ODJ: whose will?


April 23, 2013 

READ: Isaiah 45:14-25
 

I have sworn by My own name; I have spoken the truth, and I will never 
go back on My Word: 
Every knee will bend to Me, and every tongue will confess allegiance 
to Me (v.23).


Generation Ex-Christian is a book about younger 
 believers leaving Christianity. Drew Dyck, the 
 author of the book, chronicles one interview he had with a young man who left Christianity to join the Wiccans: “Ultimately why I left is that the Christian God demands that you submit to His will. In Wicca, it’s just the other way around. Your will is paramount. We believe in gods and goddesses, but the deities we choose to serve are based on our wills.” This young man’s desire to turn from the true and living God to idols is not shocking, nor is it new.

Several millennia ago God appealed to the Gentiles, who were serving gods they had formed by their own whims and wills, to turn from their wooden idols and embrace the one and only God who could save and shape them. They were commanded to hear the prophecies God had given and acknowledge that He was God and there was no other god besides Him (Isaiah 45:21-22). He wanted them to turn to Him because one day all peoples on the earth would acknowledge His will and submit to His sovereign rule. Every knee would bow and every tongue acknowledge Him as the one and only God (vv.14,23; Romans 14:11), either voluntarily or by force.

Isaiah’s prophecy finds its clearest reflection in Jesus’ exaltation and sovereign authority (Philippians 2:9-11). Because of the extent of His authority (in heaven, on earth and under the earth), no one will escape His rule.

One day everyone will acknowledge that Jesus Christ is exactly who He claimed to be—God. His will is paramount. Let’s willingly bow before Him now and submit our lives to His will and His lordship, all to the glory of God the Father. —Marvin Williams