Feeling hungry? - 15 February 2010 |
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There’s a good deal about food and drink in the book of Micah. Sometimes it’s connected with positive themes of prosperity and blessing; sometimes it carries much more negative overtones.
For an example of the latter, consider Micah 6:14-15.
14 You shall eat, but not be satisfied, and there shall be hunger within you; you shall put away, but not preserve, and what you preserve I will give to the sword. 15You shall sow, but not reap; you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil; you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.
This is the kind of eating that produces no satisfaction; the kind of drinking that leaves a ravaging thirst. Like eating stale bread and drinking salt water.
Or perhaps it’s like drinking sour wine (Mark 15:36), or drinking the cup of the wrath of the LORD (Mark 13:36), as Jesus did as he suffered on the cross for our sins.
In the hand of the LORD is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with spices; he pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs. (Ps. 75:8)
Awake, awake! Rise up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his wrath, you who have drained to its dregs the goblet that makes men stagger. (Isa. 51:17)
This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: ‘Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. When they drink it, they will stagger and go mad because of the sword I will send among them.’ (Jer. 25:15-16)
This is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘You will drink your sister’s cup, a cup large and deep; it will bring scorn and derision, for it holds so much. You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, the cup of ruin and desolation, the cup of your sister Samaria. You will drink it and drain it dry; you will dash it to pieces and tear your breasts.’ I have spoken, declares the Sovereign LORD. (Ezek. 23:32-34)
You will be filled with shame instead of glory. Now it is your turn! Drink and be exposed! The cup from the LORD’s right hand is coming round to you, and disgrace will cover your glory. (Hab. 2:16)
It is because Jesus drank like this that we may enjoy the other kind of eating and drinking pictured by the prophet Micah:
They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks … they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken. (Micah 3:3-4)
Posted by Steve Jeffery · Topics: Bible, Minister's Blog