22 “Turn to me and be saved,
all the ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other.
23 By myself I have sworn;
from my mouth has gone out in righteousness
a word that shall not return:
‘To me every knee shall bow,
every tongue shall swear allegiance.’24 “Only in the Lord, it shall be said of me,
(Isaiah 45:22-25)
are righteousness and strength;
to him shall come and be ashamed
all who were incensed against him.
25 In the Lord all the offspring of Israel
shall be justified and shall glory.”
It is hard sometimes to imagine that a time will come when everyone recognizes God for who He truly is. A time will come when everyone bows. Some days it feels like we are surrounded by so much confusion and so many options on who and what to worship. If we humans work hard enough, we can pretend that there is no spiritual world at all. So many people refuse to recognize and bow to God, and I was one of them for many years. It almost seems impossible that every knee will bow, and every tongue will swear allegiance, but this won’t be difficult for God.
The closer I get to Jesus, and the more the Holy Spirit reveals His glory to me the more I am jealous for His praise. I want everyone around me to honor Him, recognize His awesome attributes, and give Him glory for everything in our lives: the paychecks, places to sleep, relationships, and the very breath in our lungs. Every single person on earth has gifts from God.
When He reveals Himself to each of us, one at a time, we have a hard time denying the existence, power, love, and authority of our triune God. When we finally see Him there won’t be any room left for confusion or denial, He will be worthy of all the glory, honor, and praise.
When I imagine the scene in Revelation 5 when the elders, the angels, and every creature in heaven and on earth all call out that Jesus is worthy I get chills. It’s hard to imagine how great that sound will be. My high school choir was 300 people and I thought that sounded amazing. Sometimes I think of my time in the military, basic training in particular, where hundreds of soldiers were in formation at once and shouted with one voice. I know the sound is far beyond those examples, but there is something so powerful in the sound of unity.
Heaven is hard to imagine! Jesus tells us in the Lord’s prayer that God’s will is done in Heaven. We know the streets are paved with gold and that we won’t have to look through this veil anymore. But the thing I can’t wait for is the corporate worship of Jesus! I can’t wait to see what that looks like in Heaven.
It feels good to know that God will get all of what is due to Him. Right now, He doesn’t. There is no better focus for all praise, honor, and glory than the Lord. I look forward to being a part of the reality. I can’t wait to hear the sound. I can’t wait till He gets the honor He deserves.
Here’s a song to listen to this morning! O for a thousand tongues to sing
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