Introducing the awesome symbolism of the cup is to look at the significance of an everyday object in our lives. The cup has either life or death in it.

Jewish Wedding and the Cup

There is awesome symbolism in the cups of a Jewish wedding. At a special ceremony the groom offers the bride-to-be a cup of wine. She can accept or reject the offer. If she accepts the cup they both sign a betrothal agreement. This relationship can only be annulled by divorce. He then leaves to prepare a home for his bride in his father’s house. Once the home is prepared according to the father’s specification, the wedding takes place.

The ceremony was celebrated at the gate of the city, the judgement place. Anyone could witness it. Two cups of wine were shared. The first looked back to the ceremony of betrothal and the second focused on their future together.

The groom then celebrated with his friends before he ‘snatched’ the bride away from her parents’ home, like a thief in the night, 1 Thessalonians 5:2. As he approached, he shouted her name and blew a shofar, 1 Thessalonians 4:16. Her attendants discovered the bride was missing and began a torch-lit procession through the town, announcing the wedding banquet was about to begin. However, only the invited guests in wedding clothes, Matthew 22:11–14, could sit down at the marriage supper.

True followers of Christ will be seated at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb dressed in fine linen, Revelation 19:7-9.  We can choose to be part of the Bride Company through living a crucified life, hid in Christ, Colossians 3:3, for God gave us the gift of free will. All others who claim to be Christians will die for their belief. Multitudes of great number from every nation, all tribes and tongues, stand before the throne of the Lamb, dressed in white robes, Revelation 7:9.

Christ and the Cup

When Christ spoke over the cup at the Last Supper, He used the same symbolism as in the betrothal ceremony. He would only drink again of the cup when He drinks it with His followers in His Father’s kingdom, Matthew 26:29. He had reassured His believers with betrothal imagery. He told His followers that in His Father’s house are many mansions and like the bridegroom promised to return for them, John 14:2-6.

The Garden of Gethsemane, Matthew 26:42, or Oil Press, is at the foot of the Mount of Olives. We cannot comprehend the agony it caused for the Son of Man who was total man and total God, to accept the cup of all the sin of the world, Mark 14:36. He was without sin and He became sin, 2 Corinthians 5:21. He paid the unimaginable cost of our redemption and reclaimed believers back from the kingdom of darkness.

First Mention

There are three kinds of cups in the Bible. The cup of blessing, the cup of testing and the cup of judgement. The first mention of the cup is related to prophecy, Genesis 40:11. Satan, the ultimate copy-cat and defrauder, turned it to reading ‘tea leaves’.

Of the cup of blessing, David wrote, my cup overflows Psalm 23:5. The cup of blessing is remembrance of His shed blood that cleanses us from all sin, Luke 22:18-20. This is celebrated in the act of Communion. It is about relationship for the Lord is my chosen portion and my cup, Psalm 16:5.

The cup of testing points to what God allows a person to experience as part of their growth into the fulness of the stature that belongs to Christ, Ephesians 4:13. Our personal cup of testing is to take up our cross daily, Luke 9:23, and live for Christ. It is to choose to do the will of the Father and lay down all that the sin-nature represents. Yet, we can do it only as 30-fold, 60-fold, or 100-fold. We can enter heaven richly or empty-handed. 

God is not a God to be mocked, Galatians 6:7. Satan will have his full cup of judgement.

Four Passover Cups

Jews celebrating Passover take four cups, based on Exodus 6:67. I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the Lord your God.

The first is the Cup of Sanctification. God chose His people, just He calls and chooses to use the followers of Christ. He calls us to be in the world but separate from the world, John 15:19.

The cup of Deliverance showed that Israel was helpless to deliver herself from bondage. Just as we are helpless to effect our own salvation and free ourselves from the burden of self-centeredness and sin.

The cup of Redemption was the cost to salvation. The Hebrew word has the sense of ‘family’ in the word redeem. God redeems His family to His glory and makes us children of God and His own precious possession, 1 Peter 2:9.

In the cup of Hope God would make them His own special people with the promise of a glorious future. It is the promise of a wilderness journey of fiery trial and testing, like our Christian walk, but the hope of a final glorious destination.

Four More Cups

There are four particular cups associated with Calvary. The Cup of Covenant Jesus shared with His disciples at the last Supper, Matthew 28:26. It was the sealing of a new covenant, Luke 22:20.

Gethsemane was the Cup of Contract. Jesus chose the will of the Father and not His own, Matthew 26:42. We enter that contract only through the grace and mercy of God.

On the Cross Jesus refused the Cup of Escape, when they offered Him the bitter vinegar mixed with herbs, gall, Matthew 27:34.

The Cup of Relief, a cup of wine was with no deadening herbs. Jesus accepted it to quench the burning thirst, before He cried out, ‘It is finished’. The battle was over, the victory won for all believers The promise of Genesis 3:15 was complete. 

The Cup of Salvation, Psalm 116:13, God’s free gift for all who will believe, John 3:15. God judged sin at Calvary and paid the price of our salvation. We deserve eternal damnation for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23.

Final Cup of Judgement

The book of Revelation reveals the final stage of the war between God and Satan. At the Cross Satan became a toothless enemy. He may sound like a roaring lion, 1 Peter 5:8, but he legally lost his dominion and power at Calvary.

The cups of Revelation 14:10; 16:19; 17:4; 18:6, all point to God’s righteous wrath and judgement on evil. The evil nations will drink from the cup of God’s wrath forever, Obadiah 1:15. Satan will be sent to his eternal judgement along with his cohorts, Revelation 20:10, and those who reject God’s great gift of salvation, for God is a just and holy God.

The Awesome Symbolism of the Cup

The awesome symbolism of the cup is eternal, for it represents eternal life or eternal death. The Son of God paid the price that we might have the way into eternal life, John 14:6. The choice is ever ours, to believe or to reject so great a cup of salvation.

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Dr. Wendy Stenberg-Tendys is a servant of the Lord who enjoys researching Biblical topics and sharing words of encouragement from the Word of God. She asks the hard questions.

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