19) The Cup Of God’s Wrath
Jeremiah 25
Few prophecies of the Bible are so frightening in
their comprehensive expectation of divine judgement as is Jeremiah
25.
The prophet is bidden take a cup of wine and
insist that all the nations drink of it. This cup is a symbol of God’s
anger against them (compare Psalm 75: 8; Isaiah 51: 17, 22, 23), expressed in
the form of war one with another: “And they shall drink, and be moved, and
be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them” (v.
16).
A long list of the nations and peoples involved
is now added. It ends with (v. 26): “And all the kings of the north, far
and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon
the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after
them.”
FEAR OF WAR
There is manifest reluctance to obey the
prophet’s bidding: “And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup
at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of
hosts; Ye shall certainly drink” (v. 28). How accurately these words
anticipate the temper of the nations today! They spend untold wealth and
resources on a lunatic piling up of armaments, yet not one of them wants war.
The frantic activities of the diplomats at each recurring crisis have made a
dramatic series of panic-stricken refusals to drink the cup, which they are
destined to share. “Ye shall certainly drink!”
The prophecy is associated with the enthronement
of a divine king in Jerusalem: “The Lord shall ... utter his voice from
his holy habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes (see
Revelation 14: 19, 20), against all the inhabitants of the earth ... he will
plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword” (vv.
30, 31).
The war by which God uses the nations to punish
themselves is one without parallel in human history: “Behold, evil shall
go forth from nation to nation (compare the abuse of international broadcasting
in modern times; and consider also the three unclean spirits like frogs, in
Revelation 16: 14), and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the uttermost
parts of the earth. And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end
of the earth to the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither
gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground” (vv. 32,
33).
WORLD WAR III
The twentieth century has seen two world wars
which were not really world wars at all inasmuch as they left large areas and
populations virtually untouched by their ravages and rigours. This next
international conflagration will be comprehensive. Even if nuclear weapons are
relatively local in their immediate effect, the insidious invisible radiation
will carry round the world and bring slow death to millions. In the big centres
of population the immediate onset of war will mean horrors of destruction such
as few can adequately imagine. A year or two ago American civil defence was
geared to an expectation of seventeen millions dead or seriously disabled
in the first few hours of nuclear attack. It is only in the last twenty years
that this grim Bible prophecy has come within sight of
fulfilment.
JERUSALEM
One detail is specially valuable. The list of
nations and peoples coming under judgement begins with Jerusalem (v. 18):
“Lo, I begin to work evil at the city which is called by my name...”
(v. 29).
So it is futile to look to any international
crisis elsewhere to spark off this final devastating cataclysm. Cuba, Vietnam,
Yemen, Aden, Central Africa, Cyprus, Nigeria, are all unimportant. Eyes must be
kept on Jerusalem. When the flare-up is seen there, the end of the age is
near.
It is also noteworthy that the second on the list
is Egypt (v. 19), and that all the others mentioned by name are Arab peoples and
their immediate Near East neighbours. To begin with, then, the war is between
Jews and Arabs.
The last name mentioned is “the King of
Sheshach.” This is probably a code form of the name Babel (by the device
known to the rabbis as Athbash— the equivalent in Hebrew of putting Z for
A, Y for B etc.).
Assuming the correctness of this, the
identification of the king of “Babylon” is still no easy matter.
Many would say with confidence: “the Papacy,” but the case is by no
means proven. Yet what alternative is there available?
