20:1ff Sargon II was king of Assyria from 722 to 705 B.C., and this event happened in 711 B.C. Isaiah graphically reminds Judah that they should not count on foreign alliances to protect them.
20:2 God’s command to Isaiah to walk about naked for three years was a humiliating experience. God was using Isaiah to demonstrate the humiliation that Egypt and Ethiopia would experience at the hands of Assyria. But the message was really for Judah: Don’t put your trust in foreign governments, or you will experience this kind of shame from your captors. Human governments and institutions can never take God’s place.
20:2 God asked Isaiah to do something that seemed shameful and illogical. At times, God may ask us to take steps we don’t understand. We must obey God in complete faith, for he will never ask us to do something wrong.