The Cup of God’s Wrath

Awake, awake! Stand up, O Jerusalem, You who have drunk at the hand of the LORD The cup of His fury; You have drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling, And drained it out. (Isaiah 51:17 NKJV)

            Throughout the Old and the New Testaments we are told about the Cup of God’s Wrath or fury.  God cries out to Jerusalem that since they have drunk from the cup of God’s fury they should awake!  This terrible cup that we must drink because of our lack of faith and trust opens us to fear and despair should awaken us.  This cup of trembling which we have drained is to call us back to God.

            We fear judgment as a child fears punishment because we believe they are the very same thing.  But judgment, like a test at school is an attempt by God to show us as a person and a nation what we need to do to not fail at life.  When God judges us as a person or a nation it is to show us our need for forgiveness and for His grace.

            Many will dispute this by showing the Great White Throne Judgment or the judgment we receive when we die.  But there are many smaller judgments in our lives and in our nations that give us opportunities to repent and to push away the Cup of God’s Wrath.  Our childish fear of judgment often keeps us from partaking of these opportunities to find mercy and forgiveness.

Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens. (Genesis 19:24 NKJV)

            I believe it was Billy Graham who said, “If God doesn’t judge America He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.”  Notice that God rains the brimstone and fire FROM God out of the heavens.  This is not a natural event of meteors, but a judgment from God by God.

            It is terrible to think of a cluster of small cities destroyed because of their evil.  It is more terrible to imagine how evil they must be looking at the places God hasn’t destroyed.  It is even more terrible to imagine that this could happen to us.

            God didn’t want the evil to spread to others and to other places.  Sodom and Gomorrah stand as evidence that you can go too far and a warning to each of us that there are consequences.  We can pretend it is a proverb, or a fairy tale.  But in our hearts most of us know if it didn’t happen there it has happened somewhere.  It is a sign post, a warning from God to come back from the edge of destruction.

            It also is a reminder of Gods promise after the Flood to not destroy the world by flood and His promise to destroy by fire.

For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, And the wine is red; It is fully mixed, and He pours it out; Surely its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth Drain and drink down. (Psalms 75:8 NKJV)

            This Cup is filled with a wine as red as blood!  The blood of all the lives we have destroyed.  Our sin is always against God, but our sin destroys others.  Our putting others down to look better destroys their spirit, our sexual sins destroy the souls of others, and our economic sins kill bodies and weaken minds. 

            WE ALL DESERVE TO DRINK THIS CUP OF GOD’S WRATH DOWN!  We should drain it and realize the pain and suffering we have caused by our selfishness and our lust.

            The cup is mixed with all the varied sins we have lived out and is filled with the bitterness of the end results of those sins.  We drink the dregs of the lives we have harmed or destroyed through our sin!

            The most disturbing part to me is that the cup is in God’s hand.  We usually think of God’s hand as protective and comforting, but like a Father God’s hand also brings punishment meant to awaken us and lead us to living better.