The Old Testament is full of stories where the prophets acted in creative ways to get their message across. Often the target audience was incredibly unreceptive to the message they needed to hear. They wanted to hear prophecies of blessings. Favourable harvests; plenty of grain, wine, and oil in stores. Victory over enemies. The biblical prophets had an unpleasant mission in contrast. They were required to make the nation aware of its shortcomings compared to God’s standard. God would not provide peace and stability when Israel worshiped idols and false gods. Unfortunately a prophetic word is often not enough to bring a person or nation back into alignment with God. Only after suffering failures and defeat will the nation return to God’s perfect will. Today we think of prophecy as a spoken or written word delivered to a church or person, but the prophetic messages can be so much more. We don’t want to limit God to a certain mode of expression. In Isaiah 20 we see Isaiah prophesy against Egypt. This prophetic message may have normally been ignored. God however had a plan to make sure the message would be front and center in the community.
Isaiah 20:1-4 “In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it, at the same time the Lord spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and remove the sackcloth from your body, and take your sandals off your feet.” And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.
Then the Lord said, “Just as My servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia, so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as prisoners and the Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.”
Isaiah was not going around naked due to a mental illness or inability to afford clothing. His behaviour was a prophetic message to the Egyptians and Ethiopians. God was giving them an advanced warning that the Assyrians would be successful in their conquest, and would lead away the Egyptians naked into a life of miserable slavery. Egypt was one of the most powerful empires in the world at the time, and the thought that the Egyptions themselves would be made slaves was considered laughable. God wanted to make sure the prophecy to them would be a memorable one and they would not have an excuse of saying they did not get the message.
Imagine Isaiah being born and raised in a modest and righteous lifestyle, apart from the wild behaviour of the heathen nations, having to go around naked for three years solid. This would have felt so shameful and humiliating. Isaiah knew the instruction was from God though and that he had to trust and obey God’s plan even when it didn’t make sense.
Would Isaiah have become the legendary prophet we know him as if he had not obeyed God’s instructions to walk around naked? Very likely not. He may have died in obscurity with only a small audience. The key to Isaiah’s publicity was his outrageous act of prophesying the future while naked. The city would gossip about this naked man who was now a constant sight every day in Jerusalem, repeating his words and further spreading his message. Isaiah “went viral” so to speak. Today we like to pick and chose the obedience we give to God. We obey God when it makes sense and goes along with our already-set plan. When God’s plan seems bizarre however, we often want to stall for time and use praying for more clarification as an excuse not to step boldly forward. Perhaps the common hope is that God will stop making that request and move on to an assignment more within our comfort zone if we stall long enough.
Ezekiel’s model city and foul language:
We have an interesting story in the Bible where a prophet was required to live out his prophecy by building a model city of Jerusalem and then laying on his side publicly throughout an entire year to simulate the coming siege warfare:
Ezekiel 4:1-6 “You also, son of man, take a clay tablet and lay it before you, and portray on it a city, Jerusalem. Lay siege against it, build a siege wall against it, and heap up a mound against it; set camps against it also, and place battering rams against it all around. Moreover take for yourself an iron plate, and set it as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face against it, and it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.”
“Lie also on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it. According to the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity. For I have laid on you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days; so you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when you have completed them, lie again on your right side; then you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days. I have laid on you a day for each year.”
You have to admit, this seems kind of ridiculous. Having to perform this stunt every day, laying himself on his side by his model city for an entire year. Why would God ask such a thing of his prophet? Imagine it is your own city and a person is partially blocking the sidewalk with a model city in front of them. People would begin talking about it and trying to discover the intention and reason behind it. The prophetic message of judgment would rapidly spread.
This was not all that Ezekiel had in his bag of tricks. The prophet also got publicity from using foul sexualized language in his prophetic words. In Chapter 23 of his book, Ezekiel uses a metaphor of two sisters who began innocent but became complete whores. This reflects how Israel and Judah left off faithfulness to God and trusted in foreign alliances to rescue the nation. The unfaithfulness to God was reflected in this story of the two whores and their many lovers.
For use of controversial language Ezekiel went so far is to comment on the penis size of the Egyptians, mentioning they had a horse-like length.
Ezekiel 23:20 “….and lusted after their lovers, whose sexual members were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of stallions.”
Many people are surprised to find a verse like this in the Bible. By including foul references, Ezekiel created controversy which helped spread his message as people kept gossiping and repeating it. In this way, Ezekiel stood apart from the sea of voices and false prophets and made a name for himself.
For a secular example, Donald Trump demonstrates this principle to the fullest. Trump was originally considered a joke candidate with no chance of becoming the Republican candidate, let alone president. By making controversial statements he received a continuous stream or free press coverage. The media gave Trump so much free publicity while other candidates were spending tens of millions only to end up with less airtime. Even lewd comments he made worked in his favour by getting him more camera time. Trump’s more moderate opponents who chose to play it safe and present themselves as respectable ended up being outshined.
Embrace controversy. No one is interested in a long boring conventional message. When God leads in a bold new direction, the future of your ministry depends on your coming out of your comfort zone. Just like Isaiah and Ezekiel would have been unknowns if they had not shocked the public with their style, God’s “foolish” ways are wiser than our human reasoning.
1 Corinthians 1:25 “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”