God's Cup

When you read the Old Testament, you see a number of cities that face God's justice - cities that were sinful through and through, cities that refused to turn back to Him, cities that lived in opposition to the love and mercy and goodness that God desired for His entire creation since the very beginning. 

Sodom and Gomorrah. Tyre and Sidon. Nineveh was set to experience that kind of judgment. And then, even when the nation of Israel split and Judah became her own people, we saw Israel herself facing this justice. She had turned her back, and God was going to let her reap the consequences of that. 

Judah...thought she was safe. 

She thought she was safe because she was God's people. She wasn't perfect, and she knew it, but she wasn't like those other nations. Not like those other peoples. Not like those other sinners. 

Then, in Ezekiel, God tells Judah the very thing that she doesn't want to hear - she's guilty, too. 

She's guilty of the same things that the other nations are guilty of. In fact, she's done exactly the same things that Samaria has done. (And we know how much Judah dislikes Samaria. Those sinners.)

And as a result of her sin, Judah is going to drink the exact same cup of God's judgment as Samaria has. (Ezekiel 23:32)

Exactly the same. 

You can still hear them protesting thousands of years in the future. But we're Your people. We're not perfect, but we're not that bad. We're not Samaria bad. We've made some mistakes, but You can't possibly make us drink from the same cup as those sinners.

And yet.... 

And yet, that's exactly what God does. Because God doesn't discriminate between sinners. In God's eyes, one sin is as much broken as any other. The smallest transgression goes as much against His design as the biggest one, and every single one contributes to the fallenness of the whole enterprise. 

We are not today much different than Judah was back then. We consider ourselves God's people, God's chosen people. After all, we chose Him, right? We have given ourselves over to Him. So the mistakes that we make, the errors we commit, the sins that beset us in this fallen world...they aren't like the mistakes, errors, and sins of those other sinners. 

We're supposed to be special. We're supposed to be loved. We're supposed to be the chosen ones, the ones through whom God is making His name in this world. And if we're out here doing our best to live for His name, why would He make us drink from the cup of His judgment?

Because we're guilty of the same sin. That's why. 

Because at the end of the day, we're sinners. That's why. 

Because when we do things that aren't consistent with who He is, it doesn't matter what kind of jewelry we're wearing around our neck, what we're doing on a Sunday morning, where we're giving our money, or anything else. We are sinners. 

And there is but one cup for all sinners.

Whether we think we're Samaria bad or not. 

Thank God that at least, we're living in a time when that cup has been poured out for us by the grace of Christ on the Cross. 

I hear it's a bitter cup, should we have to actually drink it.