By Mark Grace, CCCNZ Ambassador
Kia hari, kia koa, e te tamahine a Eroma e noho na i te whenua o Uhu; ka tae atu ano te kapu ki a koe; ka haurangi koe, ka whakarere ano koe i ou kakahu.
Ina olioli ia ma e fiafia oe le tama fafine a Etoma e, o loo nofo i le nuu o Usa; e oo atu ia te oe lava le ipu; e onā ai oe, ma e faalelavalavā ai.
Rejoice and be glad, Daughter Edom, you who live in the land of Uz. But to you also the cup will be passed; you will be drunk and stripped naked.
Lamentations 4:21
The explosive power of God’s judgement had devastated Jerusalem. The desolation left by the Babylonians was unthinkable. Adults were treating each other and their children worse than animals. Mothers murdered their children for their own meals; children were starving and begging. The city’s prophets, priests and princes were ashen skeletons.
Instead of putting their trust in God and his promises, Jerusalem’s people and its leaders had put their trust in idols, political alliances, and their own strength. Their unrepentant idolatry led to destruction by the Babylonians.
Jeremiah, surveying the wreckage, now looks to the neighbouring nation of Edom. He sarcastically says, gloat now, Edom, but the cup of God’s wrath is coming. The shockwave of God’s judgement on Jerusalem is coming to your people and your land. It will strip you and your land naked.
This same cup comes for each one of us, as individuals and nations. We are all Edom. All of us deserve God’s judgement.
When I think about what I deserve in light of God’s holy, loving justice, I’m blown away that God, out of his great love for us, sent his son to us. He is fully God and fully human. He took the cup instead of us. He took God’s judgement on himself. He was humiliated instead of us.
I am still amazed that when God looks at me now, he sees right through my idolatry, pride, and self-seeking. He sees me in Jesus.
My judgment was Jesus’. Jesus’ righteousness is mine. Unlike Edom, I don’t live in fear of God’s judgement. Jesus took it all, and now I’m in him.
I can only marvel at “the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7).
