The Wine of God's Wrath

~Revelation 14:10

Then a third angel followed them, shouting, “Anyone who worships the beast and his statue or who accepts his mark on the forehead or on the hand must drink the wine of God’s anger. It has been poured full strength into God’s cup of wrath.

~Revelation 14:19

So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and loaded the grapes into the great winepress of God’s wrath.

~Revelation 16:19

So God remembered all of Babylon’s sins, and he made her drink the cup that was filled with the wine of his fierce wrath.

~Revelation 19:15

He will release the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty, like juice flowing from a winepress

Wine is a powerful image. The Bible uses it to give us a picture of the love of Christ in communion, a symbol of the blood he shed for our salvation. The Bible also uses it, as seen here, as a symbol of the wrath of God against evil and injustice.

Sweet to sour

~Revelation 10.8-10

Then the voice from heaven spoke to me again: “Go and take the open scroll from the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.”
So I went to the angel and told him to give me the small scroll. “Yes, take it and eat it,” he said. “It will be sweet as honey in your mouth, but it will turn sour in your stomach!” So I took the small scroll from the hand of the angel, and I ate it! It was sweet in my mouth, but when I swallowed it, it turned sour in my stomach.

Revelation: what an amazing book. In with all these mysterious images is the common act of eating and the experience we've all had of eating something sweet or desirable and then having a bad reaction in the gut. Ugg.

A Time for Milk

~I Peter 2.1-3

So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.

We've seen two other New Testament references to milk as being for infants. (See below.) Both admonish people to grow up and get on to food for the more mature. This reference to milk, however, encourages its consumption: Chug it! Enjoy it! Thrive from it! Maybe Peter's audience is newer believers, or maybe he's just encouraging them back to the basics since at this point persecution against Christians is strong and many are suffering for their faith.

Or maybe Peter just liked milk better than Paul or the writer of Hebrews. :-]

*I Corinthians 3.2 I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. (Feb 29,2012, entry)

*Hebrews 5.12-13 You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. (May 31, 2012, entry)

Confession

~Philippians 4.11-14

I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ,[a] who gives me strength.

Confession time: I wrestle to get through a day without chocolate.

Gone without Food

~I Corinthians 6.4-7a In everything we do, we show that we are true ministers of God. We patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind. We have been beaten, been put in prison, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food. We prove ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, by the Holy Spirit within us, and by our sincere love. We faithfully preach the truth. God’s power is working in us.

~I Corinthians 11.27 I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm.

Going without food was a cost this apostle sometimes had to pay in his extensive work and travel to share the knowledge of God in Jesus.

No Blood

~Acts 15.19-21 “And so my judgment is that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from eating food offered to idols, from sexual immorality, from eating the meat of strangled animals, and from consuming blood.” ~Acts 21.25 repeats this.

~Acts 15.29 This decision is shared.

After Noah, God allowed for the killing of animals for food with one restriction: no consumption of blood. Subsequent Hebrew practice is that animals be killed in a humane manner, swiftly, throats slit, and immediately hung so the blood drains before the meat is processed. Apparently, if an animal is strangled the blood can coagulate and remain.

~Deuteronomy 12:23 explains "never consume the blood, for the blood is the life, and you must not consume the lifeblood with the meat."

the cup of suffering

~Mark 14.36 “Abba, Father,” he cried out, “everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

~Matthew 26.39, 42 He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Then Jesus left them a second time and prayed, “My Father! If this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will be done.”

~Luke 22.41-46 He walked away, about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” 43 Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him.

I've been surprised to note how many times Jesus uses food or eating to make pictures of the kingdom. Often, as in references to feasting, these show blessing. This time it depicts suffering. Was he thinking of the Passover wine he'd just shared with the disciples? Or maybe bitter water like at Marah in Exodus 15?