Ezekiel 23:33

Here the holy city is compared with Samaria. They are two sisters born of one parent, the Jewish people, and sisters too in their idol worship. Their symbolic names are given as Oholah the elder and Oholibah her sister. The first name means "her own tent," the second, "my tent is in her." Samaria's worship came out of her own will. At best it was an imitation, but it was really independence from Jehovah. In Jerusalem, Jehovah Himself arranged the worship, as His own appointment. Yet not one only but both were His: "They were mine, and they bore sons and daughters."

The wine cup, the cup of trembling, the cup of His fury, the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath, are all names for the same cup. That cup is the symbol of God's judgments. The cup of salvation, on the other hand, expresses the joy of the kingdom.

Under the affliction they are described as "drunk," but it adds, "not with wine." One day the Arm of the Lord will wake up on their behalf. Then the hour of their deliverance will strike. The Lord will take the "cup of trembling" out of their hands and put it into the hands of their oppressors.

So the judgment of favoured Judah would even go beyond that of Samaria, since her guilt was greater. They would drain the dregs, grind the broken pieces with their teeth, and tear their own guilty breasts.

We have seen the great principle. It holds true for one person as much as for a whole people, and for the Christian world as much as for Israel: the Lord governs in righteousness, and He governs the more closely the nearer and more privileged you are. There is no point in unbelief complaining. This is what righteousness is and should be. The more favoured you are, the more your responsibility grows.

Yet on God's part all this severity is not mere judgment. Its effect, as He puts it here, is to make Oholibah's lewdness stop, so that she turns from the things she once found attractive with loathing. A person must come to himself to come to God, and this is the process God was now bringing Israel through. But the cup must be drained to its bitter dregs.

He looked at the cup, prayed to be spared it, but said, "I will drink it." Our eternal salvation hung upon His drinking that cup. If He did not bear that wrath and judgment, we must; and if He did not drink that cup, we must drink it. Thank God, my Saviour has drained it for me. He has drained it to the very dregs. Then He filled another cup — the cup of salvation — to the brim with love. He has put that cup to my lips, and I drink, and receive eternal life.