Three years naked? Isaiah spent three years naked to make a point? Really? That seems really extreme, doesn’t it? That God would make his loyal servant suffer that level of indignity?
Would you be able to follow those instructions? I’m serious. If God demanded something that extreme, that public, that humiliating, would you be able to obey?
It would be…difficult. Granted, Isaiah had the benefit of the undeniable direct communication from God afforded the prophets. That had to help.
I wonder if it also helped that he likely had little respect for those that would have ridiculed him. After all, his prophecies were of a theme. Their disobedience was going to cost everyone he knew everything they were meant to be inheriting through the covenant. That might have gone a long way to mitigate any embarrassment he might have felt in their scorn.
Still, three years naked. That had to be uncomfortable. He was already dressed in mourning sackcloth, and that wasn’t enough. Three years naked. I can’t even imagine.
I wonder if he kept to himself during that time, sent messengers to do everything, simply allowing the reason for his seclusion to be known, discussed by his servants and spread in the usual way of gossip. I wonder if that would have sufficed.
I have somehow gone my entire life without knowing about this relatively minor episode. A couple paragraphs long. Now that I’ve read it, I don’t know what to do with it.
Seriously, why such an extreme display? Such an extreme order?
Is that why we don’t ever talk about it? Because it’s so weird? Because no one else understands it either? This is going on the list of things to return to…