How the grace of humility shines out in all the little affairs of our dear Redeemer's ministry; even at the moment of His surrender to His enemies He does not boast that His course is a voluntary one, nor seek praise as a martyr! He declares the simple truth that the Father required this of Him as an evidence of His personal loyalty to Him. He confesses Himself a servant of God, a Son who learned obedience by the things which He suffered. No other lesson, perhaps, is more needed by the Lord's followers than the one of willingness to drink the cup which the Father pours—a recognition that the Father is guiding and directing in our affairs because we are His, as disciples of the Anointed One.
The cup symbolizes experiences of bliss or woe; and as nothing happens to the saints, and as all things coming into their lives are of the Father's will, they recognize their experiences as the cup that the Father offers them to drink. As it was to their Master, it should be to them a self-evident matter that they drink it always with a contented mind and, as far as possible, with a thankful and appreciative heart, to God's glory and others' and their own profit.
Job 13:15; Psa. 119:75; Jer. 10:19; Matt. 20:22; 26:39, 42; Luke 22:20; Rom. 5:3-5; 1 Cor. 10:16, 21; 2 Cor. 7:4; Phil. 3:8; Psa. 23:5; 116:13; Isa. 51:22, 23.
