The Cup in the LORD's Hand

Scripture speaks of a cup in two ways. One is the cup of blessing and salvation, which God gives to those who are his. The other is a cup the LORD holds in his own hand and gives to be drunk, and the prophets call it the cup of his fury. The Hebrew word for cup, kos1, can mean a vessel or the portion it holds, a lot assigned to someone, and in the second use the lot is judgment.

This study follows that second cup through the whole Bible: where it first appears as a shadow, how the prophets describe it, why the Son of God asks in a garden whether it might pass from him, and what the New Testament says about everyone else. The Psalms give the picture first.

For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.

Psalms 75:8
KJV

Three details return every time the cup appears. It is in the hand of the LORD, he is the one who pours it, and it is drunk down to the dregs. Isaiah puts them in the mouth of a city that has already drunk.

¶ Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.

Isaiah 51:17
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The Hebrew for fury here is chemah2, a word for heat that also carries anger and poison. Theodoret of Cyrus (458) read the verse plainly: "He calls chastisement 'the cup,' because it is stupefying like drunkenness." Jeremiah is handed the same cup and told to carry it to the nations.

¶ For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them.

Jeremiah 25:15-16
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The cross-reference graph on this site draws the line without help. The strongest edges leaving Jeremiah 25:15 run to Psalm 75:8, to Isaiah 51:17 and on to Revelation 14:10. One cup runs from the Psalms to the last book of the Bible.

Gregory of Nazianzus (390) noticed that Psalm 75 calls the cup "full of mixture" while Revelation 14:10 says it is poured "without mixture." He wrote that God "dilutes with compassion the unmixed draught of his wrath" for those who accept chastisement, yet "reserves the dregs, the last drop of his anger" for those who grow obdurate. That is a reading of the texts, but the two phrases are there in the verses for anyone to set side by side.

Bitter Water: Marah, the Calf and the Law of Jealousies

Before the prophets, the Law gives the cup its earliest shadows, and all of them are drinks. At Marah the people reach water they cannot drink, because it is bitter3, and the LORD shows Moses a tree that makes it sweet.

And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them,

Exodus 15:23-25
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Tertullian (220) read the tree as Christ: "That tree was Christ," restoring the bitter water to sweetness. Paul says in Galatians 3:13 that Christ hung on a tree, and Peter uses the same word in Acts 5:30. Marah is not yet a cup of wrath, but it is the first time the Bible turns bitterness into sweetness by a tree.

The second shadow comes at Sinai itself. When Israel makes the golden calf, Moses does not simply destroy it.

And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.

Exodus 32:20
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Israel is made to drink the evidence of her own unfaithfulness. The prophets will later call idolatry adultery, so this is the first time the covenant people taste what a broken covenant is made of.

The third and fullest shadow is Numbers 5, a short chapter with no parallel anywhere else in the Law. A husband suspects his wife of unfaithfulness but has no witness. The case is not decided by a court, because the woman is set "before the LORD" and he settles it.

And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water: And the priest shall set the woman before the LORD, and uncover the woman's head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering: and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse:

Numbers 5:17-18
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The Hebrew for jealousy in this chapter is qinah4, from the same root as the word the Law uses of God himself: "for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God" (Exodus 20:5; also Exodus 34:14). The husband's jealousy here is the human shadow of a divine one, since Israel is the LORD's wife throughout the prophets. The verdict falls in two directions.

And when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, that, if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot: and the woman shall be a curse among her people. And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed.

Numbers 5:27-28
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Three things in this chapter return later. The cup is given before the LORD and not by a human judge, as the Father gives the cup in John 18:11. The cup harms only the guilty and leaves the innocent free. And the offering that goes with it is "an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance" (Numbers 5:15), which is what Isaiah 53:6 says the LORD laid on his Servant.

No apostle quotes Numbers 5 to explain the cross, so this is a shadow, in the way the Epistle to the Hebrews draws shadows: by the shape of the thing and not by citation. But the shape is unmistakable once it is seen. The innocent woman drinks the bitter water and walks away unharmed. Christ is innocent, and he drinks, and is not spared.

Fury and Jealousy: The Prophets' Marriage Cup

When the prophets speak of the cup, they speak in marriage language. Ezekiel 16 describes Jerusalem as a wife who broke wedlock, and the sentence joins the two words this study has been following.

And I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy.

Ezekiel 16:38
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Ezekiel 23 tells of two sisters, Samaria and Jerusalem. The same chapter contains the jealousy and the cup. The LORD says in Ezekiel 23:25, "I will set my jealousy against thee," and a few verses later he hands over the cup.

Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thine hand. Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou shalt drink of thy sister's cup deep and large: thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth much. Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria.

Ezekiel 23:31-33
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Zephaniah says the same of the nations: the LORD will "pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy" (Zephaniah 3:8). So the cup of wrath is a cup of jealousy in the Bible's own words. This is no petty anger. It is the love of a husband who will not share his bride, and Paul claims the same jealousy for himself in 2 Corinthians 11:2: "I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband."

"This Cup": Gethsemane

Against that background, the words of Jesus in the garden are not vague. He does not say "this trial" or "this suffering." He says cup5, the word the Greek Old Testament uses for the cup in the LORD's hand.

And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

Matthew 26:39
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Earlier that night, at the Last Supper, he had handed his disciples a different cup, the cup of the new covenant (Matthew 26:27-28). This one he keeps for himself. When Peter draws a sword in the garden, Jesus names where the cup comes from.

Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?

John 18:11
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"The cup which my Father hath given me" is the Psalm 75 cup, the one the LORD holds in his hand. The cross-reference graph links John 18:11 directly to Matthew 26:39, Matthew 20:22, Mark 10:38, Psalm 75:8 and Ezekiel 23:31. Wherever the Psalms and the Prophets show a cup in the LORD's hand to be poured out, it is the cup of his fury.

Leo the Great (461) guarded against reading the garden prayer as reluctance: "It is not to be thought that the Lord Jesus wished to escape the passion and the death." The prayer shows what the cup cost, and the answer, "not as I will, but as thou wilt," shows who held it. The Father's love for the Son was not suspended, for Jesus says in John 10:17, "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life."

Earlier, the sons of Zebedee had asked for thrones, and Jesus asked them a question in return.

But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.

Matthew 20:22-23
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They would drink of his cup in one sense: James was put to the sword (Acts 12:2), and the disciples have followed their Lord in suffering ever since. But the cup of the Father's fury is a cup no disciple drinks, and Clement of Alexandria (215) says why: Christ called the completion of his passion "a cup," when "He alone had to drink and drain it."

The Two Drinks at Calvary

At the cross, the Gospels record two drinks, and Christ treats them differently. At the beginning, the soldiers offered him wine mingled with myrrh (Mark 15:23), and Matthew names what was in it.

They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink.

Matthew 27:34
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The word is gall6, and a verse in the Psalms already speaks of it: "They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink" (Psalm 69:21). Proverbs 31:6 shows what such a draught was for: strong drink to one "ready to perish." He tasted it and refused it. The Gospels do not give his reason, but the reading that fits everything above is that he would not have the Father's cup dulled.

The second drink comes at the end, and this time he takes it.

After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

John 19:28-30
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"When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished." Isaiah 51 speaks of dregs that must be drunk and wrung out. The Gospel does not describe the draining in those words, but it records that the vinegar is received and that the next thing spoken is "It is finished." The cup is not left half-drunk.

Taken Out of Her Hand

Isaiah 51 does not end with the cup in Jerusalem's hand. After the fury comes a promise.

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 hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.

Isaiah 51:22-23
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"Thou shalt no more drink it again." How can a just God take that cup out of a guilty people's hand? Isaiah himself answers two chapters later.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:5-6
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The same point is made more briefly in the New Testament. Paul says that Christ "being made a curse for us" redeemed us from the curse of the law.

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:

Galatians 3:13
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The curse in Numbers 5 was the curse the cup carried for the guilty, and here is its bearer. John calls what was accomplished propitiation7, the turning away of wrath by a sacrifice.

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1 John 4:10
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And Paul draws the conclusion for the one who trusts him: "Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him" (Romans 5:9). For a fuller account of how this was done, see The Atonement: What Happened on the Cross?, and for the character of God behind it, The Justice and Wrath of God.

The Cup That Is Still Poured

The same Bible that says the cup was drunk for believers also says it has not gone away for those who refuse the one who drank it. John 3:36 is the plainest statement.

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

John 3:36
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The word for wrath is orge8, and the word for abideth is menō9, the verb John uses for abiding in Christ. The wrath is described as already resting where it is. Those who do not receive the Son are not handed a new cup; they remain where the cup already is. The book of Revelation shows what that means.

And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

Revelation 14:9-10
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The cup is now "without mixture," and the judgment takes place "in the presence of the Lamb." The Lamb who stands there is the one who drank the cup, so the judgment is carried out in the presence of the one who bore it. For the last judgment itself, see The Final Judgment.

Paul draws the same line for the church, whose Lord's Table must not be treated lightly.

For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

1 Corinthians 11:29-32
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Believers who profane the cup of the Lord are "chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world." Chastening is the Father's discipline of his children, and it is not the cup of fury. Paul also says that the two cups cannot be mixed: "Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils" (1 Corinthians 10:21).

Mercy as the Mark of Those Who Were Spared

If Christ drank the cup for those who trust him, why does the New Testament keep tying judgment to how we treat others? The answer is that mercy is not the price of the cup passing. It is the sign that it has passed. A person who has been forgiven what could never be paid and who will not forgive a small debt has not understood what was drunk on his behalf, and that is the point of the parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18:23-35.

For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

James 2:13
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James says the same thing from the other side. A faith that does not show mercy is the dead faith he describes in James 2:26, and the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25:31-46 are separated by what they did for "the least of these." John gives the matching test in his first letter: "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren" (1 John 3:14), and Jesus said that love is how the world would recognise his disciples (John 13:35). See also The Misapplied Standard.

None of these texts says that mercy buys the cup's removal. They say that trust in Christ, where it is real, produces mercy, and that where there is no mercy at all, the claim to trust is in question. John then adds the comfort that goes with the warning.

¶ Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

1 John 4:17-18
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Those who rest on the one who drank the cup need not dread the day of judgment, because "as he is, so are we in this world."

The Cup of Salvation

The Psalmist says, "I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD" (Psalm 116:13). That is the cup the church takes at the Lord's Table, the cup of blessing (1 Corinthians 10:16), and it is poured for us because the other cup was drunk first. In the garden, the Son asked whether the cup could pass, and the Father's answer was the cross. The cup had to be drunk, and he drank it, so that those who trust him will not.

The warning of Scripture is real, and so is the invitation. The cup of fury is still in the LORD's hand for those who turn the Son away, and the cup of salvation is held out to everyone else. For more on the night the second cup was given, see The Last Supper and the Institution of Communion, and on the hours between the two cups, Jesus Prays in the Garden of Gethsemane and The Seven Last Words of Christ.