Naked and Ashamed

We'll continue in Isaiah this afternoon we've been looking at the various oracles against the

nations in Isaiah going through all the different oracles and We spent two weeks

in the oracle against Egypt and now we're continuing that oracle with chapter 20

with a historical narrative that appears in the

Attached as a postfix to the oracle.

Maybe it should be counted as part of the oracle itself or maybe just on an addition that appropriately

applies here.

But this falls within this section.

So go ahead and please stand and turn to Isaiah 20 and we'll read the whole chapter together.

Say it's 20 in the year that the commander -in -chief who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria Came to

Ashdod and fought against it and captured it at that time the Lord spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz

saying go and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet and he did

so walking naked and barefoot.

Then the Lord said as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a

portent against Egypt and Cush.

So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and with the Cushite exiles.

Both the young and the old naked and barefoot with buttocks uncovered the nakedness of Egypt

then they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast and

The inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day behold this is what

has happened to those and whom we have hoped and To whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of

Assyria and we how shall we escape?

You may be seated dearly father

we thank you for your word.

I ask that you would Make your message clear for us this morning pray that you would use

me to deliver your words plainly.

I pray that the people here would have their hearts open and their ears open By your

spirit.

They might hear your truth and God.

I pray that you would Do your work among us by your word in Jesus name.

Amen.

The end of our life on Judgment Day.

We will stand before God either proud or ashamed.

Those are the only two options if we are proud we will be Proud and what the Lord

has done through us or if we are ashamed It'll be we will be ashamed because of what we have put

our hope in.

Now the way the work the Bible uses the word ashamed very often is not

Necessarily to speak of one's present conditions but of one's

Emotions having trusted in something that has failed them.

You know If you just go through and look at all the time the Bible speaks of being ashamed.

You will find that this is often the case in Romans 1 16 where it says for I

am NOT ashamed of the gospel of Christ because the power of God for salvation to the

Jew first and also to the Greek.

When the Bible says that Why was he not ashamed because it is the power of God to salvation because on

that final day it will not fail him.

One is ashamed when what they have relied on fails.

And so here when Isaiah speaking God's words about Egypt and the people

who have consistently wanted to go back to Egypt so many times before and At

this time in Israel's history want to go rely on Egypt to defend them

from their enemies.

God is saying that they will be ashamed if they rely on them rather than on him.

The only way they can avoid being ashamed is to rely on him instead so we're gonna look at this

passage and Isaiah is going to say very clearly that he's going to speak of the

snakiness and the snakiness point to to Israel shame and the only way we can avoid

this shame is by looking to Christ.

All right, let's begin here in verse 1 and The year that the commander -in -chief who was

sent by Sargon the king of Assyria came to Ashdod and

Fought against it and captured it at that time the Lord spoke by Amoz the son of

Excuse me by Isaiah the son of Amoz saying go and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take

off your sandals from your feet and He did so walking naked and barefoot.

So just considering the timing of this event At that time

the Lord spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz.

I Think the right way of understanding this is not that At this time he goes

and looses the sackcloth from his feet.

Because in verse 3 it says then the Lord said as my servant Isaiah has walked around naked and barefoot.

I believe that this is what God speaks at that time and this is generally how this is understood by

people that study this passage and Consider the history of Israel is that God had

told Isaiah to walk around naked and barefoot.

And so in this year, he then tells Isaiah to speak these words.

Because think about this if the Lord is speaking by Isaiah Why would he speak to Isaiah right the the words that

he is speaking by Isaiah start in verse 3.

Not they are not specifically the words in verse 2.

So this attack comes after Isaiah has been doing this act, right?

He has been he has taken off his clothes.

He is going around naked and he is Demonstrating something to the people of Israel and this

is and then this event occurs to show What it was that Isaiah was demonstrating all

during that time.

Now people have asked is Isaiah really naked.

When he's doing this or is he just does he just have a loincloth on or something like that?

If you consider what it says You know the normal work use of the word

naked and then on top of that it speaks of

his sackcloth.

To feel abrasive.

Isaiah is already in some kind of state of mourning.

It's to feel abrasive against him.

It's supposed to be his underwear, right?

This is the part that's actually touching his skin if God is telling him to remove that he's actually telling him to be naked

so it's a it's very common to want to for Reasons understanding, you know what the

bible considers to be propriety about these things to say.

Oh, no, there's no way he could have Isaiah do this.

You know, uh, God calls another prophet to go marry a prostitute, right?

There's all kinds of things that happen in the bible that rub against moral sensibilities.

But I think there's good reason to just uh take this simply as what it's as what is stated here not.

Uh try to mitigate it in some way.

So isaiah is doing this act and it's this very um.

It's for a reason that God doesn't just speak by words and he speaks by actions in this circumstance.

Uh, there's another prophet.

Who does this much more commonly if you ever read the book of ezekiel?

It's sign act after sign act after sign act a sign act being, you know, he does something.

To demonstrate something and the people don't know what it is until afterward then he gives the interpretation of what he did.

You know, God says lay on your side for a long period of time.

Build a mock city and then do this to it and then later explain to the people what you were doing.

So when God Speaks in this way.

By having his prophets do these signs.

Not miraculous signs, but just normal signs it is to give us a very visceral image of

what's going on.

Right if isaiah is going around naked and God required his prophet to do this.

Just very humiliating thing.

It was not without cause God loved his servant.

Isaiah.

He would only have him do this if he wanted so much to communicate to us in such a

visceral manner how Great the shame would be of relying on someone other than

the lord.

So as you consider why is this odd passage in here?

It's to leave a mark on your mind on your psyche as you read this.

That wow, this shame is a great thing if God would require this of his prophet to show it

so in verse 3.

Then the lord said as my servant isaiah has walked Naked and barefoot for

three years as a sign and a portent against egypt and kush.

So shall the king of assyria lead away the egyptian captives and the kushite exiles both the

young and the old.

Naked and barefoot with buttocks uncovered the nakedness of egypt so.

Very literally this refers to the nakedness of egypt.

Isaiah's nakedness refers to the nakedness of egypt.

This is something that assyria would do to humiliate their captives.

I would cut off their clothes and have them March back to assyria as captives

naked.

And this is something you see elsewhere in scripture, too if you remember david Sent

messengers to hanun in order to comfort him and hanun his advisors told him these have to be spies.

They can't really be here to comfort you and so he cuts off their clothes at their waist.

So they have to go back With their lower half uncovered.

So this is something you see elsewhere in scripture where people would do this to humiliate others.

And we have other examples of nakedness in the bible to let us know that this is supposed to represent shame.

We have micah who?

Who was uncovered for a period of time to show the coming shame on israel?

There was also saul who?

By the holy spirit was led to prophesy naked.

To represent the coming shame of his ministry or excuse me of his uh of his kingship.

You know given that he would eventually be uh this fallen king

uh verse five.

Then they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of cush their hope and of egypt their boast

so Here it very directly says That this nakedness refers to shame.

They will be ashamed because they have hoped in cush.

They'll be ashamed because they hoped in egypt, you know cush and egypt being Powers that work together

that are close to each other

and just making sure I didn't miss something.

Okay so ever since

the garden of eden God has used nakedness to represent shame right in the garden of eden.

They were naked they were unashamed.

But then when they ate of the fruit, they realized that they were naked and they were ashamed and so

god had to Make a sacrifice for them to clothe them and cover them and then they were

no longer ashamed because their nakedness.

And so that's what god is pointing out to this people that they must not hope in something else.

They must not boast in In these other things that will leave them ashamed instead.

They must only boast in the lord because the lord will not leave them ashamed.

And this analogy of clothing is it's not the first time it showed up in isaiah either consider isaiah one.

Where it said though your clothes are like scarlet.

They would be white as snow.

God has been from the beginning of isaiah.

Calling the people to come to him for right clothing to come to him for

full garments.

The one who comes to god Receives clothing so that he will not be ashamed on the day of judgment.

Galatians 3 says that the one All who have been baptized in christ will be clothed

by christ.

The one who comes to jesus christ is fully clothed is unashamed

and remember that that phrase ashamed has to do with

Realizing that the thing you trusted in that the thing you had counted as As

sufficient for you to be enough.

Because why would you be ashamed merely because of your condition?

Maybe certain conditions are more shameful than other but they say something about who you are about what you have done

and if you are sitting in this condition because of the course of action you took because of the thing you tried to Put

your trust in right.

You know, there's all kinds of stupid things that people do that leave them in terrible conditions.

You know, they invest all their money into.

I remember when I was in the back in the 90s, you know Beanie babies or something think oh, yeah, this is a great investment.

It'll pay off great later.

I don't know correct me if i'm wrong, but I don't think that one ended up working out.

And you are ashamed because you acted so foolishly and you did not trust the thing kind of things you should have

trusted.

These people are trusting in assyria and kush because they've got a lot of horses.

But they have not trusted in the lord god who is almighty and greater than all the kings of the earth.

And the habitants of the coastland will say in that day Behold, this is what has happened to

those in whom we hoped and to whom we have fled For help to be delivered from the king of assyria.

And we how shall we escape?

So the inhabitants of the coastlands here might refer to ashdod and the region around ashdod.

But it more likely refers to those who have been taken away to the coastlands of egypt and just some

Thoughts on on ashdod this particular nation.

So yeah, let me step back and kind of explain historically what's going on here, right?

Isaiah has for three years walked around naked not explained what he's doing or why he is doing

this and the people then, uh.

Then they see what happens when assyria comes and uh.

And attacks ashdod now historically outside of the bible.

So within the bible within solus scriptura, we can just easily see that.

You know something has happened to make a down payment on what god is saying eventually, you know.

You will be ashamed like this time when you are destroyed.

You will be ashamed Uh outside of the bible.

There's a little more detail here.

The the leader of ashdod the city within uh, judea went down to Uh

egypt and was sent back from egypt.

They didn't even help him.

So it's very clear that God is saying you cannot trust egypt.

You can trust me, but you cannot trust egypt.

And we how shall we escape?

You know if it is if they have trusted in cushion egypt who are supposed to be stronger than them.

How can we escape?

You know if these are more great and they have been destroyed.

How will we not also be destroyed and this is the case for everyone who has trusted in something other than

lord.

You know your money will one day i'll be nothing if it will be nothing how can you trust in it.

Your family your friends one day.

They will all die if they will die and you have trusted in them to keep you safe.

How will you be safe?

Anything in this world will have a final end and if you trust in that thing that will end

how will you live forever?

You must trust in one who is greater who does live forever who can give eternal life.

And that one is only jesus christ.

Jesus christ.

He is a sign for us, you know, it says that.

It said in isaiah 8 that isaiah was a sign, right?

He said i'm my sons are signs and portents for israel here.

He is walking around as a sign.

But we have another sign very similar that we have been given.

We have been given jesus christ.

Simeon said that he was a sign to those who uh to those who would oppose him the sign of

judgment the bible speaks of jesus.

Walking around in humility for three years during his earthly ministry with no place to lay his head.

This was a sign to those who would oppose him of Of the humility

they would experience if they did not trust in him and then jesus as he goes to the cross.

Fulfilling this humility completely is naked on the cross.

The bible speaks of it many times as being naked.

I know a lot of you have seen uh images Of christ where he's depicted as wearing some kind of

robe or loin cloth.

And I know they gave him a purple robe to mock him, but they took that away before they put him up on the cross.

You know, it says they divided his garments.

He was up on the cross literally without clothes.

What does that show that shows shame.

That nakedness shows shame and he is a sign For all those who oppose him.

Up there on the cross.

This is what happens to everyone who is not trusted in god because jesus died as one

Who did not have a real right relationship with god?

This is what he was accused of of being opposed to god.

And so he's a sign for all this is what the wrath of god looks like to die naked and ashamed.

But the wonderful thing about the cross is that it's not just a sign for those who are opposed to him like isaiah was.

Right.

Isaiah is telling people of this impending doom now implicitly.

There's this call to trust god, but Really the the main sign you see here is for doom.

But christ as he is lifted up on the cross dying naked.

He is a sign primarily for all those who would trust in him that this man has borne the

shame of all those who deserve it of all those who have trusted in other things of all those who have who have

uh, Who have not set their hope in god and not uh done as they ought in this

life and have opposed god if you repent.

If you turn from that sin to jesus christ.

Looking to him for forgiveness because he has died naked on this

cross cross in this shameful manner.

Because he has done so.

You may dwell with god forever with perfect clothing perfect righteousness.

Clothed in the righteousness of christ your nakedness Can be placed on jesus christ and

his perfect righteousness and his clothing of righteousness can be placed on you.

So that you will stand before god forever you know the bible just from the from the very beginning all the way

to the end.

The metaphor of clothing and nakedness is fairly frequent and constant.

And this is what it is pointing to.

You do not want to stand before god naked and ashamed.

You want to trust in the one who died naked in a shameful way?

So that you can have his clothing and his righteousness.

Because he was resurrected from the dead.

Given the right hand thrown Next to god and sits and clothed in

glory and honor and you can sit clothed in glory and honor with him forever.

If you do not trust in egypt kush or any other means you have here on earth, but only go

to him consider whether it is.

That you do go to him, you know, a lot of people think that they trust in the lord because that's just a thing you say.

But it expresses itself in some kind of action.

It expresses itself in prayer.

How much are you really trusting in the lord if you're not going to him in prayer?

These are things that you can look at in your life and see.

Go to the lord.

Trust in him.

Do not trust in yourself, but trust in him and as you look to jesus christ on the cross.

That one who died naked in a shameful way can save you from ever having to be naked in

the presence of god.

And you can have perfect clothing forever and ever.

In righteousness and glory with jesus christ.

Let's pray dear heavenly father.

We thank you for your word.

We thank you for jesus christ who clothes us in righteousness that all those who are baptized into him Are clothed in him.

We thank you for this wonderful and glorious truth.

And we know that we having this truth.

Rather than being ashamed we can boast in you and what you have done and go boldly.

Before the world honoring you proclaiming you with our lips in jesus name.

Amen.