Question:
What symbolic acts did Isaiah perform?
Answer:
The symbolic act, a staging of a prophetic message, is an interesting phenomenon associated with prophets, as, for example, the prophet Zedekiah’s wearing a set of iron horns (1 Kings 22:11), Ezekiel’s cutting his own hair, weighing it and then burning it. God tells Ezekiel to shave off his hair, then divide it into thirds. With each third of hair, he is instructed to burn, spread across the city, and scatter to the wind –, with a few hairs tucked away in his garment and a few hairs thrown into a fire.(Ezekiel 5), Hosea’s marriage to Gomer (Hosea 1-3), Isaiah’s naming his sons (Isaiah 7-8), and Isaiah’s walking around Jerusalem shirtless and barefoot (Isaiah 20).Isaiah appears to have assumed the role of a troubadour which is a French medieval lyric poet composing and singing in Provençal in the 11th to 13th centuries, especially on the theme of courtly love. So, Isaiah acquainted his people with the song of the vineyard in Isaiah Chapter 5: which, though planted with choice vines. Yielded wild grapes. Isaiah 5:2-4 NIV: He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? Isaiah walked naked for three years as a sign and portent against ‘Egypt and Ethiopia’ in Isaiah 20:3 NIV; suggesting that is what these two nations would look like when the Assyrians got through with them. To a nation confused with wine in Isaiah 28:7 NIV: Isaiah thought the talk of a child might be needed.” Line upon Line” “Line upon Line “in Isaiah 28:10,13 NIV.

