Pesach (Passover) Symbolism: 4 Cups of Wine

The Bible is replete with symbolism, none the least of which is the 4 cups of wine that form part of the Passover celebrations.  Passover and the death of Yahshua…well, Passover was a precursor to the real lamb of God, the sacrificial lamb who died, one for all.  In the Hebrew (the old testament or Torah) celebrations there are many symbols.  If you read the books and take them at face value, you miss a lot.  You need to dig deeper because our Creator says and does nothing without purpose.  There is always a meaning waiting to be uncovered.  Some of the items in the Passover Feast (and also referenced in the new testament) are:

lamb – see Luke 22:8

bitter herbs – see Matthew 26:23

washings – John 13:1-15

4 cups of wine – Matthew 26 and Luke 22

matzah – Matthew 26:26

For this article we will focus on the possible meaning(s) behind the 4 cups of wine, but first let us delve deeper and briefly review the hidden symbolism of some of the other items:

• the lamb was the yearly blood sacrifice for sin, offered up by the High Priest.  Yahshua became our Passover/Pesach lamb – John 1:29

• the bitter herbs were a reminder to the Hebrew children of their days of bondage, slaves to Pharaoh the oppressor.  He who betrayed (or did he? was he perhaps carrying out a command?) Yahshua, Judas, dipped his matzah in the bitter herbs at the Last Supper

• as Yahshua and the disciples gathered to celebrate the Passover Feast hand and foot washing are symbolism of the need to cleanse ourselves before approaching a Holy God.  Yahshua washed the feet of his disciples at the Passover Feast

• matzah is a type of bread.  Yahshua is referred to as the bread of life.

According to the rabbis, each of the 4 cups of wine represents the 4 promises given to the Hebrew children in their exodus from Egypt.

Exodus 6:6-7  Therefore, say to the Israelites, “I am the Lord and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptian.  I will free you from being slaves to them and will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.  I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. …

During the Passover Seder, the cup of sanctification (being sanctified, set apart) appears at the very beginning of the celebration.  The second cup is known as the Cup of Praise (sometimes called the Cup of Plagues) because we are to praise Him who has done mighty things for us in setting us free.  The third cup is the Cup of Redemption and it was this Cup of which Yahshua spoke when he told the disciples to “take this cup and drink of it….do it in memory of me.”  Yahshua’s offering of redemption is a setting free; a spiritual freedom to return to where we all started.  The shedding of the ruling flesh (ego) for the freedom of the Spirit:

1 Corinthians 11:26  For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.

The final cup (and personally speaking for me, the one that I seem to resist the most) is the Cup of Acceptance – if it is in relation to accepting things when they don’t go my way or as I planned them.  BUT, the acceptance spoken of in the Seder is that of YHWH accepting us back into the Family because our sins have been washed away and we might enter in!

Those then are my thoughts as once again Pesach (and Easter) are upon us.  We need to look beyond the flesh and blood – to see within what the Spirit is saying to us through these things.  What is your Pesach message?