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, 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. – Isaiah 20:3-4

Today's Scripture Reading (May 14, 2026): Isaiah 19 & 20

Coming out of World War I, the Western Powers decided that soldiers who were taken prisoner during a conflict should retain their fundamental human rights. Those rights included protection from torture, access to health care, fair treatment, communication with family, eventual release, and not to be discriminated against, despite the inherent limitations of being a prisoner. Some might argue that these are universal rights, not just something dreamed up by Western Powers. But that is not quite true.

For instance, we know that in World War II, Prisoners of War detained by the Japanese were not provided with these rights. Actually, a lot of prisoners were killed outright. The death rate in Japanese prison camps was 27 percent. Or, seeing it from the reverse, if the Japanese took you prisoner, you had a 73 percent chance of surviving the experience. If the Allied forces took you prisoner, you had a 96 percent chance of living through the experience. And that is a significant difference.

We know that prisoners were tortured by the Japanese, both physically and mentally, and sometimes worked to death. But there was a reason for this difference. In Japanese thinking, being taken prisoner was considered dishonorable. And the dishonored had no rights, so they could be treated any way that their captors wanted to treat them. Allied prisoners had no rights, nor were any protections expected for Japanese prisoners taken by Allied forces.

In ancient times, this was true as well. What we miss about the story of Sodom and Gomorrah was that, at that time, homosexual sex was simply one way of dishonoring a captive. Another method of dishonoring an enemy was to make them march without clothes.

God instructs Isaiah to go without clothes, not just for a day or a month, but for three years. It is amazing that we don't remember Isaiah as the naked prophet. He walked on stony ground with no protection for his feet and under the hot sun with no protection for his body. And this nudity, regardless of how much Isaiah had actually taken off, was to send a message that the Assyrians would take the inhabitants of Egypt and Cush prisoner. When they did, they would be marched out of the country in humiliation with no clothes.

There might have been another message. Judah would leave their nation the same way, although it wouldn't be the Assyrians that would take them captive, but the Babylonians. Regardless of who their captives would be, the people would be marched out of their nation in disgrace because they refused to follow their God.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Isaiah 21