The wine cup of His fury
Jeremiah 25:15 For thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.
At the Lord's table we take the cup of blessing which we bless. For 1,960 years this cup is offered to the nations, that is from 70AD to 2030 AD. That is 70x7 years for forgiveness x 4 corners of the earth. But this word is for all those who reject the cup of blessing.
16 And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them.
Jesus sent His servants as witnesses to the whole earth and they had the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. However, these are those who have rejected the word of God and so God will send another sword among them, what we typically call "Armageddon".
17 Then took I the cup at the Lord's hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the Lord had sent me: 18 To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and a curse; as it is this day;
This was first, we saw what happened to the Jews when they rejected their Messiah. From Abraham to Jesus was 2,000 years, plenty of time for the Jews to understand fully who they were looking for, but they missed it. They rejected Jesus and doubled down on rejecting Him. So God sent a sword among them from Rome, put them under seige, destroyed the city, destroyed the temple and scattered them to the four corners of the earth.
19 Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people; 20 And all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Azzah, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod, 21 Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon, 22 And all the kings of Tyrus, and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea, 23 Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that are in the utmost corners, 24 And all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mingled people that dwell in the desert, 25 And all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes, 26 And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.
This list begins with the nations that are neighbors of Israel and moves outward progressively until you get to the kingdoms of the world far and near.
27 Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.
Interestingly, the asteroid known as wormwood hits the earth during the great tribulation and turns the drinking water into wormwood. So although there have been many examples of this judgment on the earth such as the two world wars, the ultimate example will be when this meteorite hits the earth and they are all given this cup to drink.
28 And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink. 29 For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the Lord of hosts.
The rule is that judgment must begin at the house of God, and it did, it began at Jerusalem and the temple called by His name. However, if you do the same things that they did when they got judged then it is only right that you get the same judgment.
30 Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, The Lord shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.
This is what the last seven years are and it is a mercy. That roaring is God letting everyone know that they have sinned, they have not repented and the age of grace is just about over.
31 A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the Lord.
If you are ignorant of being wicked then according to the Bible the punishment is less than if you know what you are doing is evil. This is why God has all these nations complaining about what Israel is doing, this shows they are very clear about what is evil and righteous judgement is "with what judgment you have judged you shall be judged".
32 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. 33 And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.
This is the same way that Israel was described when they died in the wilderness after the evil report. People get very upset when they hear the Jews being called "God's chosen people" because we are all God's children. That of course is the point, God has made them an example to us. They were brought to the Good land and now we are brought to the Good Land, they had a choice to enter in or not and now we have a choice to enter in or not.
34 Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished; and ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel.
Shepherds refer to pastors, but the principal of the flock refer to the great ones, the noble ones, the famous, glorious, lordly ones. Since Paul said we did not have many of these in the church we can view the flock as the entire nation. All elected officials can be seen as shepherds and all the "beautiful people" can be considered the principal ones.
35 And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape.
They are trying to escape. They have built magnificent underground cities with tunnels spanning the entire continent whisking people along by Mag Lev train. In California they have underground roads so that the beautiful people don't have to deal with the traffic jams that all the common people deal with.
36 A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and an howling of the principal of the flock, shall be heard: for the Lord hath spoiled their pasture. 37 And the peaceable habitations are cut down because of the fierce anger of the Lord.
Not all habitations are peaceable, there are places on this earth where wars last for generations. But the US is a good example of the peaceable habitation. They will be cut down.
38 He hath forsaken his covert, as the lion: for their land is desolate because of the fierceness of the oppressor, and because of his fierce anger.
