Psalm 75:7-8: But God is the Judge: He puts down one, and exalts another. For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is fully mixed, and He pours it out; surely its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth drain and drink down.

As Toby has been telling us, Job’s great hope is that he will see God face to face to present his case before Him. He knows there is a Judge in heaven; he knows that the heavenly Judge has a cup in His hand; he knows that He pours it out for the wicked of the earth to drink. But he also knows his own innocence. The heavenly Judge seems to have missed His target when he poured from that cup of red wine. He poured it out on righteous Job, blameless Job, rather than the wicked. So, Job wants to get to this Judge to plead his innocence. He wants to ascend to heaven, into the courtroom where Yahweh is enthroned with his cup of red wine.

In the end, Job does stand before the whirlwind. He is elevated before his Judge, and is exonerated against his accusers. By the end of the book of Job, the accuser, Satan, has disappeared, and instead we have Job, the man who offers sacrifices on behalf of his sons and daughters, interceding before Yahweh on behalf of the three friends.

But Job’s appearance before God is only a shadow. It is not the final reality. He is not established in heaven forever. He is no permanent advocate. Though he appears before the Judge of heaven and earth, Job himself does not get to share in that judgment.

Job’s progress points ahead to Jesus, and to the exaltation of Jesus. Jesus enters heaven to intercede for us forever: As Hebrews tells us, He ever lives to make intercession for us. But in Christ’s ascension, something happens that Job doesn’t envision. When He takes His seat at the right hand of the Father, the Father hands Him the cup, full of red wine, so that He can carry out judgments against His enemies. Jesus, the man who is God, receives authority to judge as a man. He holds His Father’s cup of red wine in His human, nail-scarred hands.

And then – what is even more unexpected – He takes that cup from His Father and passes it along to us. The cup that is in the hand of Yahweh is now in the hands of those who are in Christ, so that we not only present our case before the Judge but sit on heavenly thrones, judging.

Of course, this meal commemorates the cross of Jesus. Of course, it is a memorial of Jesus’ resurrection to life. But it is something more too. We are seated here with cups of red wine in our hands, and that means that this meal is a sign of our judicial authority, our share in Christ’s own government of the world.

This meal reminds us that the Father says to us as He does to Jesus, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” It reminds us that the Father says to us as to Jesus, “Take this cup; pour it out until the wicked drink its dregs.”