The Golden Cup Of God
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Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, Against those who dwell in Leb Kamai, A destroying wind.
And I will send winnowers to Babylon, Who shall winnow her and empty her land. For in the day of doom They shall be against her all around.
Winnowers separated wheat from chaff by throwing the mixture into the air, allowing the wind to blow away the worthless chaff while the pure grain settled to the ground.
The would toss the wheat and the chaff in the air with fork or a shovel the wind typically blew most forcefully in the late afternoon and evening so this would be the time they would do it!
The chaff was seed coverings and stems. It was inedible. It was considered worthless the only reason for is to be burned up.
God used this figurative imagery to determine how God will judge Babylon.
He will discriminate between good and evil and destroy what is evil
John the Baptist said it this way.
I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
John being the greatest prophet to ever live according to Jesus. One of the most humblest servants is not worth to demonstrate one of the most humblest of actions which is carrying the sandals of Christ.
Do we think this reverently about Christ. I’m not worthy to even carry His shoes.
When we approach the throne of grace is there a deep sense of awe for Who He is?
Most religions begin and end with repentance. And mere ritual. Okay undergo this practice. And this should be enough for you.
Go to church, adhere to this practice, say these words, and you will be good.
To Jesus religion was service. It was love of God and love of men. Ritual was irrelevant compared with love in action. To Jesus the most important thing in the world was not the correct performance of a ritual, but the spontaneous answer to the cry of human need.
William Barclay (New Testament Scholar)
The answer to the depths of human need is the fire of The Spirit of God.
John the baptist understood that what he was doing was just a foretaste of what is to come.
Rituals should express our values at the deepest level but what happens is the values are lost but the rituals remain.
This can happen in church its a ritual for me to come to church. But I could loose the value of it but the rituals remain.
It could be every Monday night is date night. But it could lose the value of why it was implemented in the first place.
His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Two things happen when the winnowing fan is in the Hand of God. One He separates the wheat which is substance, & quality, its useful. This is all that is holy is the wheat. But in order for that to happen there must be a separation from the chaff
And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’?
But will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink’?
Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not.
So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’ ”
How many of us heard God say thank you.
We have these sequences of different nations being destroyed by Babylon. God is using Babylon not only to inflict judgement on Israel but the whole world.
Babylon its described as being the golden Cup of God.
Against her let the archer bend his bow, And lift himself up against her in his armor. Do not spare her young men; Utterly destroy all her army.
Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, And those thrust through in her streets.
For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, By his God, the Lord of hosts, Though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.”
Flee from the midst of Babylon, And every one save his life! Do not be cut off in her iniquity, For this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance; He shall recompense her.
Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand, That made all the earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; Therefore the nations are deranged.
But Babylon was a tool not a hero. Babylon was used to judge multiple nations.
God used them to Judge Judah and Jerusalem though the covenant He made with them remain.
He used Babylon to Judge, Egypt, Phillistia, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Damascus/ Syria, Kadar & Hazor (Arabian Tribes), Elam (Persian region),
behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ says the Lord, ‘and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations.
And another angel followed, saying, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”
