The Cup of Wrath

July 6, 2010 at 2:24 pm | Posted in Devotional thoughts | Leave a comment

          On Sunday our worship service at Village was a great time of patriotic music, with both congregational singing and a small choir musical put together by our worship leader.  She did a great job!  One of the songs we sang together was The Battle Hymn of the Republic.  I was thinking about the biblical imagery in that song, including “trampling out vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.”  Later we talked the allusions as a family.  Some of the references are about God separating the wicked from the righteous and the wrath he has for the wicked.  Then on Monday morning I read both of the following passages in my devotions.  Funny how God often puts things together like this!

          Psalm 71:7-8  “God is the Judge; He puts down one and exalts another.  For a cup is in the hand of the LORD, and the wine foams; it is well mixed, and He pours out of this; surely all the wicked of the earth must drain and drink down its dregs.”

          On the same day, I continued my reading through Isaiah and found the following words in Isaiah 51:22.  “Thus says your Lord, the LORD, even your God who contends for His people, ‘Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of reeling, the chalice of My anger; you will never drink it again.’”

          There is wrath planned for the wicked of the earth.  However, we need not fear that wrath, because God contends for his own people, and they will not suffer it.  In fact, the wrath he had stored up for them, which their wickedness deserves, has already been poured out on his Son.  Those who trust in Jesus are God’s people, and they will not experience his wrath.  There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus!