Isaiah on Tuesday - Nudism as Prophecy

Sometimes prophecy is shown not told. In a very visible demonstration of what would become of Cush and Egypt (see Cush and Egypt's entries) Isaiah went without clothes for THREE YEARS. Three years!? Those must have been some very cold winters. Check it out:

1 In the year that the supreme commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it- 2 at that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, "Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet." And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot. 3 Then the LORD said, "Just as my servant Isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot for three years, as a sign and portent against Egypt and Cush, ^[a] 4 so the king of Assyria will lead away stripped and barefoot the Egyptian captives and Cushite exiles, young and old, with buttocks bared —to Egypt's shame.

Now Cush and Egypt are redeemed according to the previous two chapters, but it apparently took them being led away with "buttocks bared" for the message to sink in. That's not a phrase you read very often in the Bible, but what stuns me more is Isaiah's submission to go the full monty for so long. His wife and kids must have been completely beside themselves, but when the LORD says to do something, you can either do it or not. Isaiah had the confidence to do it and do it in a big way.

Which leads me to my main point - prophets are people on the edge. These guys led lives that wereoutrageouss, amazing and often deadly. They suffered greatly for their devotion and submission to God. I think of John the Baptist, a wild man living in the desert far outside of society's norms. He was beheaded for his radical devotion to the truth. These people had to speak truth to power, to follow God at all costs and live their lives with single-mindedpurposee. I wonder if I could do the same. Granted, the voice would have to be very clear and very obviously from God for me to go, uh, clothing-free, but is my devotion the same? Could I even hear that voice?

One thing I am sure of is this - today's prophets need to be as wild and outrageous, if not more so, than yesterday's. There will most certainly be people who are completely outside of society's norms, yet fully within God's will. People who have totally eschewed whatever the world might think in order to devote themselves to God. I believe that the generation to come will be full of these people. They will be rejected, despised and ignored. Then again, that's just par for the course for these people called prophets.

I should at least write SOMETHING...

OK, I can't stand it anymore, I have to write something. I need to get Isaiah on Tuesday written for yesterday, I haven't done a "Wednesday's Big Idea" in two weeks (or more) and the blog is just sort of floating along on one post a week, if that.

The truth is I've been pegged at work. I've been trying to get a web services client written in Java (or Coldfusion or at least post my SOAP request successfully...) and it's been completely eating my brain. So today I'm going to try to get three (yes 3!) posts in today. This one, plus my regular two.

Oh - I've also taken up the fiddle. So between Java and the fiddle, writing has suffered. Considerably. I really need more time in the day or less work in the day or something. Anyhow, this is both my excuse post and my apology post, although I'm pretty sure my wife is the only one who reads the thing. Still, writing, itself, is a worthwhile pursuit even if nobody ever reads. It's a helpful tool to consolidate thoughts, lock down ideas and puzzle out things that are in my head.

Once something is written, it becomes concrete, real. Before that it's just electrons in my neurons. Anyhow, I've at least put something down and will get back to it soon. Sometimes this stuff just needs a kick start. Or a kick to the head. Or something.