114. The Cup of Fury
Isaiah 51:22, 23 Thus saith thy Lord the Lord, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again: But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hat laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.
The Lord promises to take out of our hand the cup of trembling, the cup of His fury. He promises that we never drink it again. The cup is the just wrath of God, which is to be poured out upon us on account of our sin. The cup of trembling and fury is God’s anger and judgment on us for our sins and unbelief. We deserved God’s wrath and we have judgment justly coming to us. We may resist, argue, complain and defend our case before the Lord, but we cannot win the case. We have sinned; we have deserved the wrath of God; we have been justly sentenced to eternal death.
But God promises to take the cup out of our hand so that we shall no more drink it again. God could promise this and God can do it because His Son took the cup of fury against us in His own hands and He drank it down. Jesus suffered the punishment of our sins and endured the wrath of God. In spiritual agony Jesus prayed to the Father to remove this cup from Him, but then He prayed: “Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.” It turned out to be the will of God that His Son would drink the cup instead of us. Thus He promised to take it out of our hand so that we would not have to drink it. Jesus drank it so that we would not.
The wrath and fury of God against us has been taken out of our hands and mouth, all because of the suffering and death of Christ. But there is more to the promise: the cup of fury will be given to our enemies and those who afflict us. The enemies of God and the enemies of God’s people will drink the cup of fury and suffer forever the just judgment of God. Thank God that this prophecy will also come true. It means that our enemies (Sin, Death, Satan) will be removed from our presence forever, incarcerated forever, and they will never again be able to afflict us or make us feel guilty or ashamed or afraid.