Jeremiah 25:15 - Meaning and Application

Under the picture of a cup passed around so that everyone must drink, God shows the coming ruin of that whole region. Nebuchadrezzar, the Babylonian king who had just begun to reign and act, would be the tool God used. In the end, that ruin would also come back on Babylon itself. The vision speaks of a cup, but its fulfillment is a sword, as explained in Jeremiah 25:16. It is the sword God will send among them, the sword of war, strong and ruthless.

This judgment came from the hand of God. It is the Lord’s sword (Jeremiah 47:6), ready in heaven, as Isaiah 34:5 says. He uses wicked people as his sword (Psalm 17:13). It is also called the cup of his anger, because God’s righteous wrath sent this judgment. The nations had sinned against him, so they must taste the signs of his anger.

The nations are compared to people forced to drink a bitter, intoxicating drink, like condemned criminals once forced to drink poison. The wicked are said to drink the wrath of the Almighty (Job 21:20; Revelation 14:10). Their troubles in this world are pictured as the dregs of a cup of red wine, mixed and bitter (Psalm 75:8; see Psalm 11:6). Even so, God’s anger in this life is only a cup compared with the full flood of wrath in the next world.

Jeremiah was the one through whose hand this cup was sent. God had set him over the nations as a judge, to announce their sentence (Jeremiah 1:10), while Nebuchadrezzar would carry it out. In God’s sight, the humble prophet was greater than the powerful king, even if the world saw things the other way around. Jeremiah had to take the cup from God’s hand and make the nations drink it. He did not threaten them with anything beyond what God told him to speak, and what God’s authority declares will surely happen by God’s power.

This cup was sent to all the nations around Israel, the nations within their known world and trade routes. Jeremiah took the cup and made all these nations drink, meaning he prophesied that each one would share in the coming disaster. Jerusalem and the cities of Judah are named first (Jeremiah 25:18), because judgment begins with God’s own house (1 Peter 4:17), at the sanctuary first (Ezekiel 9:6). Whether Nebuchadrezzar aimed mainly at Jerusalem and Judah in this campaign or not is unclear, but God certainly had them first in view. The phrase, “as it is this day,” shows that this part of the prophecy had already begun to come true, since by the fourth year of Jehoiakim the situation had badly collapsed.

Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, comes next, because the Jews trusted that broken reed (verse 19). The remaining Jews later fled to Egypt, and Jeremiah also foretold Egypt’s downfall there (Jeremiah 43:10, 43:11). All the neighboring nations had to drink this bitter cup, this cup of trembling. The “mingled people” may mean Arabians, or bands of raiders from different nations. The kings of the land of Uz are linked with the country of Edom. The Philistines had long troubled Israel, but now their cities and rulers would become prey to the great conqueror.

Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Zidon are well-known neighbors of Israel. The “isles beyond the sea” are likely parts of Phoenicia and Syria along the Mediterranean coast. Dedan and the other countries named in Jeremiah 25:23 and 25:24 seem to have been on the edge of Edom and the Arabian desert. Elam refers to the Persians, with the Medes joined to them. At that time they seemed unimportant, yet later they would retaliate against Babylon for themselves and for their neighbors. The kings of the north, near Babylon, and others farther away, would all be seized by Nebuchadrezzar’s victorious sword.

He would push his conquests with such force and speed that all the kingdoms then known would become sacrifices to his ambition. People later spoke of Alexander as conquering the world, and Luke 2:1 calls the Roman empire the whole world. This can also be read as a sentence on all earthly kingdoms in general, since in one time or another they all feel the harsh effects of war. The world has long been a place of conflict, while human desires war against one another, as James 4:1 says. Yet the conquerors are not left out. The king of Sheshach will drink after them, meaning the king of Babylon himself, the one who caused so much trouble for others, will at last suffer the same. Jeremiah 51:41 makes it plain that Sheshach means Babylon, though it is uncertain whether it was another name for the same city or for another city in that kingdom. Babylon’s ruin had already been foretold in Jeremiah 25:12 and 25:13, and this prophecy about its role in ruining many nations fits there very well.

The effects of the sword are compared to the effects of too much drinking. They will drink and be shaken, and go mad. They will be drunk, vomit, fall, and never rise again (Jeremiah 25:27). This should make us hate the sin of drunkenness, because its consequences are used to picture a miserable condition. Drunkenness takes away a person’s reason and makes him act mad. It also steals health, which is the next great gift after reason. It makes people sick and can endanger their bones and their life. Men who drink often fall and do not rise again. It is a sin that carries its own punishment. How deeply ruined are those who let themselves be overcome by wine or strong drink.

This picture also teaches us to fear the judgments of war. When God sends the sword against a nation and gives it leave to lay waste, that nation soon becomes like a drunk man, full of confusion and fear from the alarms of war. Its advisers lose their sense, staggering through every plan and move. They grow sick at heart from constant trouble, and they vomit up the riches they had greedily swallowed, as Job 20:15 says. They fall before the enemy and are no more able to rise or help themselves than a man dead drunk, as Habakkuk 2:16 says.

The certainty of all this, and the reason for it, are then stated in Jeremiah 25:28 and 25:29.

They will refuse to take the cup from your hand. They will not only dread the judgment itself, they will also refuse to believe it will ever come. They will not trust the warning from someone as lowly as Jeremiah. But he must tell them that this is the word of the Lord of hosts, the Lord of armies, and he has spoken it. It is useless to fight against all-powerful God: you will certainly drink.

Jeremiah must also give the reason. This is a time of visitation, a time when God is calling people to account. Jerusalem has already been summoned. “I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that is called by my name.” Its close relationship to God will not keep it from punishment, so should the nations expect to escape? No. If God deals this way with the green tree, what will he do with the dry? If those who still have some good in them suffer so much for the evil found in them, can those with worse evil, and no real good, expect to go free? If Jerusalem is punished for learning idolatry from the nations, will not the nations be punished for teaching it? Surely they will. God says, “I will call for a sword against all the people of the earth,” because they helped corrupt the people of Jerusalem.

From this whole matter, we may observe several things. First, there is a God who judges on the earth. All the nations are answerable to him, and they must stand by his verdict. Second, God can easily destroy the greatest nations, the most crowded and powerful ones, even those that feel safest. Third, those who have troubled and harmed God’s people will be called to account in the end. Many of these nations had, in turn, disturbed Israel, but now destruction comes upon them. The year of the redeemer will come, the year when God repays those who opposed Zion.

Fourth, the burden of the Lord’s word will at last become the burden of his judgments. Isaiah had long ago spoken against most of these nations (chapter 13 and following), and now at last all those prophecies will be fully fulfilled. Fifth, people who want power and rule often become the troublemakers of the earth and a plague to their own generation. Nebuchadrezzar, the king of Babylon, was so proud of his strength that he had no sense of right. These are the people who turn the world upside down, yet still expect praise and honor. Alexander the Great thought himself a mighty prince, while others saw him as little better than a great pirate. Sixth, the greatest splendor and power in this world do not last long. Before Nebuchadrezzar’s greater force, even kings must yield and become captives.