Thurs.'s Devo - Naked and Barefoot

Read Isa. 20:1-6
This chapter stretches me like Hosea does. Does God actually tell his prophet to walk around naked with his buttocks exposed? Or does God actually tell a prophet to go and marry a harlot? The answer is: yes. Prophets were walking word pictures so they were asked to do strange extraordinary things. It might help you to know that the early Olympians competed naked. They had an appreciation for the human body and their society looked at it differently than ours does now (thank God). In 711 B.C. Sargon II, king of Assyria, captured Ashdod which was a Philistine city. This event was a warning to the people of Judah who were wanting to make an alliance with Egypt against Assyria. Assyria would surely do the same thing to Egypt. Isaiah's nakedness and bare feet was a picture of the humiliation and impoverishment Egypt and Cush would suffer under the Assyrians so the people of Judah, who put their trust in Egypt instead of the Lord, would be ashamed also. As Americans, there is no nation that can get us out of the problems that we are facing. Our only hope is God.
Lord, we put our trust in you. Let us not be ashamed.