Pass Her the Cup - Rumor notes 177

 Revelation 16

18 There were lightnings, sounds, and thunders; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since there were men on the earth, so great an earthquake, so mighty. 19 The great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give to her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. 20 Every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. 21 Great hailstones, about the weight of a talent, came down out of the sky on people. People blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, for this plague is exceedingly severe.

give to her the cup of the wine

Another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a great voice, "If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead, or on his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is prepared unmixed in the cup of his anger. He will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. (Revelation 14:9-10)

When we discussed this previously we saw that God’s wrath means letting go, releasing natural consequences after His merciful protection is removed. God’s protection can be revoked by the free will of individuals. This is how authority is released to either God or the enemy, allowing them access to the heart and life. The message of the third angel highlights this reality, warning that anyone who gives worship/authority in their lives over to a counterfeit version of God as embodied in and practiced by the symbolic beast system, gives notice that they reject the authority of God in their lives. When this rejection becomes complete and permanent, God is compelled by the principle of freedom to respect their decision must withdraw His protection from around them. This leaves them vulnerable to both the natural principles of cause and effect as well as supernatural satanic evil forces, all eager to reek violence and destruction even while blaming God as the cause.

The real problem described in that message involving torment in the presence of holiness, is not at all about any intent on God’s part to inflict punishments on them, but rather a natural effect that inevitably results from the extreme dissonance between selfishness and agape love. A character formed around selfishness, self-indulgence and violence reacts in torment when confronted by the pure, selfless, agape love that is completely non-violent. True love does not involve punishments inflicted in the name of justice. That is Satan’s distortion of truth that has been successfully branded as belonging to God, but is in reality the nature of the beast who relies on the system of rewards and punishments, balancing good and evil in order to manipulate society and individuals.

It is the distinct difference between God’s methods and Satan’s slanderous allegations of how God treats dissenters, that comes to a head both here at the end of the bowl outpourings and also summarized by the third angel of chapter 14. What this describes is the culmination of the maturation of the beast/dragon version of God exploited by a religious force that amalgamates political force with religious authority to control the masses of people all over the world with fear, intimidation, seduction and deception on a global scale.

The next chapter describes in more detail this religious entity symbolically portrayed as a prostitute, also labeled as Babylon the great, who exploits her attractions and advantages to gratify her thirst for power and control over others at the cost of the lives of any who expose or resist her. At the end of the chapter we find an expansion of what is being summarized here at the end of the bowl outpourings, when God sees there is nothing more that can be done to reverse apostasy and is forced to release the world’s corrupt systems to the inevitable consequences that will come from insisting on sticking with the reward/punishment, good and evil system introduced originally at the fall.

He said to me, "The waters which you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and languages. The ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the prostitute, and will make her desolate, and will make her naked, and will eat her flesh, and will burn her utterly with fire. For God has put in their hearts to do what he has in mind, and to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God should be accomplished. The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth." (Revelation 17:15-18)

He cried with a mighty voice, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and she has become a habitation of demons, a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality, the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from the abundance of her luxury."

I heard another voice from heaven, saying, "Come out of her, my people, that you have no participation in her sins, and that you don't receive of her plagues, for her sins have reached to the sky, and God has remembered her iniquities. Return to her just as she returned, and repay her double as she did, and according to her works. In the cup which she mixed, mix to her double. However much she glorified herself, and grew wanton, so much give her of torment and mourning. For she says in her heart, 'I sit a queen, and am no widow, and will in no way see mourning.' Therefore in one day her plagues will come: death, mourning, and famine; and she will be utterly burned with fire; for the Lord God who has judged her is strong. The kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived wantonly with her, will weep and wail over her, when they look at the smoke of her burning, standing far away for the fear of her torment, saying, 'Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For your judgment has come in one hour.' The merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise any more; (Revelation 18:2-11)

Again, we need to connect the link between the cup of God’s wrath and the cup in which the great prostitute mixed her intoxicating brew to seduce and manipulate the whole world for her advantage to exploit everyone. God’s cup of wrath represents the principle of respect for freedom of choice on the part of all, meaning each one, individually and collectively, chooses which system of justice, which version of reality they will form their character around by their settled choices over time. God never wants to let anyone go, but capacity for love requires freedom to not love, and He must respect it.

The cup of the prostitute is fashioned on the model invented by the dragon and promoted by the beasts and image. The prostitute exploits this for her own selfish agenda through mingling the violence-oriented practices of politics for controlling people, with the dogmas of religion rooted in pagan portrayals of gods operating like human despots. Yet this deceptive exploitation cannot last forever, despite her wishful thinking, and in chapter 17 we find that those she has exploited to her advantage in the end turn on her in fury and destroy her violently.

In the meantime keep in mind that until this becomes clarified in the end, this release to inevitable consequences is most often attributed to being imposed punishments from God against evildoers.

Yahweh examines the righteous, but the wicked and him who loves violence his soul hates. On the wicked he will rain blazing coals; fire, sulfur, and scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup. For Yahweh is righteous. He loves righteousness. The upright shall see his face. (Psalms 11:5-7)

For in the hand of Yahweh there is a cup, full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours it out. Indeed the wicked of the earth drink and drink it to its very dregs. (Psalms 75:8)

For thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, to me: take this cup of the wine of wrath at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it. They shall drink, and reel back and forth, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. Then took I the cup at Yahweh's hand, and made all the nations to drink, to whom Yahweh had sent me: (Jeremiah 25:15-17)

You shall tell them, Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Drink you, and be drunken, and spew, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you. It shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at your hand to drink, then shall you tell them, Thus says Yahweh of Armies: You shall surely drink. (Jeremiah 25:27-28)

For thus says Yahweh: Behold, they to whom it didn't pertain to drink of the cup shall certainly drink; and are you he who shall altogether go unpunished? you shall not go unpunished, but you shall surely drink. (Jeremiah 49:12)

It is easy to presume this refers to use of force on the part of God based on how Bible authors word this. Yet what is attributed to God directly doing very often describe how the principles God designed within creation operate. What is being described symbolically is the principle of cause and effect, that choices and actions have inevitable consequences that ultimately return back on us.

Babylon has been a golden cup in Yahweh's hand, who made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: wail for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed. We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go everyone into his own country; for her judgment reaches to heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies. (Jeremiah 51:7-9)

This is a place where the methods of God become more visible, that though He does everything possible, there comes a point of no return on the part of all who resist and reject His ways of mercy.

Has not the LORD Almighty determined that the people's labor is only fuel for the fire, that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. [This glory filling the earth is found at the beginning of Revelation 18 and again in 20 and represents the unveiling of the clear truth of God’s passionate love that has been spurned and denied access to hardened hearts. It can be discounted, discredited, resisted and defamed, but it cannot be destroyed or diminished in the slightest until sooner or later becomes unavoidably clear to everyone. How we relate to it is what is most important.]

"Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk, so that he can gaze on their naked bodies. You will be filled with shame instead of glory. Now it is your turn! Drink and be exposed! The cup from the LORD's right hand is coming around to you, and disgrace will cover your glory. The violence you have done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and your destruction of animals will terrify you. For you have shed man's blood; you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them. (Habakkuk 2:13-17 NIV)

It is critical that we come to perceive and appreciate the true nature of this cup given to Babylon to drink from the hand of God. If we cling to the traditional notion that God is simply executing justice like we do here on earth, we remain trapped in the very mindset that reacts in torment when the real truth of God’s glory finally breaks like a tidal wave over the entire world and can no longer be denied or refuted. This torment also involves keen disappointment. Each one of us must choose which version of God we will embrace and allow to shape our character and produce its fruit in our choices and treatment of others. This is the message of the entire book.

Jesus came to this world as a human being in order to save us from the darkness, fear, deception and violence caused by sin. He did this to not only expose the real truth about God that had been largely lost in the abject darkness of heathen views of God that permeates even the beliefs of His chosen people, but to also fully identify with humanity and our false identities derived from distorted misrepresentations of God in order to disarm their power over us. When Jesus accepted the cup of wrath from His loving Father’s hand, it was not to satisfy the fury of an offended deity demanding appeasement as religion has taught, but in order that the tenacious lies of this sinister system of wicked views of God might be broken and exhausted by His death. Jesus took the cup of lostness, despair and feelings of abandonment by God so that He could earn the authority to gives us our true identity as reflectors of God’s glory as humans. His resurrection confirmed the success of this strategy on the part of the Godhead, leaving only for each one to choose to accept and embrace their true identity in Christ and allow His Spirit to dwell in them to transform their character to prepare them for frontal exposure to God’s passionate love up close.

But Jesus answered, "You don't know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" They said to him, "We are able." He said to them, "You will indeed drink my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with, but to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give; but it is for whom it has been prepared by my Father." (Matthew 20:22-23)

He went forward a little, fell on his face, and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from me; nevertheless, not what I desire, but what you desire." (Matthew 26:39)

Jesus therefore said to Peter, "Put the sword into its sheath. The cup which the Father has given me, shall I not surely drink it?" (John 18:11)

You can't both drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You can't both partake of the table of the Lord, and of the table of demons. (1 Corinthians 10:21)

The intoxicating elixir of the great prostitute unveiled in the next chapter is the attempt to do what Paul says is impossible – mixing multiple versions of God into a toxic brew. That is why it is so evil, because it violates and denies principles of reality and turns the truth into the great lie.

the fierceness of his wrath

Most of what we are learning about this wrath was covered in our study of Revelation 14:9-11. Here we find an amplifier word – fierceness – that highlights the intensity and climactic level of what is transpiring in this prophecy. We begin with a passage to help give more clarity to the true nature of what this means and why such intense words are used to describe God’s emotions.

Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good works, not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as you see the Day approaching. For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which will devour the adversaries. (Hebrews 10:24-27)

Out of his mouth proceeds a sharp, double-edged sword, that with it he should strike the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He treads the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the Almighty. (Revelation 19:15)

We just reviewed verses describing how Jesus did this very thing when accepting the cup from His Father in the garden of Gethsemane. Again, this is not about an angry, vengeful God versus a ‘fall guy’ Son taking the beating from Him that others deserved. That originates in the matrix of lies the enemy uses to keep us in darkness and fear of God. What Jesus actually did was to allow our wrath, along with Satan’s wrath to be fully exhausted onto Himself in order to demonstrate that God is the very opposite of what we have so long imagined Him to be. Jesus allowed the effects of our sins to torment His own psyche to the point of killing Him in order to break the very power of death itself, and not just for Himself but for all who believe Him. That was the greatest power struggle of all history, where the power of fear, death and darkness attempted to defeat the power of love, truth and light. Jesus overcame the world by seizing the keys of death from the devil to disarm all his arguments and discredit his slander against God. This is how He tread the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God, smashing the feelings of hopeless despair and eternal loss everyone will feel when they realize they have spurned and rejected their only connection to hope and the Source of life itself.

Wail; for the day of Yahweh is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty. Therefore all hands will be feeble, and everyone's heart will melt. They will be dismayed. Pangs and sorrows will seize them. They will be in pain like a woman in labor. They will look in amazement one at another. Their faces will be faces of flame. Behold, the day of Yahweh comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy its sinners out of it. (Isaiah 13:6-9)

I will make people more rare than fine gold, even a person than the pure gold of Ophir. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place in the wrath of Yahweh of Armies, and in the day of his fierce anger. (Isaiah 13:12-13)

Who is there among you who will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come? Who gave Jacob as plunder, and Israel to the robbers? Didn't Yahweh, he against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in his ways, and they disobeyed his law. Therefore he poured the fierceness of his anger on him, and the strength of battle; and it set him on fire all around, but he didn't know; and it burned him, but he didn't take it to heart." (Isaiah 42:23-25)

I have made you a tester of metals and a fortress among my people; that you may know and try their way. They are all grievous rebels, going about with slanders; they are brass and iron: they all of them deal corruptly. The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed of the fire: in vain do they go on refining; for the wicked are not plucked away. Refuse silver shall men them, because Yahweh has rejected them. (Jeremiah 6:27-30)

For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; (Ezekiel 38:19)

The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, yes, the world, and all who dwell in it. Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the fierceness of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken apart by him. Yahweh is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knows those who take refuge in him. (Nahum 1:5-7)

The great day of Yahweh is near. It is near, and hurries greatly, the voice of the day of Yahweh. The mighty man cries there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness, a day of the trumpet and alarm, against the fortified cities, and against the high battlements. I will bring distress on men, that they will walk like blind men, because they have sinned against Yahweh, and their blood will be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung. Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of Yahweh's wrath, but the whole land will be devoured by the fire of his jealousy; for he will make an end, yes, a terrible end, of all those who dwell in the land. (Zephaniah 1:14-18)

I said, "Just fear me. Receive correction, so that her dwelling won't be cut off, according to all that I have appointed concerning her." But they rose early and corrupted all their doings. "Therefore wait for me," says Yahweh, "until the day that I rise up to the prey, for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour on them my indignation, even all my fierce anger, for all the earth will be devoured with the fire of my jealousy. (Zephaniah 3:7-8)

You adulterers and adulteresses, don't you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, "The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously"? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." (James 4:4-6)

This word jealousy is key to appreciating the intensity of what we have been looking at.

Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm; for love is strong as death. Jealousy is as cruel as Sheol. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a very flame of Yahweh. Many waters can't quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man would give all the wealth of his house for love, he would be utterly scorned. (Song of Solomon 8:6-7)

How can we reconcile anger and jealousy with what we are learning about God’s disposition from Jesus? It is helpful to examine carefully the only instance where we are specifically told Jesus became angry and what that actually looks like and involved.

He entered again into the synagogue, and there was a man there who had his hand withered. They watched him, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse him.

He said to the man who had his hand withered, "Stand up."

He said to them, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath day to do good, or to do harm? To save a life, or to kill?" But they were silent. When he had looked around at them with anger, being grieved at the hardening of their hearts, he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was restored as healthy as the other. The Pharisees went out, and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him. (Mark 3:1-6)

This story gives us the key insight about how God’s anger is very different from our kind of anger.

So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; for the anger of man doesn't produce the righteousness of God. (James 1:19-20)

You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother's son. You have done these things, and I kept silent. You thought that the 'I AM' was just like you. I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes.

"Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you into pieces, and there be none to deliver. Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me, and prepares his way so that I will show God's salvation to him." (Psalms 50:20-23)

One of our greatest dangers is projecting our definition of anger onto God. Jesus alone is the accurate revelation of God’s heart, motives and disposition. In this story of Jesus and throughout Scripture, the truth can be seen that God’s anger actually refers to His intense grief over the rejection of His love and kindness on the part of those who turn their back on Him. That is nearly opposite of how we define anger.

So as we seek to interpret what this fierceness of wrath means here in this study, we can connect the dots to unveil the truth that this is describing God’s extreme anguish over the rejection of His kindness and mercy by those His Spirit yearns to draw into intimacy with Him. He is jealous for our deepest affections, but also respectful of our right to spurn His affections. This perspective is key for understanding and interpreting the words and symbols of Scripture, particularly in Revelation.