Access Granted
Peace.
I know what you are thinking. You’re thinking, “Seriously? You want to talk to me about peace? Have you watched the news recently? Have you been on social media recently? Have you been to one of my family functions recently? I don’t even think that peace exists anymore.”
Am I close?
Peace can be a really hard concept to wrestle with and can have many different meanings based on who you ask. Peace is one of those words that gets thrown around a lot at Christmas time. It is something that almost everyone would agree that they want, but it is also one of the most elusive things on the planet for most people.
Peace.
What does that even mean?
My initial thought when I think of peace is stillness and quiet. It makes me think about those sensory deprivation pods that people talk about. Floating in the water in complete silence and darkness for an hour sounds like the epitome of peace to me. But here’s the thing, that is a kind of peace that only lasts as long as you are in the tank. I have never been in a sensory deprivation pod, but I would imagine that once your time is up and you get out of the pod, you experience sensory overload as you go back out into the world. So is that really peace then? It seems like it is just peace for a moment. Some people are so desperate for peace in their lives that they would take it even if it only lasts for an hour I guess.
Maybe I am naïve, but I feel like there has to be something more...a bigger, better, longer-lasting peace out there…an other-worldly peace so to speak.
One of the names of God is Jehovah Shalom, which means God of Peace. Upon further investigation, I found out that this name for God only occurs once in all of scripture. Judges 6:24 says, “So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it the Lord Is Peace.” Now, you tell me how the smallest guy in the smallest family in town gets asked by God to take on a massive army of people that were strong, powerful, and cruel with a tiny little army of 300 people and then gets to a place where he is talking about peace and calling God Jehovah Shalom? And this was all before he took on the Midianites and won! I think we need to dig a little deeper into this story and see what we are missing here.
When the angel appears to Gideon and tells him to go and defeat the Midianites, Gideon immediately responds with doubt asking him how he can possibly complete such an impossible task considering that his clan was the weakest, and he was the weakest of the whole clan (Judges 6:15). Travel back with me to verse 12 and let’s look at how the angel addresses Gideon when he first appears on the scene. The first words that the angel speaks to Gideon are, “The Lord is with you,” and then he calls him “mighty warrior.” Some translations say, “valiant warrior” or “mighty hero." The point is this angel is bringing a message directly from God to Gideon, and God obviously sees Gideon as someone much greater than Gideon or anyone else sees.
Gideon’s response shows that Gideon was living by sight and not by faith. God saw the person that Gideon was to become, and He called him that straight out of the gate. If we learn nothing else from 1 Corinthians 1:26-27, it’s that God does not choose by human standards; God chooses so no one can explain how they accomplish the things that they accomplish other than through God.
The angel goes on to reassure Gideon that God will be with him and ensure his success against the Midianites, but that promise was not good enough for Gideon. He requests that God give him a sign. This is how scared and unsure Gideon was. God has given him a promise and assured him of what the outcome of his obedience would be, and he still isn’t convinced! If you read further along in Judges chapter 6, you will see that Gideon offered a sacrifice, and God consumed the sacrifice right in front of Gideon. That is when Gideon realizes that he was actually speaking with God. You would think that his response to this realization would be to worship God and submit to His request. Nope. Upon realizing that he is talking to God, Gideon jumps over to a different fear. Now, Gideon is afraid that he is going to die because he has been in the Lord’s presence. Good grief! This guy just jumps from one fear to the next. Sound familiar? We are going to move on because that is a whole different blog post of it’s own.
God’s response to Gideon’s fear of death is to lovingly say, “Peace to you. Do not be afraid, for you will not die.” (Judges 6:23 CSB) Immediately in verse 24, Gideon builds an altar to God and names it The Lord is Peace or Jehovah Shalom if you are reading the King James version. Jehovah is the Jewish name for God. Shalom means peace, but not peace in the way that the world defines the word. It means much more than just the absence of disturbances or wars. Shalom goes deeper than that. Shalom means whole, complete, perfect, and full. When Gideon builds that altar and names it Jehovah Shalom, he is acknowledging that he is moving to living by faith and not sight.
When God spoke peace over him, he knew that God was promising him well-being and prosperity, and this filled him with confidence. He knew at that moment that God could not only use him but could actually win a victory with him, and that knowledge made him whole and complete. It brought him peace. Come what may, Gideon could now take on his enemies and any other seemingly impossible task for God because his encounter with Jehovah Shalom had proven to him that he was not alone.
So how do we access God’s Shalom today? To answer this we must combine some Old Testament with some New Testament. It looks something like this:
“For a child will be born for us,
a son will be given to us,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
He will be named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.”
Isaiah 9:6 (CSB)
“For God was pleased to have
all his fullness dwell in him,
and through him to reconcile
everything to himself,
whether things on earth or things in heaven,
by making peace
through his blood, shed on the cross.”
Colossians 1:19-20 (CSB)
Jesus. The prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled over 2,000 years ago with the coming of the Prince of Peace to dwell among us. Jesus brought peace to the brokenhearted during His time on earth and then made peace through His blood on the cross which made reconciliation with God possible for all of us who sin and fall short of His glory. He told His disciples in John 14:27 that He was leaving them with His peace. The first words to His followers after He rose from the dead in John 20:19 were, “Peace be with you.” Jesus is the way to God’s Shalom for us today. God provided a way to have a relationship with Him through His son, the Prince of Peace. We have peace with God by inviting the peace of God, Jesus, to come and dwell inside of us.
This peace is not temporary or conditional. It is eternal, everlasting, and all-consuming. This peace is transformational. This peace passes all understanding. This peace guards our hearts and our minds. It starts with an invitation. This peace is a choice. It is ours to choose, but we must choose to take hold of it and walk in the fullness of it. Gideon had a choice, and his choice landed him a spot in the Hebrews’ “Hall of Faith” (Hebrews 11:32). He could have chosen fear and disobedience, but he didn’t. You can choose fear and disobedience too, but I hope and pray that you don’t. God’s Shalom is available to you right now today, but choosing to accept it is only the beginning. Choosing to accept God’s Shalom through Jesus is the easy part. Walking in the fullness of it is much more challenging.
It takes work to walk in the fullness of God’s peace. Walking and living in God’s Shalom only comes when you study, learn from, submit to, and obey His word. Yes, you must do all four of those things, not just one or two. Like Proverbs 3 verses 13 and 17 say, blessed is the one who finds wisdom and gains understanding because her ways are pleasant and all her paths are full of peace (my paraphrase). My prayer for you this holiday season and for all of the days that follow is that you will not only choose to accept God’s peace through Jesus if you haven’t already, but that you would choose to walk in the fullness of God’s Shalom. I pray that you will one day find yourself on the path of peace that wisdom and understanding provide by putting in the work. Know that you won’t be going it alone. I will be right there with you trying my best to put in the work myself. I believe in you, and I know that we can do this together.