1820- WHERE THE GRAPES OF WRATH ARE STORED

Let’s end the week with a look at the death of Christ.

Today- Good Friday- is the day we remember the Passion.

In Psalms 22 we see a Messianic prophecy- the words king David spoke thru the Holy Spirit.

These are the words- feelings- that Jesus had on the night before he was crucified- he went to the Garden of Gethsemane [literally- The Olive Press] and was in extreme anguish.

In this Psalm we read ‘I am a worm and no man’ ‘all that see me laugh at me- they think my cause is hopeless’ ‘I cried and prayed and you never heard me- I have no rest day or night’.

Read the psalm later today- see the pain he went through.

The garden of Gethsemane was an Olive garden at the base of the ‘The Mount of Olives’.

It was a place where olives were crushed- the process allowed the oil to come forth- which was a picture of what Jesus was going thru- he was ‘being crushed’ so the oil [Spirit] would come forth to the world [Acts 2].

In the prayer he says ‘Father- if it’s possible- remove this cup- never the less- not my will but yours be done’.

Many of us are familiar with this phrase ‘thy will be done’ but we miss the cup part.

What was the cup?

The cup stood for ‘the cup of the wrath of God’ it was a symbol of the judgment of God coming upon the sins of the world.

When Jesus said ‘take away the cup’ he wasn’t afraid of dying- but he ‘feared’ the separation that was going to take place from God.

As he ‘drank the cup’ [the sins of the world] he would become ‘the container’ of the wrath of God- he would be cursed from God as a ‘sinful’ thing.

The apostle Paul says ‘he- [Jesus] became sin for us- who knew no sin- that we might become the righteousness of God in him’ [Corinthians].

So Jesus struggled with the cup.

In the book of Revelation chapter 14 we see an image of the cup and wrath.

There are angels coming out from the throne- we see Jesus sitting on a cloud and angels all around.

The angel says ‘thrust in your sickle and reap- for the harvest of the earth is ripe’ and we see the ‘Winepress of wrath’.

The picture is this angel reaping the earth- gathering the ‘grapes of the earth' [Steinbeck- the Grapes of wrath] and casting them into a winepress [another type of pressing- like the olive imagery].

The Winepress is ‘outside the city’ [very significant image] and the blood from the press goes out for 184 miles.

This is a scene of judgment and wrath.

During the civil war the north used this verse as their theme song- The Battle Hymn of the Republic ‘mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord he is Trampling out the Vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored’.

Yes- the winepress was an image of where the grapes of wrath waited for the pressing- when the blood would come forth.

Now- this next part really deserves a full study- but let me do a brief overview.

The writer of Hebrews [probably Paul] speaks about an altar that sits ‘outside the city’ where the animal’s bodies were burned.

In Old Testament Jewish law- some of the animals bodies were not fully burned at the time of the offering- the blood that was used for the Day of Atonement was not a complete burnt offering- the animal blood was used.

So- the Jewish people had a spot- outside the gate of the court [outside the city] where the bodies were burned.

Now- the writer of Hebrews says this is a type- a picture- of the final sacrifice of Christ that took place ‘outside of the law’.

That is Jesus established a New Covenant in his own Blood- not part of the Old animal sacrificial system.

Okay- his death took place ‘outside the gate’- that’s important to see.

Now- as Jesus struggled with his impending death- he came to a point where he sweat drops of blood- he then said ‘if this cup cannot pass unless I drink it- then so be it’.

He drinks the cup ‘of the wrath of God’ and in a sense he becomes the place ‘where the grapes of wrath are stored’.

He himself becomes the final sin sacrifice for humanity- the place of pressing- where the ‘wine/blood comes out’.

As we finish this Holy Week- getting ready for the resurrection celebration this Sunday- let’s not forget that Jesus drank the cup- he became sin for us who knew no sin.

Yes- as the North sang ‘mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord he is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored’.

They weren’t seeing that the place where the grapes of wrath were stored were inside the Son of God- he drank the cup ‘to the dregs’ and was ‘trampled on’ by God’s wrath.

Yes- Jesus said ‘I am a worm and no man’ he was in anguish for you- and me.

Amen- and amen.

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