Ancient Words The Cup, the Contents
The word “cup” in our Bibles is used to teach several different messages – a literal vessel, the contents within the vessel, and a metaphor to represent both a positive and negative fate for a person, a group, a nation, etc., each explain a special story from God to man.
In the story of Joseph in Genesis 44, Joseph places his own royal silver cup secretly in Benjamin’s sack for the brother’s journey back to Canaan. This “trick” is intended to give the allusion that Benjamin has stolen Joseph’s personal cup so that an arrest of the younger brother will take place and cause panic in the family yet ultimately expose the brothers’ plot to kill Joseph years earlier.
King David, refers to his cup as being salvation from the Lord, clearly a metaphor of great implication in Psalm 116:12-19: “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. O Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the Lord’s house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord.”
David also refers to his cup running over with goodness and blessings in Psalm 23: 1-6: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Jesus spoke of a cup of cold water in Matt. 10.42 referring to the element of water, or contents within the cup, and extending the cup meaning to offer any act of kindness to children: “And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.” In Matt 23.25 Jesus uses the same cup word, however to point out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.” The contents of their cup—greed, avarice, and extortion.
When Jesus took a cup in Matt 26:27-28, he took one of several cups on the table on Passover night and then proclaimed: “Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for the remission of sins. Of course, Jesus’ blood would be shed hours later; no blood was in the literal cup.
The contents of the cup explain the event of pain, sorrow and suffering coming upon the Savior. He pleads later, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not my will but thine be done.” Strengthened by angels in this prayer, he chastises Peter after Malchus lost his ear to Peter’s sword: John 18:11 “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?”
A warning to the world is given as a final testimony to the cup of God’s wrath: Rev. 14:9-10 “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.”