Isaiah 20 | Wayfarer

…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.
Isaiah 20:2 (NIV)

I am taking a step back this morning and thinking long and hard on this little fact from this morning’s rather short chapter: God told Isaiah to strip and walk around naked as a living word picture and performance art piece that foretold what the Egyptians were going to experience under Assyrian captivity.

I heard the voices of many an uptight grandmother, legalistic preacher, and fundamentalist friend explaining that something must surely be lost in translation and God would never ask His servant to do something so shameful and improper. “Perhaps Isaiah just stripped down to his boxers or something,” I hear the voices say.

Yet just the next verse God makes the message very clear:

“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 20:4 [emphasis added]

Bare-assed shame was the crux of the message. God was not pulling any punches.

This morning I’m thinking about the ways I let social and societal mores mold the way I see God. The further I get in my life journey the more I’m aware that I sometimes like to put God in the box of my own design, constrained by my own social, cultural, political, and religious preconceptions. The more willing I am to let God out of my own mental and spiritual box, the more deep and full my understanding and appreciation of God becomes, and the more transformative that knowledge becomes in my own life.

God told Isaiah son of Amoz, "Go, take off your clothes and sandals," and Isaiah did it, going about naked and barefooted. Isaiah 20:2 (MSG)

Picture it yourself. Isaiah, the man of God, naked and barefoot walking through the streets of Jerusalem. People's eyes growing wide as they came upon him. Women screaming and quickly looking the other way so they don't have to look at his pasty white butt. People quickly crossing the street to avoid him. Men standing outside the local pub jeering at him. Good church-going religious people screaming insults and picking up stones to throw at him to punish his despicable act of public indecency.

Scandalous.
Preposterous.
Shameful.

"Quick! Hide the children's eyes!"

Imagine the talk at the dinner table that night.

"Who does he think he is? He calls himself a prophet? A man of God would never do that! God wouldn't ask someone to do something like that!"

"He's crazy, I tell you. Completely insane. I've always said that Isaiah was a few bricks shy of a full load."

"I'm telling you right now, we're going to the temple tomorrow and having a talk with the high priest. I'm going to give him a piece of my mind. Either that crack-pot, Isaiah, gets thrown out of the temple for good or I'm not going to give one more shekel to the Temple renovation project!"

Yes, God told him to do it. God is a God of metaphor and the prophets were his mouthpiece. The people refused to heed God's words, so God told Isaiah to give the good religious people of Jerusalem a word picture they could not ignore.

The more I study God's Message the more I conclude that God is not as concerned about social propriety as many of the people who claim to be His most faithful followers. God is much more concerned with our sincere and active love - our honest and humble obedience than he is about our propriety and public image.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and dieselbug2007