No, I’m not referring to the pretty cup with its saucer which you have displayed in your china cabinet.
At first I didn’t understand why I was writing this but I felt the Holy Spirit’s pressure and direction. Maybe what He continues to teach me can encourage someone else.
I’m thinking about some very different cups and there is nothing pretty about them.
(Isaiah 51:17) – Rouse yourself, awake and stand up Jerusalem. You have drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of His fury. Like Israel, Judah began to worship the idols of the nations around them including Molech. Molech was a large metal idol with outstretched arms. For worship a fire would be built inside it and the metal would become red hot. The people of Judah sacrificed to Molech by (Jeremiah 7:31, 32-34) placing their infants on its outstretched arms to let them roast to death. The fury in the cup of God included famine so intense that a man (Isaiah 9:20) would eat his own arm and the people (Jeremiah 19:9) would eat their sons and daughters. The sins of Judah were so abominable that Sodom was more righteous than Judah and in comparison (Ezekiel 16:46-52) wicked Judah almost justified Sodom.
Like me, you are filled with horror at these things - - but what about our day? Many church assemblies known for their faithful preaching of God’s word and its authority have switched their worship to the idols of (Jeremiah 14:14, Jeremiah 23:32) pleasing lies (Isaiah 30:10) and greed. Many so-called Christians still sacrifice their children to the demon-god idols of this world by their lifestyle. No truly born-again person will be lost but a continual disobedient life will receive the chastening and discipline of God and will suffer great loss at (Romans 14:10, 12, 1 Corinthians 3:12-15, 2 Corinthians 5:10) the Judgment Seat of Christ. If we reject – ignore – disobey the light, that light will become darkness and we are responsible.
(Psalms 75:8) – In the hand of the Lord there is a cup of His wrath and the wine foams and is red, well mixed. He pours out from it and all the wicked of the earth must drain it and drink its dregs. If ever you are tempted to think that evil is winning because of all you see in the world, keep reading on to VS.9-10. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro (2 Chronicles 16:9) throughout the whole earth. He misses nothing and because He knows everything – He can plan for anything. Every choice of every person is recorded because those choices have not only consequences but personal accountability.
(Jeremiah 25:15) – Take this cup of the wine of wrath from My hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it! Why? Because they have rejected the message of mercy. I find this both scary and encouraging. There have been times when I’ve said just a few words about the Lord and been stunned by a blasphemous or mocking response. Our preaching – witness – testimony is a (2 Corinthians 2:16) savour of life unto life or death unto death. I think the reason God’s wrath is compared to wine is because there comes a point when people will reject for the last time and then stagger in the darkness.
(Revelation 14:10) – There is a final cup – an end-time cup – during the Great Tribulation. Everyone who worships antichrist and his statue and receives his mark – will have to drink of the wine of God’s wrath and indignation which will be poured out undiluted into the cup of His anger. God’s holiness demands a cup and we choose the cup – wrath or grace – personal choice.
Are there no more cups? Is that the whole story? There is one more cup but it is not a cup. It is THE CUP of anguish which brings us hope.
God remembered other cups – cups of wrath poured out on wickedly sinful, defiant rebels. But this CUP is different – it will not be poured. Jesus has to deliberately reach out and take it from the Father’s hand and willingly drink it. Tread softly. Jesus is in Gethsemane now – not on His knees but on His face on the ground prostrate with grief. His Father reaches down to hand Him the CUP. Jesus is shaking uncontrollably – His arm seems paralyzed – He cannot force His hand to reach out for the Cup. The shrieking of the demons pierces His brain and tortures His mind. Abba, (Abba means my father) Abba, My Father. This is not some neighbour’s father – this is His own Father and Jesus is His only Son. Abba, My Father, if it be possible – this was not disobedience or rebellion but the agony of human desperation – but, Your will be done. With those words His arm was released and He reached out and took the CUP and began to drink. Then He felt the intense, killing terror of being ripped away from the embracing loving relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 26:38) Because of that His sorrow was almost killing Him but He had to make it to the Cross. Add to that the crushing, suffocating weight of all the sin of all the world including all the other cups.
He was made (2 Corinthians 5:21) sin for us. He was made (Galatians 3:13) a curse for us. Listen! My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? (Can you hear those words without pain?) He is abandoned. What response did He receive? Now the penalty – Jesus looked into His Father’s face and He had never seen it like that before – tightly closed against Him and filled with rage. The pure, holy, beautiful, sinless One, the Joy of heaven, had become vile and loathsome to God. Therefore – no mercy, no relief, no letting up as the full blazing fury of God’s hatred for sin was poured out on His own Son. An angel was dispatched to strengthen Him and that was the last thing His Father did for Him – UNTIL –
There was no stopping – UNTIL - - UNTIL - - -
On the Cross Jesus is suffering excruciating pain in addition to dehydration and tremendous blood-loss. Painfully He pushes Himself up so that He can take a breath in order to speak. Father, Father? Did you hear that? He can call God Father again. Father (Luke 23:46) into Thy hands I commit My spirit. He had one more thing (John 19:30) to say - - IT IS FINISHED!
His victory cry reached His father and has resounded over the world through all the centuries. His precious broken body was ready for the tomb but where did His spirit go? He had committed Himself to the Father and by His Own Blood (Hebrews 9:12) entered the holy of holies where the Father received back His beloved Son.
Father, the monstrous heartbreak, beyond all heartbreaks, You were willing to endure. Holy Spirit, the tremendous grief, beyond any known grief, You were willing to bear. Why Lord? Why did God have such overpowering hatred for sin? Because of His overpowering love for us. When you love someone, you hate anything that would harm them. We are the pinnacle of God’s creation and His love for us would not be defeated - - even though it cost Jesus the righteous brutality of Justice. Can we even begin to get our minds around what is beyond comprehension. Ponder - - the holy Sovereign Trinity was willing to be torn apart so that you and I personally could be redeemed. No wonder Oswald Chambers said that we need to brood on the tragedy of God. Don’t let me ever forget the cost to God.
Behold! (we need to) what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us (1 John 3:1)
Lest I forget Gethsemane, Lest I forget Thine agony,
Lest I forget Thy love for me - - lead me to Calvary
Let’s take a little time to consider some of the tremendous, well-known facts. Are they so familiar that we are losing our wonder?
God the Son was made MAN and that MAN was made sin. How could He ever call God “Father” again? He said that something was finished. What did He finish? He finished – completed – fulfilled the plan made by the Holy Trinity (Revelation 13:8) before the world began. What did that include? He died to sin (Romans 6:10) once and for all – conquering – defeating – breaking its dominion. Now this MAN was filled (Colossians 2:9) with all the fullness of the Godhead. His precious Blood is more valuable than all the world’s silver and gold, which He Himself created – because that sin-destroying Blood rescued and restored righteousness for guilty sinners – He made it possible for us to grow into being filled (Ephesians 3:19) with all the fullness of God.
I don’t want to even try to imagine our world if the WORD (John 1:14) had not been made human – the indescribable GIFT – the GOD-MAN.
John Piper – “A Christian ashamed of Jesus is like a candle ashamed of the sun”. -
I don’t want to lose any – but to increase greatly – my wonder, worship and adoration for Jesus, the God of all holiness and grace - - which He could not be if He had not victoriously, triumphantly, gloriously accomplished it all by reaching out and taking THE CUP.
