Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Voice of Love | Historical Books | Isaiah 43:1-13

Episode Date: December 5, 2025

Do you long to hear God's voice? What do you fear? What were you made for? In today's episode, Jeff shares how Isaiah 43:1-13 reminds us that God's voice is the only voice that matters. If you're listening on Spotify, tell us about yourself and where you're listening from! Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. 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 43:1-13

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. Back in 2012, entrepreneurs in the music and tech industries changed the way people think about experiencing sound. They had this idea that started with a question. What would it be like to turn sound into visual art? What if there is a way to not simply hear a sound with our easy? but see it with our eyes.

This idea led to the creation of soundwave art, a company that captures the audible form of sound waves and turns it into a visual representation of sound waves. Soundwave art can take anything from a song to a heartbeat or a voice and place the sound waves of the audio onto a permanent visual artifact like canvas or jewelry. What's more, people with smartphones can scan the visual sound waves and experience the original audio or video message again. In fact, people tend to even make this really personal. People will often create a piece of soundwave art using an audio recording of a lost loved one,

making it possible to see and hear their voice even after they're gone. There's something deep within us that longs to encounter the voice of someone we love, not just hearing it, but even seeing it. Here's the point. There's a powerful connection created when we encounter someone's voice and we want to hold onto it. I mean, why is it that people are so enchanted with the idea of capturing and seeing

and re-experiencing the sound of a loved one's voice? Perhaps it's because the voice of someone who loves us cuts through so much of the noise of the world and connects with us in a way that nothing else can. We can't help but long for the voice of someone who loves us. It's true when we hear the soothing sound of a mother or father in the womb. It's true when we hear the familiar sound of a loved one on the phone, even if it's in a voicemail long after they're gone.

From birth to death, we've been created to experience a kind of comfort and connection that only a voice can give us. It's the sound of love. As much as we need to hear that sound and we long to hear it, we often plug our ears to the voice that calls out to us. It could be because of sin that we've made peace with, refusing to be corrected by the truth of God's design. It could be a doubt or an area of suffering

that's made us question God's goodness or sovereign care. Many of us can't hear the voice that loves us because of the chaotic noise of shame, that deep sense of worthlessness that makes us believe we're only worthy to hear a voice of condemnation. Our passage today in Isaiah 43 is addressed to people who are longing for the voice that will cut through the noise, people who desperately need to know what's really true about them and what's true about the one who calls out to them. Now, as we get ready to approach God's word, let's slow down and ask for His grace to move through our time.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of life and breath, and thank you for your word. We bring before you our joys and our sorrows, our anxiety and our excitement, our calendars and our contingencies. God, would you meet us, in the space. 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. 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, let's set up some context for our passage here. the vibe coming out of Isaiah chapter 42 and into chapter 43 is somber it's emphasizing israel's failure to depend on God and delight in him they do not see his goodness they do not hear his voice in their sin they're like a people who've been plundered and looted their perception is disenchanted and their personhood is devastated the noise of their sin has completely overtaken them Yet as we get into Isaiah chapter 43, we turn a significant corner. Verse one indicates a big change. It says, but now this is what the Lord says.

Amidst Israel's inability to listen, there is a voice that reaches the ears of God's people. They desperately needed to hear what this voice said, and we desperately need to hear it now. And out of the gate, the emphasis of this voice, this message, is all about whose voice we're hearing. Let's start with verse one. But now this is what the Lord says. He who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel.

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I have summoned you by name. You are mine. This voice that's calling out to God's people, the voice that pierces the barriers of their perception problem, it is not a foreign voice. not a new voice. It's the voice that formed them and redeemed them. Notice how intimate this gets at the end of verse one. The transcendent, glorious, holy creator of all things says this,

I have summoned you by name. You are mine. This is the voice of the creator. This sound of love that we desperately need to hear does not come from an incompetent or distant source. It does not call out to you or me generically as an unnamed person in a crowd. No, God says, I have summoned you by name. You're not lost in a crowd. You are not discarded because of your sin or your doubt or your shame. The God who made you calls you by name and you, you right now, you're his. This is what love sounds like. Even if it seems like your circumstances, have cut you off from his loving presence. The reality is that he's been with you

and he will continue to be with you. That's the emphasis of verse 2. Let's read it right now. When you pass through the waters, I'll be with you. When you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned.

The flames will not set you ablaze. Now notice, Isaiah is not saying if you pass through the waters or if you walk through the fire. No, no, no. He says, when, when you encounter these circumstances that seem like they just might cut you off from God from his loving voice,

his gracious presence will be with you then. Versus three through seven continue to emphasize the character and the action of the voice that calls out to us. This is so powerful, we have to read it in full. Here's what the creator's voice says. Let's pick up in verse four, read all the way through, Verse 7. Since you are precious and honored in my sight, because I love you, I will give people in exchange for you, nations in exchange for your life. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will

bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, give them up and to the south, do not hold them back. Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth. Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. Friends, this is what love sounds like. This is the voice of the God who is relentless

in his steadfast love and faithfulness. This is the voice calling out to his sons and daughters. It is not generic love. It is specific. It is calling out to you. In whatever circumstances you find yourself in this day or in this season of life, do you realize that God is calling you by name? That he's calling out to you, his daughter, to you, his son? Do you know that you're precious and honored in his sight, that you're created and formed for his glory?

These verses are a constant reminder to the people of God, helping them remember what love sounds like, what love looks like. this is an everlasting picture of the voice we long to hear. Versus 8 through 13 go on to describe how this distinct voice of the creator stands out amidst the noise of the world. His is the only voice worthy of determining what's true of us, what's true about the world around us, and how we're called to live in it. All of us need to know this sound of love, this voice that calls us by name. It's no coincidence that Jesus describes himself as the good shepherd who calls out to his flock and his voice is personal, it's powerful.

He describes the shepherd's voice in this way in John 10, verse 3. The sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. The sound of love comes from the one who made you, who died for you, and who rose again so that you can live in the light of his glorious victory. If you really want to know what love sounds like, listen to the voice of Jesus, who continued and fulfilled the voice of love that we hear in Isaiah 43. If you really want to know what love looks like,

look to the voice of the one who not only called out to you, but gave up his breath for you. Isaiah 43 is a little bit like a biblical version of Soundwave art, only far more glorious, far more lasting. It conveys the everlasting voice of the one who cuts through the noise and calls us, calls you by name. Will you hear his voice today? Heavenly Father, thank you for this lasting picture of your loving voice

that reaches us, even in the most difficult and painful areas of life. Jesus, we depend on you and your voice of sacrificial love that calls us by name, summoning us to follow you and trust you with everything we have. Holy Spirit in a world and a season full of busyness and noise, open our ears to hear the sound of your love. We pray this because of your grace, for your glory, in your story. In Jesus' name, amen.