“The Lord spoke to Isaiah the son of Amos saying, Go and remove the sackcloth from your body, and take your sandals off your feet. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.” Isaiah 20:2
Three things:
1. First Israel was under Hezekiah and prospering rightly. They were being protected by both their own prosperity as well as Egyptian and Ethiopian treaties. God is saying, don’t rely on outside treaties or arrangements, only God will protect you. Where is God asking you to repent of trusting in your/our own wisdom and provision?
2. Next, God asks Isaiah to walk naked and barefoot in front of the nation in order to “wake them up” to the reality of the fact that the Assyrians are going to defeat both the Egyptians and Ethiopians and eventually take the Jews captive. Will the Jews heed Isaiah’s crazy GOD REQUESTED warnings? Nope…
3. Third, it is very, very hard to make changes in our lives unless something catastrophic happens. It is just human nature. Still, God’s grace pours forth in and from our lives. Know this, however disjointed and “hypocritical” or uneven or “naked” you and your life may feel to you as a Christian, people are watching you and your life and finding Jesus!!
Will you obey God if He asks you this year, to take off your identity (Isaiah had to take off his prophetic garments and may have been scantily clad but not in his “uniform”), and walk around for three years as a warning to people who were living in excessive abundance?
What “naked man” has God sent your way to warn you?!
The Lord has given us a fresh new word for next year that ties in to this warning of love and grace and obedience. I will share that next week after Christmas.
Merry Christmas and look for the “naked man” the Lord is sending your way. For you and your family, it will turn from you warning people about trusting in corrupt and decaying flesh, treaties, and man made arrangements that crumble, to the work of the Holy Spirit and a life lived in great freedom and abundance, managed WISELY, by a God who will direct you like Joseph, to store up in a season of plenty, so you can help, serve and save those around you during the season of want.