How Deep The Father's Love

Yesterday, I contemplated fear. Fear of physical pain and fear of spiritual pain and often uncertainty. 
The evil one enjoys twisting God's truths into lies and make us question God's love, and God's saving grace.

I asked Jesus a very specific question. "While in the garden, You experienced great fear; a terror so big that You sweat drops of blood. You experienced an immense physical reaction because of fear. What were you most afraid of? Were you afraid of the physical pain: the beatings and floggings that would leave you so weak you could barely walk; the physical pain of dying the most cruel death ever designed - dying slowly and agonizingly on a cross? Were you most afraid of spiritual pain - the pain of being separated from Abba Father? The pain of the Father turning His face from you."

Today, Jay and I were watching a Ray Vander Laan DVD about the Passover and the 5th Cup.
The title is The 5th Cup, our Way of Hope. Ray was teaching from an olive garden at the place where people now believe is the Gethsemane. When I saw this was the lesson, the Holy Spirit tapped me on the shoulder and said Pay Attention - you asked a question and you're receiving an answer.

During a traditional Passover Seder meal there are 5 cups. The cups represent the redemption of the Israelites Exodus from Egypt and God's promises to them:

Cup#1: "I will take you out..."
Cup #2: "I will save you..."
Cup #3: "I will redeem you..."
Cup #4: "I will take you as a nation..."

The first 4 cups reference Exodus 6:5-8 when God assures His people that He hears them and remembers His covenant with them.

At least three of the cups were recorded in the gospels.
* The cup before the meal is the cup of sanctification - cup #1
* The second cup is the cup of deliverance (Luke 22:17)
* The third cup is the cup of redemption (Luke 22:20)
* The fourth cup is the cup of protection
Matthew 26:29, tells that Jesus refused to take this cup :"Mark my words - I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new with you in my Father's Kingdom."

Now we come to the 5th cup. The Traditional Passover refers to Jeremiah 25:15-17 This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: "Take from my hand this cup filled to the brim with my anger, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink from it, they will stagger, crazed by the warfare I will send against them." So I took the cup of anger from the Lord and made all the nations drink from it - every nation to which the Lord sent me.

The cup of wrath also known as Elijah's cup (Malachi 4:5). At this point in the Passover, the door is opened and and the patriarch says "pour out your wrath on the world."  The cup is filled but no one drinks it....

JESUS DRANK THIS CUP (Matthew 26:39-42)
Jesus drank the 5th cup...the cup of God's wrath against the nations.

This was the reason for the extreme terror Jesus felt. "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" 

Jesus prayed - "Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me..." The 5th cup - the cup of anger and wrath. The cup of hell itself. 

Jesus drank the ENTIRE cup. and when he'd drank the cup, He cried out "It is finished".
God's wrath was satisfied. His anger and judgement quelled. 
Jesus drank the cup of wrath that was intended for me and you. Jesus, the perfect, sinless one, drank the cup of hell so that we don't have to. 

"How deep the Father's love for us! How vast, beyond all measure. That He would give His only son, to make a wretch His treasure!"

Thank you Abba Father!! Thank you Jesus!!