“At that time the Lord spoke by Isaiah, the son of Amoz saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet,” and he did so, walking naked and barefoot.”
– Isaiah 20:2
Isaiah 20:2 Reminds Us to Demonstrate Our Faith Through Actions
Now Isaiah 20:2 is an interesting verse. Think okay, how are we going meditate and pray according to this verse? Well think about what’s happening here. This is something we see in all kinds of different prophets in the Old Testament. God calls his prophets like Isaiah, not just to speak a word, but often to illustrate that word that they’re speaking. To be a demonstration or a model, in a sense. To be a symbol of what they are saying, with their actions.
There should be a relationship between our profession of faith in Christ and our demonstration of what it means to walk in Christ.
Now thankfully we turn the page to the New Testament and we do not find any command anywhere to loose the sackcloth from our waist. Take off our sandals from our feet and walk naked and barefoot. So that is not command that we see in scripture for us.
At the same time, Isaiah 20:2 and verses like it, pictures like this are a reminder to us. So God was calling Isaiah to do this as a picture of what God was doing among Egypt and Cush. And God was calling this prophet, in his life and in his actions to be a demonstration of his words. And that is a reality that applies to every follower of Christ in the New Testament.
That God has called each of us in our lives to be a demonstration of what we are saying. That there should be an authenticity, a relationship between our profession of faith in Christ and our demonstration in what it means to walk with Christ.
Isaiah 20:2 Reminds Us Our Word and Actions Should Align
We want that for each or our lives, don’t we? We want our lives to be a reflection of our words. We want our words to be a reflection or lives. For there to be consistency there. We don’t want to be hypocritical, saying we worship God with our lips, but then our hearts and our lives far from him.Or witnessing to others with our lips. Telling people about Jesus but then living lives that don’t align with the gospel. With the life of Christ.
This Verse Leads Us To Pray That Our Lives To Glorify God
So we pray God, help us. God, help everyone of us to have a consistency in our lives. God we pray that what we say and how we live would match. We pray that we would speak the gospel, that we would glorify you in worship. And at the same time, that our lives would reflect the gospel. That our lives would glorify you in worship.
God we pray that our lives would be a demonstration of the truth, we believe and the truth we proclaim. Help us we pray to live in a manner worthy of the gospel. Help us to be salt and light with the gospel so that people see our lives. We want to give glory to you in heaven.
God help us not to be hypocritical in the sense that we say one thing and then our lives reflect something totally different. Help us to be faithful, just as we’ve seen in this picture of Isaiah. Help us to be faithful to demonstrate what we profess. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
