Have you ever had one of those dreams? One of those dreams where you’re getting ready for the party of the year, it’s the biggest thing and every one will be there so you want to look your best. You spend hours getting ready, guys, you slick your hair back and comb your sideburns and put on your dad’s best aftershave, you’re lookin’ groovy. Girls you spend a couple hours picking out the right dress and then after deliberating over sixteen different pairs of shoes you decide to change your dress anyway. Your hair is perfect and you just had an expensive manicure, you’re looking “shmashing”. (read like Sean Connary might say it) You get in your car and go to the party, everything is working like clockwork. You arrive at the party, fashionably late, for the purpose of everyone there to see your triumphant entry. You look through the window on the way to the door, sure enough, everybody is there, everyone who’s somebody that is. You take one more look at yourself in the brass knocker on the door to make sure everything is okay, and then your turn the door knob and the door opens.
One by one the heads turn, and one by one the mouths drop open, the music that was grooving when you opened the door comes to a screeching halt, everyone is speechless and the crickets start to chirp even louder. “Wow” you think to yourself, “I must look better than I thought” You start to walk in, and everyone’s eyes follow. You decide that the view must be so great you’ll take a peak yourself. You look down and you see the same thing your mom saw when she gave birth to you, you’re completely naked!
There are many things in life that can make us uncomfortable. Being naked is obviously one of them. The Bible references to many different people who were caught naked. Adam and Eve were caught naked, even thought they had never been naked before, they somehow knew it was wrong and they went and hid themselves. It was an uncomfortable experience even back then. The word “naked” appears in the Bible 35 times. It is associated with shame, and some references in the Bible even refer to “looking upon the nakedness” as sexual intercourse. Whatever the case, nakedness is associated with shame and uncleanliness.
There was a case of streaker who got caught naked on the night the guards came to take Jesus away from the garden of Gethsemane. There was a young man there as mentioned in Mark. (Mark 14:51 TLB) There was, however, a young man following along behind, clothed only in a linen nightshirt. When the mob tried to grab him, verse 52 continues, he escaped, though his clothes were torn off in the process, so that he ran away completely naked. Some Bible scholars have argued that this could have been Mark himself, and he was embarrassed to admit the fact that he ran from the scene, and probably the part that convinced him to leave out a name the most was the fact that he ran away naked. Would you be willing to divulge this information if it was you who was caught running away naked?
Isaiah is considered, according to the SDA Bible Commentary, to be “the literary masterpiece of all Hebrew literature”. He is definitely one of the most powerful and effective prophets. He is well known for his prophesies of the messiah, and is a reference readily used by Handel when he was writing The Messiah. Hebrew calls him a “nabi” which is the word they use for a true prophet. He is quoted by the New Testament over ninety times, more than any other prophet. One of the things that isn’t too commonly known about Isaiah is the fact that he got caught walking around Jerusalem naked for three years! Not only was it surprising to me to find out that Isaiah walked around naked for three years, but the fact that God is the one who instructed him to do this. Why would God ask Isaiah to do such a seemingly bizarre thing? What are we to learn from these accounts in the Bible of naked people?
When God asked Isaiah to walk naked in the city for three years it was for a reason. God never does anything without a reason. Throughout history God’s people have come to be known as stubborn and hard headed, in other words we have a hard time listening to God and doing as He asks. So there have been occasions where God had to do drastic things in order to get our attention. Isaiah, among other prophets, had prophesized the fall of Jerusalem. God’s people thought that they didn’t have anything to worry about because they had a covenant with God, they were invincible. So they thought. Isaiah predicted that they would be led out of Jerusalem naked and barefoot. Are you beginning to see the connection? Everyone had a reminder for three years of how Jerusalem would fall and how they would be led out in humility.
Now days if someone came to church every week naked, claiming that one week we would all be taken prisoners, stripped of our clothes, and taken to prison camp, I’m sure we’d all take heed and thank the nice naked person. Actually we’d probably have him committed, and try to forget about the whole incident as quickly as possible. This is the wonderful thing about God, he takes us where we are, and works from there. God has different ways of getting messages across to people today than He had back in the time of Isaiah. Instead of having prophets throughout the lands, He has messengers, we are Gods messengers. The job of spreading the good news of God’s love and Jesus second coming falls in our laps.
There are far too many people who don’t get the point that we are to witness for God in all that we do, and where ever we go. People say that they can’t witness, it’s too difficult for them, and it makes them feel too uncomfortable. Peoples priorities are mixed up. Instead of having witnessing as a first priority and their work as a second “job”, they work, and they work, and there is little time for witnessing, and little thought of it. What business do we have being in a relationship with God if we aren’t willing to witness for Him? After all wasn’t He willing to witness for us? Wasn’t He willing to send His son to die in our behalf? Why do we find it so difficult to share this wonderful news with people around us who need to hear it so badly.
I’m sure Isaiah felt a little uncomfortable the first week or so he started to walk around naked, just as we, if we start witnessing for the first time, will feel uncomfortable at first when we start. But as time progressed, Isaiah became accustomed to being naked, and we will become comfortable in witnessing. The way I see it, witnessing with all your clothes on is far easier than walking around naked for three years.
When I was in high school, I remember an occasion, when my friends and I had gone to get pizza one day. As we were waiting for the pizza we noticed that there was a pitcher of soda on the table next to us and we started daring each other to get it so we could drink the remains. One of my friends got up and got it and brought it back to our table, as soon as he had done this one of the waiters came over and started scolding us, because he thought we had stole the tip that the person had left. After asking around he found out that we had not stolen it, and someone else had already cleaned it up. So in conversation I got mad at him for doing that, because it made us look bad. I had this thing where I didn’t like to look like the common teen who wanted to get into trouble. The response my friend gave me stayed with me a long time, and caused a great deal of thought. He said “I don’t care what other people think of me”. What a statement, to some extent it’s true, but not quite in the context he was using it. The book of Romans says, “I am therefore not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus”, and to this extent we should not care what people think of us, but if we have this same attitude toward looking bad to others, it can be a dangerous thing.
(Mat 25:42 TLB) For I was hungry and you wouldn’t feed me; thirsty, and you wouldn’t give me anything to drink;(43) a stranger, and you refused me hospitality; naked, and you wouldn’t clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’(44) "Then they will reply, ’Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?’(45) "And I will answer, ’When you refused to help the least of these my brothers, you were refusing help to me.’ Jesus then goes on to explain how those who refused to help were called into judgment. So you see, it does matter what others think of us, and it does matter what we do for God. The question we have to continually ask ourselves is: “Am I doing my part in witnessing for God?, Am I willing to get caught naked?”
