Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - You Were Spiritually Poor | Historical Books | Isaiah 42:10-25

Episode Date: December 4, 2025

Are you blind and deaf to God? Do you walk humbly before God? Has God lifted you up? In today's episode, Patrick shares how Isaiah 42:10-25 encourages us to praise our God, who lifted us up from poverty. 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 42:10-25

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 Patrick Miller. In 2018, a homeless man named Elmer Alvarez found a $10,000 cashier's check just sitting on the street. You might assume that the next thing he'd do would be to go and cash the check and take the money. And here's the truth. If it had happened several years earlier, that's probably what he would have done. Elmer Alvarez faced the same demons many homeless people do, mental illness, addiction. But despite being on the street, he'd been clean for over three years now. And as anyone who's battled addiction knows, you can only stay clean if you stay honest.

So Elmer did something unexpected. He tracked down the person the check was meant for, and he delivered it to her. Her name was Roberta Hoski, and she was a successful real estate broker in New Haven, Connecticut. when he reached out and asked her to meet up, she expected to find a white collar, buttoned up man delivering the check, but instead she found a homeless man. She said that in that moment, when she saw him, all of her stereotypes about the homeless and those in poverty, it shattered every single one of them. She saw a man with incredible integrity who had everything to lose by being honest, and yet

he chose honesty instead. She was so moved that she found him housing and she paid for his housing for seven months. Not just that, she paid for him to go to real estate school and then began working on real estate projects with him. Eventually they launched a transitional home for teenagers who were experiencing homelessness. Elmer could relate to them because he knew the pain of homelessness. And in his new role at this transitional house, he found a sense of purpose and a sustainable life. These stories always make me feel a bit emotional. First, because they're so rare.

Climbing out of poverty and homelessness can feel and seem impossible. But the real reason I love these stories is because I see myself in them. You see, I once had nothing. I once was lost. And like Elmer, that was because of all the decisions I made to reject God and to go on my own. But God, in his kindness, reach down to me, his enemy. and He lifted me up. He gave me a purpose and a home. He provided for my salvation. And he set me on a mission to do good work for His kingdom. In Isaiah 42 verses 10 to 25, we read a passage written for the ancient

Israelites who would one day live as exiles in Babylon. At the end of that passage, it explains why they were experiencing exile, why they were suffering in Babylon. And the simple reason is because of their sin, because of their injustice, because of their idolatry, because of their mistakes, they were on the streets. Let's pick up in verse 18. Here you deaf, look, you blind and see. Who is blind but my servant? He's talking about Israel. And deaf like the messenger I send.

Who is blind like the one in covenant with me? Blind like the servant of the Lord. You have seen many things, but you pay no attention. Your ears are open, but you do not. listen. If you can't see yourself in that verse, I don't know what to say. How often has God showed me his goodness and kindness, but I refused to see it? How often has he spoken to my open ears, and yet I refused to listen? So often I am blind, so often I am deaf to God. And I think this happens to all of us. God calls us to treasure him above all things, but we cling to our wealth

or our possessions, like they're the things that matter most. God calls us to walk impurity before him, but we indulge our lusts and believe that we'll find satisfaction there. God calls us to walk humbly before him, but we proudly judge others and indulge our self-righteousness, our critical spirits. Aren't we the spiritually deaf sometimes? Aren't we the spiritually blind? But God doesn't give up on his people, even though they deserve to be given up on. Instead, Isaiah describes God seeking out his poor, deaf, blind, battered people and turning the world upside down so that they can become the spiritually rich, so that they can hear and see and know him. Isaiah captures this with incredible poetic imagery.

He describes God going to the forgotten, poor, desolate places first. We'll pick up in verse 10, sing to the Lord a new song, His praise from the ends of the earth. You who go down to the sea and all that is in it, you islands and all who live in them, let the wilderness and its towns raise their voices, let the settlements where Qadar lives rejoice. These are the desolate places, the islands that are forgotten, the wilderness that's been passed upon, the settlements in Qadar that everybody ignores. God says he's going to those places to where the spiritually poor, the spiritually blind, and the spiritually deaf live to do something new. Isaiah goes on to describe God as a champion of those who have been cast down by their own sin, those who have been made poor by their own idolatry.

He describes God facing down the ultimate enemies of sin, death, and the devil in verse 13. It says, The Lord will march out like a champion. Like a warrior, he will stir up his zeal. With a shout, he will raise the battle cry and he will triumph over his enemies. And then Isaiah describes God, inverting the normal order of things. God lifting up those who are poor and deaf and blind. lifting up people like Elmer Alvarez. We continue in verse 14. For a long time, I have kept silent. I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and

pant. I will lay waste to the mountains and the hills. Those are the high places, the places of honor, the places of power. And I will dry up all their vegetation. I will turn rivers into islands and dry up the pools. I will lead the blind by ways they have not known. Along unfamiliar paths, I will guide them. I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do. I will not forsake them. There's one major difference between us who are spiritually poor and blind and deaf and someone like Elmer Alvarez. You see, someone could say that Elmer Alvarez earned Roberta's favor by showing integrity. And of course that's true, but he certainly didn't earn her kindness.

She could have taken the check and thanked him and moved on and that would have been fine. He didn't deserve to be housed. He didn't deserve to go to real estate school. He didn't deserve to start a home for homeless teens. Do you see the differences and similarities between us and him? You see, unlike Elmer, none of us can earn God's favor. He doesn't rescue us because we showed integrity one time or we did the right thing one time. In fact, it's quite the opposite.

God rescues us despite the fact that we lack integrity, despite the fact that we've done the wrong thing again and again and again. And that means that when he gives us a home with him and he makes us wealthy in him, and he gives us a purpose in him, well, that means that we can never pretend that we earned or deserved a single inch of it. God owed us nothing, nothing but his judgment. But he's given us nothing less than everything.

the life of his own son. You see, that's the great inversion of Jesus Christ. He who lived in heaven and was wealthy and powerful and good beyond imagination became poor and powerless on our behalf. He died for the sins that he didn't even commit. Why? So that lost people like you and me could receive what he deserved. So we could receive his wealth, his power, and his goodness, even though we didn't earn it. Even though we didn't earn it. though we don't deserve it. That's the story of your life. That's the story that changes lives.

That's the story that comforts everyone who thinks that they're too far gone. That's the story that changes the world. Your champion, Jesus Christ, has conquered. And now you're the victor for eternity.