What does the Bible mean when it uses the word “cup”? Understanding the Bible’s usage of the word “cup” will help us better understand Jeremiah 25:15 onwards better. In the Scriptures, the word “cup” has often been used as a metaphor to refer to the destiny of an individual or of a nation. It could be a positive or a negative destiny. Psalm 16 is an example of how the word “cup” is used to refer to positive destiny. In verse 5 the Psalmist asserted that said, “The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You support my lot.” He determines the lot and portion of our lives.
For negative destiny, we look at how the Lord Jesus used the
word. Matthew 26:39 tells us that He requested
the Father for the cup to be removed from Him. We know that He was referring to
His impending torture and ultimate death at Calvary. Though He made this
request for that negative experience to be bypassed yet He would rather follow
the will of God. Again in John 18:11, as he told Peter not to resist His
arrest, He referred to the cup saying, “Put
the sword into the sheath; the cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not
drink it?” Again He was referring to what was coming at His trials, torture, and eventual death on the cross.
In Jeremiah 25:15 the
cup God told the prophet to take and give it to the nation to drink was referred
to as “the cup of the wine of wrath.” God was
talking about the negative experiences that He was about to bring upon all nations. It is true that the end of every nation, know it or not, is determined
by God. In Jeremiah 25:15 the prophet was commanded to take it from God’s hand and pass it around to the different designated nations to drink. Verse 16 tells us
the negative impact of the drink on them. God said that His wrath would cause the
nations to stagger and become senseless and mad like a drunkard. They would experience
utter chaos because of the sword that He would bring upon them. In other words, God
would cause invading army to battle them. It is hard to imagine that Jeremiah
took the cup and literally went to all the different nations and made them drink.
But this is possible if all that Jeremiah was describing was in a
vision. However, it could well be that he went to the different foreign attaché
in Jerusalem and had the ambassadors of each of those nations drink the cup.
When
we consider the destiny of our lives, I am sure we would prefer to have
positive ones. Even if we are to go through some negative experiences, our
prayer is that our destiny will ultimately dovetail with God’s plan and purpose
for us. Nothing can truly and deeply satisfy us outside of God. It is
in a deep abiding relationship with Him that our destiny is sealed. A departure
from God would spell misery but drawing near to Him would be life indeed.
Let’s exclaim like the Psalmist:
“Whom
have I in heaven but You?
And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion
forever.” (Psalm 73:25-26).
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