Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Great Musician | Historical Books | Isaiah 45

Episode Date: December 12, 2025

Who is more important: the musician or the instrument? In today's episode, Jeff shares how Isaiah 45 reminds us that we are held by the great Musician, who used an unlikely instrument, the cross, to rescue us. Read the Bible with us in 2026! This year, we’re exploring the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Isaiah 45

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jeff Parrott. What matters most? The instrument or the musician who plays it? I have a vivid memory of being confronted with that very question as a teenager perusing the walls of a guitar store in Kansas City. I was totally stunned by the different options of guitars on the wall. All of the distinct designs, colors, and sense. sounds, it was so much to take in. The only thing as overwhelming as the array of choices

was the astounding cost of the guitars that looked and sounded the best to me. The sticker shock was a major red light that I could not turn green with the modest adolescent income I had. I must have worn a depressed expression on my face because the guitar store employee approached me with a message I'll never forget. He said, you know, you could take that expensive guitar up there and give it to a new and clumsy musician, and it would sound like a new and clumsy musician. But at the same time, you could take that cheap entry-level guitar over there,

and if it was in the hands of a legend like Eric Clapton, it would sound exactly like Eric Clapton. The message was clear. Every instrument has a distinct sound, but the thing that matters most is who's holding the instrument. Now, that observation seems so obvious, but to a teenager obsessed with becoming as good as possible, as quickly as possible, it landed in my psyche like a front-page story in the newspaper. Not only did that guitar store employee save me a lot of money that day,

he saved me the heartache of imagining that the instrument can control the music more than the musician who holds it. Of course, the instrument matters. Every guitar, every instrument carries its own distinct, and significant sound, but left on its own, even the most marvelous instrument is mute. In the hands of someone who's picked it up for the first time, it will produce a cacophony of sound, but in the hands of a master musician, it will resonate with intentional transcendent beauty. The instrument matters, but the musician makes the music.

And in the hands of a master musician, even the most unlikely instrument can create awe. In some ways, I'm still like that teenager in the guitar shop. Maybe you are too, wanting the most impressive, predictable, and controllable path to my preferred outcome. When it comes to the life of faith, I imagine that God can only work through me if I'm that elaborate, expensive guitar that's always out of reach. I pretend like that's true for me, but I also pretend like it's true for other people. The problem with that kind of thinking is that it completely underestimates the significance of people. but even more tragically, it downplays the power of the living God. What if you and I need a spiritual version of that message from the guitar store employee?

What if the ultimate factor that determines the music of our lives is less about how impressive we look and more about who's holding us? That's the question that's asked and answered in our passage today from Isaiah chapter 45. It's a passage relevant to the people of God living in historical exile, when the temptation to create an impressive, predictable, and controllable outcome for life was high. But Isaiah 45 is also a passage that's relevant for us today when we face our own personal and shared need to experience the delight of music and the discord of the world. Now, as we approach God's word together, let's pause as we always do on Fridays and ask for His grace to move through our time together. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the amazing gift of life and breath in this new day.

We thank you for the gift of your word. We bring before you every part of our lives, our joys and our sorrows, our anxiety and our excitement, our calendars, and our contingencies, the things that were not planned. God, would you meet us in this special space right now? Jesus help us abide in you as we engage with your truth. Holy Spirit, we ask you to move in and through this time. in Isaiah, and as we read your living word, may it read us and restore us to life with you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

All right, a little bit of context here. Right before our passage in Isaiah chapter 45, chapter 44 ended by introducing us to an unexpected instrument that God would use to save his people in exile. Cyrus the Great, the ruler of the Persian Empire. Verse 28 said, He is my shepherd and he shall fulfill all my purpose. Now, in the context of ancient Israel, the shocking thing here isn't necessarily

that God is using a powerful person to fulfill his purpose. The real shocker is that God is planning to use this pagan ruler to accomplish his purpose. How is that possible? What's the point of God making that move? Those questions lead us to our passage, in chapter 45. Now, verses 1 through 3 detail the astounding work that God will do with this unlikely instrument, Cyrus the Great. Let's pick up in verses 1 through 3. This is what the Lord says to

his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him, and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut. I will go before you and will level the mountains. I will break down gates of bronze and cut. I will through bars of iron. I will give you hidden treasures, riches, stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name. It's pretty impressive all the things that God has planned to do through Cyrus. Verse four leans into how God's purposes will impact the life of his people. Here's what's going to happen because of God's worth of Cyrus.

For the sake of Jacob, my servant, of Israel, my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me. All right. Now, this is a huge promise of hope for God's people. It's a hope that's fulfilled in the real history of their lives. You can read Ezra chapter 1 verses 1 through 4 to see how God works through Cyrus to have his people return home to Jerusalem in 538 BC, and on top of that, have the temple rebuilding project begin. God was so powerful and faithful that he worked through a pagan ruler to restore his people. Who is like this God? Now, let's take a quick pause to make an observation.

I tend to have very specific expectations of how God will work and who God will work through to accomplish his purposes. I tend to think that God only picks the elaborate expensive guitar, the person who's a likely candidate to further his mission, at least in my eyes. Isaiah 45 blows that assumption completely out of the water. I mean, it's not simply that I have a small view of people, though I do. It's that I have a small view of God's glory. Isaiah 45 humbles me when it comes to my narrow expectations for God's story and who's going to be a part of it. Are there ways that you've narrowed the scope of how God can work and who he can work through? How might God be using this passage to open

your eyes to work he's doing here and now? God's work through Cyrus impacted the life of his people in the historical exile. Yet this chapter, Isaiah 45, reveals that there's a bigger exile with a bigger hope at play. Let's look at verse 6 and notice the purpose of God's work here. Verse 6 picks up this way. So that, from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting, people may know there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is no other. God is working through this unexpected instrument to reveal the uniqueness of his glory to the world. There's a so that to this work. The so that is to show that there is none like him. The point is amplified as you read the rest of Isaiah chapter 45. The greatness of the living God is contrasted with the artificiality and brittleness of idols,

these false gods that give people the impression that they are the master musicians holding the instruments. No, no, no, says Isaiah 45. No, there is only one master musician who works through the instruments he chooses to make the music he composed. This declaration of God's greatness and Isaiah 45 is turned into an invitation. to the world at the end of the chapter. We read this in verses 22 through 24. Turn to me and be saved all you ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other. By myself I have sworn. My mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked. Before me, every knee will bow. By me, every tongue will swear. They will say of me, in the Lord alone, are delivered.

and strength. This invitation made in Isaiah 45 is manifested in the work of Jesus Christ. If God's work through Cyrus was unexpected, God's work through the death and resurrection of the Messiah, the anointed one, the king, wasn't even on people's radar. The instrument of the shameful cross to restore people to God would have been unthinkable in the ancient world. and yet in God's sovereign plan, it was the most fitting instrument to reveal his power and glory. The instrument is unlikely, but the musician holding it is unrivaled. In fact, it's the unlikely nature of the instrument that amplifies the glory and power of the one holding it. That is good news to people who are tired of pretending like they're the master musicians over life.

that is good news to those of us who chase impressive, predictable, and controllable outcomes for ourselves. Because of Jesus, we are in the intentional hands of the master musician. We can trust that he will make transcendent, beautiful music with our lives, but also with the instruments all around us. In his hands, even the most unlikely instrument, the most unlikely person, can create awe. Heavenly Father, we praise you for your grace. greatness as the maker and master of all things. You are at work in people and places we cannot fathom. There's no one like you. Jesus, we thank you for your finished work on the unexpected

instrument of the cross. The good news of your gospel creates a new kind of music that we desperately need here and now. Holy Spirit, humble us and empower us to not only hear the music of the gospel, but be used as instruments in your hands today. We pray all of this because of your grace, for your glory, in your story. In Jesus' name, amen.