God’s Word for You
Isaiah 3:6-7 No nurse, no bread, no cloak
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, December 16, 2024
6 Then a man will take hold of his brother in his father’s house and say, “You have a cloak. You be our ruler. This heap of ruins is subject to you.” 7 But in that day such a brother will cry out, “I am not a nurse. In my house there is no bread; there is no other cloak. Do not make me ruler of this people.”
Some who are chosen as leaders will object, showing that even the desire to rule will disappear. The scene is almost a farce: the candidates for leadership have grown so scarce that leadership of “this heap of ruins” (the word also occurs in Zephaniah 1:3) can be selected from within one man’s house, from among his own brothers. The heap, remember, is Jerusalem itself, and therefore all of Judah. The traits of leadership? “You have a cloak.” This is a parody of the way Saul was chosen to be king, and very nearly what happened when Samuel went to anoint Saul’s successor. The Lord had to tell his own prophet, “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).
But then what happens? The one chosen doesn’t want the job. Here we see a difference between this man, who has been chosen (even though he was chosen for poor reasons), and the children in the previous section who coveted power and tried to seize it. He objects in three ways, each which show that this man actually had the heart of a leader, a ruler, or perhaps even a king.
The first objection is, “I am not a nurse.” Literally, one who binds wounds. Until the mid-nineteenth century, nurses were almost always men, and the word here is the masculine participle, “a binder of wounds.” NIV has “I have no remedy,” but I see no reason not to take the participle in the sense of a title, just as with the participle for “midwives” in Exodus 1:15-21.
This candidate knows the needs of the people without having to go out and look: they are wounded and they need special care. He knows he is not the one for the task, which means he understands his own skills. This is a quality of a good leader. However, sometimes leadership also means recognizing that when a task needs to be done and there is no one to do it, then he must be the one to get going and do the task. “for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that” (Proverbs 11:6). There was a time when I had a job of regularly cleaning garbage cans in a fast-food restaurant. I chose to tackle the job by first of all telling myself that I am not beneath this task; that I was worthy of doing it well (it was a time when I struggled with self-worth), and then setting my sights on doing it extremely well, I made sure that when I was done, everything was just as clean as it was on the day it was manufactured.
The second objection is, “There is no bread in my house.” The chosen man recognizes that the basic needs of the people fall to the ruler, especially in an emergency such as a city under siege. It would be his task to feed everyone, and he had nothing to give. This, too, shows that he had the right understanding of leadership. He knew the need, he knew his resources (or genuine lack of them), and he knew and admitted his responsibility—and notice that he does not put his own needs ahead of the people. He is open and honest about what he does not have. This is another quality of a good leader. However, excellent leadership also involves resourcefulness; a sense of getting the people what they need no matter what. David showed this when his men were hungry and he was bold enough to ask the high priest for the bread in the tabernacle (1 Samuel 21:1-6). About that very incident, David wrote: “I trust in God’s unfailing love for ever and ever” (Psalm 52:8).
The third objection is literally, “There is no cloak” (simlah). Now, he himself was wearing one, but it is easily understood that apart from this, there was no other covering in his possession to share. Along with the other duties of a leader, he needs to see that his people are cared for with clothing and other coverings (even shelter), especially in a time of emergency. Once again, this chosen man shows that he understands his responsibility, and he also knows his own resources. He has only the one cloak. He cannot tear it up into pieces so that everyone who has nothing will have something small and useless. He simply admits that he has nothing to give. The leader shows his leadership by admitting his failing. Yet a man of God prays for his people when they have nothing. “He prays to God and finds favor with him, he sees God’s face and shouts for joy; he is restored by God to his righteous state” (Job 33:25). He trusts that God will give him the good things he needs to take care of God’s people.
God promises to give us good things. We should not doubt him about this. It is when we don’t see how anything good can come that he really shows his power and his glory by giving them anyway. Luther gives an example: “If I gave you a hundred gold florins (coins) and hid them from you under the table and you believed and said that they were merely lead, what difference would that make to me, who offered you gold? It’s your fault that you don’t believe. The gold’s gold, even if you don’t think so. God doesn’t lie when he promises eternal life. Only let us be sure that we appropriate it (grab hold of it) for ourselves in faith. For our unbelief doesn’t make God’s promise empty” (Table Talk, LW 54:193).
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith