July 25 - Isaiah 51:17-23

July 25 – Isaiah 51:17-23

Awake, awake! Rise up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his wrath, you who have drained to its dregs the goblet that makes men stagger. Of all the sons she bore there was none to guide her; of all the sons she reared there was none to take her by the hand. These double calamities have come upon you— who can comfort you?— ruin and destruction, famine and sword— who can console you? Your sons have fainted; they lie at the head of every street, like antelope caught in a net. They are filled with the wrath of the LORD and the rebuke of your God.

Therefore hear this, you afflicted one, made drunk, but not with wine. This is what your Sovereign LORD says, your God, who defends his people: “See, I have taken out of your hand the cup that made you stagger; from that cup, the goblet of my wrath, you will never drink again. I will put it into the hands of your tormentors, who said to you, ‘Fall prostrate that we may walk over you.’ And you made your back like the ground, like a street to be walked over.”

The wrath of God is not something to be taken lightly.  In Revelation 16 we find that there are seven bowls of God’s wrath that are poured out on the earth.  In Revelation 18, the great prostitute – Babylon no less – is forced to drink a double portion of her own sins, after she tempted the nations of the earth to become ‘drunk with the maddening wine of her adulteries.’

Jerusalem (Israel) has had to face God’s wrath, to the point that they are staggering as if they are drunken.  No one was there to ensure that she was safe while wandering around in this state.  Everyone had deserted her.  There is no comfort or consolation, only ruin, destruction, famine and sword.  The wrath of the Lord has brought them to the point of destruction.

At the beginning of Isaiah 40, God promises to bring comfort to His people.  Though He has poured out his wrath, He finishes this passage with just that … the comfort of knowing that the cup of wrath will be removed from them.  Once it is removed from them, they will never face that fury from  Him again.  He will turn it instead to their tormentors who asked terrible things of them.

God will bring comfort. His people chose to drink of the cup of wrath.  When they were staggering from the impact of it, He pulled it out of their hands and turned it instead to those that tried to destroy them.

It occurs to me there might be a few lessons for us as His children in this passage!