Recently I have heard two teachings on Passover and the wine taken during the celebration. What caught my attention was not the wine but that there are 4 cups of wine involved in the ceremony. That made me sit up and take notice. I never knew that. So of course that meant I needed to do some research and find out about the 4 cups of wine thing.
The 4 cups follow the "I will's" of Exodus 6:6-7 which states, 6 “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. 7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians." How cool is this! When I read this I felt such hope!
So back to the cups. During the Passover mean the 4 cups are taken and there is meaning and importance that goes with each cup.
Cup one is the cup of Sanctification/Thanksgiving. This is the time the people give thanks and praise God for His promise of bringing them out of such a cruel environment that Egypt was for them. How many of us have ever been in a "cruel environment" and have been brought out of that? Gods promise is for us as well today He promised and He WILL make good on His promise. We have to trust and wait on Him.
Cup two is the cup of Judgment/Deliverance. Here it is remembered that the people were freed! They were delivered from slavery and bondage. And the Egyptians were judged. Like today we are freed we are no longer held in slavery to our sin (our Egypt). We can celebrate this.
Cup three is the cup of Redemption/Blessing. I like the word "redeem" so much so that I am going to add the definition here. Redeem: to buy or pay off; clear by payment, to buy back, to recover. Synonyms: repurchase. Redeem, ransom (www.dictionary.com). How cool is this. Exodus 6:6 promises that the people would be bought back, ransomed, repurchased etc. What is even better that promise goes for US today! It is with this cup that the people were reminded there was a cost to being redeemed. Blood had to be involved, sacrifice had to be involved. During Exodus from Egypt it was the blood of a year old lamb. For us it is the blood of Jesus. Hebrews 9:22 says 22 according to the Law, one may (A)almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and (B)without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. The Israelites knew that without the blood of the lamb they would have died. It is the same with us today without the blood of Jesus having been shed we would have died.
Cup four is the cup of restoration. The relationship between God and the Israelites was restored. They were celebrating this. When we accept Jesus as our Lord and confess it we are brought back to a right relationship. You could say we are restored. There is a lot of praise that goes with this cup and during Passover Psalm 136:1-16 is read. I would encourage you to read it too. (kind of long to put here).
This for me was so cool and just continued to show how things in the Old Testament were telling about Jesus. The wine of Passover from "then" is still valid and applicable "NOW".
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