“Thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I am sending among them.”” (Jeremiah 25:15–16, ESV)
Normally when people think of drinking a cup of wine it is in a good context. People will have a glass with a nice formal dinner. Some will drink a cup in a social environment. Some will make a toast at special occasions.
However, drinking wine can also have adverse consequences when taken in excess. Before the Lord saved me, I was known to put away a lot of alcohol. So, I know first hand what it is like to be over the limit. I am not proud of this, but it is the reality of my former life.
Excessive drinking of wine can result in people being under the influence of alcohol. When they are in this state, they lose control of their faculties. It can cause erratic driving of vehicles, sometimes leading to accidents. It can cause one to have slurred speech and to lose certain important social inhibitions.
In this passage the Lord tells Jeremiah to take the “cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.” He went on to explain, “They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I am sending among them.”
Often in the Scriptures we see the cup in reference to the wrath of God. It refers to the punishment of God that comes upon people and nations due to their disobedience, their sins. Here we see that the wrath of God would come upon the Israelites in Judah due to their apostasy and idolatry. Yet as we look at the context of this in the book of Jeremiah, we see that the cup was not just for the nation of Israel, but for “all the kingdoms of the world that are on the face of the earth. And after them the king of Babylon shall drink” (Jeremiah 25:26, ESV).
So, why use a cup of wine to picture the punishment of God to come? As we see in the quoted verses, as wine makes one “stagger and be crazed would,” the punishment to come would do to the same to the nations. In other words, the nations would lose control, they would come to a point where they could do nothing to prevent the punishment to come.
What does this mean to us? Let us look at the night that Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. Remember His words.
“My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39, ESV)
That evening, Jesus understood what was coming. The wrath of God would be poured out on Him because of the sin of the world. He would surrender to the will of God and endure the cross. While fully God, He went to the cross as one who had no control over the moment. He endured the infinite wrath of God for all of us.
Let us reflect upon His great sacrifice and the freedom from sin and its punishment that He has granted to all of us, we who have believed. Let us give praise and honor for He, by taking the wrath due us, has defeated sin and death.
Renewing the Heart 