UNROLL
Morning on a worn stone step in a Jerusalem lane: a pair of old leather sandals and a folded length of coarse dark sackcloth set down side by side, a sunlit wall above.

The nations judged

Isaiah 20

Judah hoped Egypt would save it. What ‘safe’ hope would you be ashamed to have trusted?

6 verses≈ 3 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

  1. 1–5Zion on trialJudah’s sin, the mountain raised, the vineyard’s song
  2. 6Holy, holy, holyIsaiah’s call, in the year King Uzziah died (about 740 BC)
  3. 7–12ImmanuelAhaz’s fear, the sign, the Child, the shoot of Jesse
  4. 13–23The nations judgedBabylon to Tyre: the LORD is Judge of all the earthChapter 20
  5. 24–27The whole earthThe earth laid waste, and death swallowed up
  6. 28–35Woe and a KingEgypt’s help or the LORD’s, and the King in His beauty
  7. 36–39Hezekiah’s crisisSennacherib, 701 BC: the prayer, the sickness, the envoys
  8. 40–48Comfort My peopleTo the exiles ahead: Cyrus, the idols, the Servant
  9. 49–55The Servant and ZionPierced for our transgressions; Zion restored
  10. 56–66New heavens and earthA house of prayer, the Anointed One, all things new

A Sign against Egypt and Cush

Before the year that the chief commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it, the LORD had already spoken through Isaiah son of Amoz, saying, “Go, remove the sackcloth from your waist and the sandals from your feet.”

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And Isaiah did so, walking around naked and barefoot.

Question

Quick question

Before a word of explanation, the LORD gave Isaiah something to do. Look back at verse 2.

What did the LORD tell Isaiah to take off?

God

Then the LORD said, “Just as My servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and omen against Egypt and Cush,

God

so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old alike, naked and barefoot, with bared buttocks—to Egypt’s shame.

God

Those who made Cush their hope and Egypt their boast will be dismayed and ashamed.

Isaiah 20:5

God
Dusk on the flat walkway atop a Philistine town’s mud-brick wall: a few townsmen seen from behind looking south down an empty coast road toward Egypt, the gray sea beside it.

And on that day the dwellers of this coastland will say, ‘See what has happened to our source of hope, those to whom we fled for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?’”

Pray

Pray

LORD, my hope is not in Egypt or in any power I can see. Keep me from boasting in them, and teach me to run to You for help. Amen.

You’ve experienced

Isaiah 20

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A verse to carry with you

Those who made Cush their hope and Egypt their boast will be dismayed and ashamed.

Isaiah 20:5

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