You for Your grace and mercy, and thank You for Jesus, who died so that we would not have to face the consequences of our sins. Now righteous before You, we offer up our praise and worship to You. Amen.

Go and Wash

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“They asked, “Who healed you? What happened?” He told them, “The man they call Jesus made mud and spread it over my eyes and told me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash yourself.’ So I went and washed, and now I can see!” “Where is he now?” they asked. “I don’t know,” he replied.“
John 9:10-12 NLT

The events that took place that Sabbath day caused quite a stir in the blind man’s community. It was unheard of for a blind man to receive his sight and the people there wanted an explanation. They knew the man had been blind because, after all, he had been born in that community. He had grown up there, and he now had to survive by abandoning any hope of personal dignity or respect and beg for alms, for money. There was no safety net of state handouts, and people in those days who were unable to work either begged for the money they needed to live on or they died. These poor unfortunate people were not like the beggars we meet on the streets in our towns and cities here in the UK. These were desperate people who cried out for alms as their fellow countrymen walked past. 

The blind man’s life had been turned upside down by his encounter with Jesus. He had to adapt to a whole new way of living, and would now have to work for his livelihood, perhaps labouring in the fields or some other manual task. And his first challenge was to convince those in his community that he was now a different man. The people around him had to adjust as well, because the man no longer blind was a living and walking challenge to their religious complacency. The religion they followed was not powerful enough to heal a blind man, but they had heard about this Man who claimed to be the Son of God and who could heal the sick, the blind and the lame. And this Man said to them that He also had the power to assure them of eternal life if they believed in Him. 

So the people interrogated the man to try and ascertain if there was some trickery going on. “How did He do it?”, they asked. The response was factual and so matter of fact that it must have been true. The man’s testimony has leapt from these pages in John 9 for two thousand years or so, encouraging and challenging all who read them.

The man was healed because he obeyed what Jesus had told him to do. Are we pilgrims equally as obedient. Let me ask a question – what has Jesus told us to do that we haven’t done yet? It may be something lacking the drama of that Sabbath day in Jerusalem, but important nevertheless. The blind man had a choice about obeying Jesus’ command, “go and wash”. And we too have a choice. On our discipleship pilgrimage wen will often come up against boulders that block our way forward. Many will camp there and give up the journey, saying this Christian life is too hard. But us hardy pilgrims reach out to God for His grace and strength to be overcomers. The apostle Paul wrote, “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). We have the power within us, to be applied with faith and fortitude. And before us the boulders will turn out to be no more than a pebble on the ground.

Dear Father God. Thank You for Your strength and resources. We have not suffered in the way that Paul did on his missionary journeys, but we have challenges nevertheless. We are soldiers of Christ, able to press on His name. Amen.

Time to Go

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Jesus knew the Pharisees had heard that he was baptizing and making more disciples than John (though Jesus himself didn’t baptize them—his disciples did). So he left Judea and returned to Galilee.”
John 4:1-3 NLT

‭Jesus had become aware that He had appeared on the Pharisee’s radar. This formidable group of Jewish leaders were very influential in Jesus’ day and they seemed to be quite popular with the people, though why this should be is unclear. The Pharisees promoted strict adherence to the Jewish Law – all 600 laws as recorded in the Torah – but they also followed the Jewish oral traditions that they believed had originated in the time of Moses. It must have been hard to be a Pharisee, but they were a self-righteous bunch and believed that if they kept all these laws and traditions then God would be pleased with them. Jesus had little time for them, as on several occasions he called them hypocrites, and we read what He said about them in Matthew 23:2-4, “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden”. Jesus respected them to the extent of their knowledge of the Jewish Law, but He saw right through them into what was in their hearts. 

So why did Jesus want to leave a successful disciple-making venture in Judea and return to Galilee? Perhaps He didn’t want to confront and alienate the Pharisees just yet, as He was only at the start of His ministry. Or perhaps His Father communicated other plans. Or perhaps He knew that through His cousin John the Baptist, the baptismal ministry was in good and safe hands, and He was needed elsewhere.

It is human nature that should a person become successful at something, then they want to stay in that zone for as long as possible. This can particularly apply to people in an up-front church ministry, someone such as a worship leader or pastor. They feel that success gives them a right to continue even though God might be saying something else. It is very rare to find a leader with John the Baptist’s humility, as we read in John 3:29-30, “It is the bridegroom who marries the bride, and the bridegroom’s friend is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at his success. He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less“. Paul the Apostle also taught humility, as we read in Philippians 2:3-4, “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too”.

Very perceptively, John the Baptist said, “ … No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven” (John 3:27). Those in an upfront church ministry are anointed by God for their role but sometimes their conduct will bar them from continuing, as certain televangelists have found. In the Bible too we find the example of Saul who, through his disobedience, lost his anointing as king of Israel. 1 Samuel 15:22-23, “But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols. So because you have rejected the command of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”” 

The lesson to us pilgrims is that we must always be in a position where we are totally reliant on God and obedient to what He wants us to do. There is no other way.

Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You for Your guidance, keeping us on the path to eternal life. While we are here on earth please lead us in Your ways. In Jesus’ name. Amen.