What's Underneath it All?

Isaiah chapter 4 gives a very detailed description of the judgment of the Israelites for their sin. It speaks of how their crops will be destroyed, their land overthrown, and they will be taken into captivity. As I read about all these punishments, they seem very tragic and unappealing. But the verses that really seem horrible to me and cause me to shudder are the ones that describe what will happen to the women. God uses 8 verses to list one thing after another that He is going to strip from them. This list includes anklets, necklaces, bracelets, chains, mufflers, bonnets, ornaments, headbands, earrings, nose rings, outfits, mantles, wimples, pins, glasses, fancy cloth, hoods, and veils. He says they will be made bald, that their beauty will become burning, their sweet smells will be a stink, and they will be in mourning. I look at this list and can’t help but imagine myself in this predicament. Bald, completely devoid of any jewelry or beauty-enhancers, wearing the plainest of all clothes, mourning, and just utterly unattractive. And when I see myself that way, it makes me wonder what people would then really see in me.

When someone looks at me, they don’t just see me-the real me, that is. There are some things about me that sort of cover me up. People look at me and before I even say a word, they see my appearance—my clothes, my hair, my face…etc. Then after I begin speaking to them, they hear my voice, they hear me laugh, and they can see my personality. Sometimes it takes a long time for them to actually see way down deep to the real me. The me that reacts to various situations, and the me that deals with hardships or temptations.

When the Bible tells something, it does not waste any extra space on superfluous words. It says exactly the main facts and nothing extra. But here in this chapter, God uses eight verses just to list all these ‘beauty’ things that will be taken from the women. I think this fact can show us something about how important these outward things had become to the women. It looks like they became a little too caught up in their fancy hair-do’s, and their pretty dresses. After all, back in Bible times when Isaiah was prophesying, the only women who wore excessive amounts of jewelry—especially ankle jewelry—were the women who were considered flirtatious or inappropriate, and this particular section of scripture is the only place in the whole Bible that actually uses the word ‘anklet.’ Here, many, many, many different forms of jewelry are mentioned.

God saw that underneath all their fancy jewelry and beautiful things, these women were hiding something truly disgusting. We need to be careful that we are not using our appearances or charm or to hide what we truly are underneath it all. We need to carefully examine ourselves to make sure that if all those outward things were stripped away from us, we would not be left with something repulsive.