Saturday 29th July
Read Habakkuk 2:15-17
“‘Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbours,
pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk,
so that he can gaze on their naked bodies!
16 You will be filled with shame instead of glory.
Now it is your turn! Drink and let your nakedness be exposed!
The cup from the Lord’s right hand is coming round to you,
and disgrace will cover your glory.
17 The violence you have done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,
and your destruction of animals will terrify you.
For you have shed human blood;
you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.” (NIVUK)
It is a sad indictment that we can all too easily imagine the consequences of alcohol fueled sexual violence on society. And we do not even live in a place suffering the deprivations and humiliations of war where such things are disturbingly common. Whilst the earth will, eventually, ‘be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea’ (v14), in due course He will cover those who engage in such disgraceful behaviour with shame and dishonour and expose them completely (v16). The punishment justly fitting the crime.
The cup of God’s wrath features prominently in the biblical narrative. There are echoes of it all the way back in Genesis 9:20-27 (which are possibly seen here in Habakkuk also). But Jeremiah 25:15 and Isaiah 51:17 both refer to this ‘cup from the Lord’s right hand’. It is the cup Jesus sorrowfully asked his eager disciples if they were able to drink (Matthew 20:20-28) and the one He asked be removed from Him if possible (Matthew 26:39). It is the cup Jesus drank on the cross, stripped naked and exposed, blood shed in violence.
Reading these few verses today, but falling on Jesus, in our place, can only leave us on our knees is grateful prayer.
