Isaiah 20
THIS short chapter forms a sort of appendix to the nineteenth chapter, dealing further with the history of Egypt. It shows that before ever the Babylonians came on an expedition of conquest into Egypt, the Assyrians came there and led away captives.
The purpose of what is here told is clearly to show that in God alone, never in man, should His people trust. Fearing first the Assyrians and afterward the Babylonian king, many of the Jews turned to Egypt for help instead of to God.
The year that Tartan (which is apparently the title of a general, perhaps the chief military officer of the Assyrian armies) came to Ashdod, a city near the sea coast, west from Jerusalem, on the road to Egypt, would appear to be about the time when Sennacherib, co-regent with Sargon of Assyria invaded Judah (Isaiah 26 and 37, —see verse 9 of the latter chapter). It was then that the king of Egypt and Ethiopia, Tirhakah, set forth with an army to make war on the Assyrians.
Ashdod was formerly a stronghold of the Philistines; there they had the house of their god Dagon, and thither they brought the ark of God, only to find their god humiliated before that representation of Jehovah’s presence (1 Samuel 5:1-8). Ashdod reappears in the New Testament as Azotus (Acts 8:40).
It was, then, at the time when an Assyrian army was in Judah, that God graciously gave a warning to the Jews that they should not look for help in Egypt against the Assyrians.
Isaiah was directed to remove his outer garments (already sackcloth), and his sandals, for a sign of what was to happen to the Egyptians. The term “naked” here does not mean absolute nudity.
If God permitted Egypt to be thus treated, what could Judah expect, knowing the true God, but dishonoring Him with the worship of idols in open indifference to Himself?
What, too, of our own day? Is there no lesson for us in the moral pointed out to the Jews? Let believers go to God, and not to man, with the difficulties of the present hour.
ML 07/16/1933