Day 4 | The Cup of Praise
Today we take the fourth and final cup of Passover, the cup of praise.
This cup comes from God’s most profound promise: I will take you to be my people. With this promise God is telling his people that he will give them a whole new identity. It’s the final piece completing their liberation.
The promise is incredibly intimate. It’s wedding language. When God is saying that he will take Israel to be his people he is using the language of a bridegroom proposing to his bride. It’s covenantal.
Throughout the writings of the prophets God uses this marriage language to describe his relationship to Israel.
“Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the wilderness
and speak tenderly to her.
There I will give her back her vineyards,
and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she will respond as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
“In that day,” declares the Lord,
“you will call me ‘my husband’;
you will no longer call me ‘my master.’
I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips;
no longer will their names be invoked.
In that day I will make a covenant for them
with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky
and the creatures that move along the ground.
Bow and sword and battle
I will abolish from the land,
so that all may lie down in safety.
I will betroth you to me forever;
I will betroth you in righteousness and justice,
in love and compassion.
I will betroth you in faithfulness,
and you will acknowledge the Lord.
Hosea 2:14-20
During the Passover meal that Jesus shared with his disciples the night that he was betrayed and arrested Jesus used the same motif. In John 14 Jesus uses wedding language to explain what would happen next.
“My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
John 14:2-3
Unfortunately in our time we misunderstand what Jesus says here to think that he’s spending his time building us each our own heavenly mansion with a huge grill and a sports car to drive on golden streets. But that’s not what’s happening here at all. This is actually a marriage proposal.
In Jewish culture there were two parts to a wedding ceremony. The first part was the proposal when a man and woman would take marriage vows and they would be legally bound together, but they wouldn’t yet consummate the marriage.
At this time the groom would give the bride a series of gifts as a promise that he would return for her to take her as his wife. And then the groom and his father leave and get to work building a home off the side of the groom’s family’s home. He would tell his bride that he’s leaving to prepare a place for her and that he would come again.
Once the room is complete the groom can return for his bride, and no one knows when that’ll be. It’s a surprise and the bride just has to be ready. The groom shows up to bring his bride back to his father’s house, they share a cup of wine with more blessings, and then they have a huge party. It’s awesome.
So consider this as you hear Jesus’ words in John 14. Jesus is betrothing his people to himself. He’s just shared a meal with them where he pronounces the four “I wills,” he blesses them and washes them, and he tells them that he’s leaving to prepare a place for them…and this is their hope. This is what they are to cling to when their hearts are troubled.
The fourth cup is also called the cup of praise, the cup of hallel. It’s the cup of a wedding feast. And Jesus doesn’t drink this cup at the end of his Passover meal. After drinking the third cup, the communion cup, Jesus said
I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.
Matthew 26:29
There is coming a day when the promise of God will be fully consummated. It’s a day that the book of Revelation calls the Wedding Supper of the Lamb. It’s a party, a wedding celebration. It’s the wedding of heaven and earth, of God and his people. It’s the day when all things are made new in his kingdom. And on that day we will share the cup of praise with Jesus.
As we drink the fourth cup let us reflect on the promise that God calls us his people, his beloved. Let the words of Hosea rest in your heart, accepting them for yourself.
I will betroth you to me forever;
I will betroth you in righteousness and justice,
in love and compassion.
I will betroth you in faithfulness,
and you will acknowledge the Lord.
Hosea 2:19-20
Drink the cup of praise