Isaiah Chapter 20 Verse-by-Verse Commentary
Isaiah 20:1
In the year that Sargon the king of Ashur sent his commander-in-chief to attack Ashdod, he captured it.
We begin with the establishment of the time that we are talking about. Sargon, king of Assyria, is Sargon II, who reigned over Assyria from 721 to 705 B.C. Ashdod was located in Samaria on the Mediterranean coast and, at this time, it was a Philistine city. During this time, the Assyrians had invaded the northern kingdom (Israel) and captured it.
Isaiah 20:2
It was at that time that ADONAI, speaking through Yesha'yahu the son of Amotz, said, "Go and unwind the sackcloth from around your waist, and take your sandals off your feet." So he did it, going about unclothed and barefoot.
Up to this point, God had used Isaiah to communicate with the leaders of Judah with words calling them to repentance. Now, the prophet is told to remove his clothes and walk around Judah naked and barefoot as a sign of judgment that is to come. Being barefoot was a sign of severe poverty, while being naked was a sign of shame. This probably strikes all of us as an unusual request, just as it probably did with Isaiah. Nevertheless, the prophet did as he was told. This is a good lesson for us as well in the fact that we must trust in the fact that God knows all and has a plan for each and every one of us. At first, it may seem odd, but we all have our own walk of faith.
Isaiah 20:3–4
In time, ADONAI said, "Just as my servant Yesha'yahu has gone about unclothed and barefoot for three years as a sign and portent against Egypt and Ethiopia, so will the king of Ashur lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, unclothed and barefoot, with their buttocks exposed, to the shame of Egypt.
We see that Isaiah walked around this way for three years. We are reminded that, throughout the Bible, the number three is associated with the earthly display of God's will. The purpose of Isaiah's walk of faith was to be an example of what would happen to the Egyptians and Cushites at the hands of the Assyrians.
Isaiah 20:5
They will be dismayed and ashamed because of Ethiopia their hope and Egypt their pride.
The northern kingdom of Israel had joined with Egypt in the battle against the Assyrians. They all tried to get the king of Judah to join the alliance. Isaiah was warning them that they should not trust in any nation to protect them but instead should trust in God. The same thing holds true for us, as Christians, and for the land of Israel today. Yeshua is our deliverer, and we must always remember that. In Revelation, we are told of the day when a rider will come on a white horse (see Revelation 6). This rider will bring a supposed peace to a troubled world, but it is a false peace, just as the northern kingdom had falsely trusted in Egypt and Cush to help them.
Isaiah 20:6
On that day, the people living along this coast will say, 'Look what happened to the people to whom we fled for help, hoping they would rescue us from the king of Ashur! How will we escape now?'"
When the people that they had trusted in are led away in shame, the people will lose hope. It is the same with those who will trust in an earthly leader in the last days. At the mid-point of a peace treaty, they will realize that it was a false hope, and the world will find itself enslaved. The only way to avoid this is to trust in our Deliverer and His provision for our peace with God. We all have a walk of faith that is set before us, and each walk begins with a first step. That first step is accepting Yeshua as our Deliverer.