Isaiah 20
COMMENTARY:
: 2 “at the same time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and remove the sackcloth from your body, and take your sandals off our feet.” And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.” The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982).
DEVOTION: As you read a portion of Scripture like this in Isaiah do you ask yourself the question, “Am I willing to do that for the Lord?” Am I obedient to some seemingly crazy request that the Lord asks of me? Do I trust and know the Lord’s voice well enough to distinguish between the inventive capacity of my imagination and the Lord’s directive? Isaiah as a prophet had heard the voice of God now repeatedly and listened to His commands. As believers we are called to listen and obey the Lord as He speaks to us. How can we do this?
George Mueller stated that, “to ascertain the Lord’s will we ought to use scriptural means. Prayer, the word of God and His Spirit should be united together. We should go to the Lord repeatedly in prayer, and ask Him to teach us by His Spirit through His word… No situation, no business will be given to me by God, in which I have not time enough to care about my soul.”
Be slow to take new steps in the Lord’s service; seek to have no will of your own; and when you have found out what the will of God is, seek for His help, earnestly, perseveringly, patiently, believingly and expectantly. (George Muller of Bristol by Arthur Pierson, 451-2.)
CHALLENGE: Are you willing to seek God voice through prayer, study and the leading of the Holy Spirit? It is well worth the effort! (Dr. Brian Miller – board member)
: 3 And the LORD said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia. (226 “sign” [owth] means token, pledge, omen, symbol, example, witness or warning.)
DEVOTION: So often we live in a family that has little discipline today. The government wants to take care of our children better than they think we can. They continue to make rules that parents are supposed to follow that are not the same rules that the LORD established in HIS Word, the Bible.
Parents are to discipline their children to the point that they will honor God and them. Some children are easy to raise without much difficulty. However, some children need a token that parents mean business.
In many books these children are called strong willed. When the LORD gave instructions to Israel, in the wilderness, HE stated that if a child is rebellious they were to take them to the elders and once the elders made a judgment that they were rebellious they were to stone the rebellious child to keep Israel obedient to the LORD. Seems like harsh treatment of a child. The book of Proverbs informs parents that they are to discipline with a rod to keep their child from going to Hell for eternity.
Here Isaiah is used as an example of what was going to happen in the future to Israel and Egypt and Ethiopia. He was to go around with bare feet and no clothes on to show that captivity was in the future.
Isaiah obeyed the LORD and walked around without clothes or shoes to get the attention of the children of Israel. So often they needed not only a time of preaching but a time of example of what the preaching meant. Even then they didn’t believe what the prophet/preacher taught. They thought that they were blessed of God and nothing could happen to them. They were wrong.
We sometimes feel that we can get away with not being obedient to the LORD and then we suffer the consequences of our actions. God loves HIS people Israel in the Old Testament and the church today. HE loves them so much that he disciplines them, so that, they will stay obedient to HIM. This is called chastening throughout the Bible. It is only done to those who are followers of the LORD.
CHALLENGE: Our obedience is necessary for the LORD’S blessing on our life. Disobedience bring chastening to help us turn around and follow the LORD again. Be warned!!!
: 5 And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory. (4007 “expectation” [mabbat] means object of hope or confidence, trusting in, or relying on.)
DEVOTION: As Isaiah continues to instruct the people of Israel to stop trusting in other nations for help against Assyria, they continue to not listen.
He sets a public example of what was going to happen to the nations they were looking to for help. He walks around for three years without his outer garment. Some commentaries think that he was just doing this part of the time for three years. Other commentators think that he did it for fourteen months.
However, he did it he set the stage for their demise. So, when the Israelites looked to Egypt and Ethiopia for help against Assyria, they were going to be disappointed. They were looking in the wrong direction for help.
Isaiah was an object lesson in human form that the LORD used to show the Israelites that even Egypt and Ethiopia were going to be defeated by the Assyria army.
As the people of God, we need to put our complete trust in HIM alone. Trust in anyone or any nation is worthless. Here are the people of God putting their trust in other governments. The governments will let them down. They were hoping in Ethiopia. They would be ashamed of this lack of trust in the LORD.
We are to pray for our government but trust in the LORD. Don’t look at the world we live in, but in the LORD, who rules eternity. HE is over all governments. Nothing happens, that surprises HIM in this world. HE knows this world from its creation through to the end of our present world.
Alliances are important to nations, just like alliances are important to those who are servants of the LORD. There are many denominations in our world today. Some denominations honor the LORD and others do not. We are to only make alliances with those who obey the LORD with their preaching and teaching and practice.
Are we ready to meet HIM? Is HE our only object of hope and confidence? We are HIS inheritance today. We have an inheritance from HIM!!!
Watch who your trust. Government is not the answer to our needs. False alliances with other denominations or churches that are not obedient to the Word of God are not good either. Don’t become a follower of a man or group, always be followers of the LORD first and foremost and then of those who honor HIM in word and deed.
CHALLENGE: Are you following a man who is not following the LORD? Are you attending a church that is not honoring the LORD? We have to make proper choices in these regards.
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