Jehovah Shalom

Jehovah Shalom (יְהֹוָה שָׁלוֹם)

Jehovah Shalom (yeh-ho-vaw' shaw-lome') is a name that appears only once in the Old Testament, in Judges chapter six. Here we find the beginning of the story of Gideon. Maybe you know how Gideon defeated thousands of enemy soldiers with his 300 men. But this is before that, this begins while Gideon is still in his father’s house. It does not say how old he is, it does say that he was the youngest, but I would venture to say he was not much older than the average college age guy now-a-days. But what the L-rd calls him to do is anything but average, He calls him to go and free all of Israel from oppression. He picks Gideon, the youngest of his father’s house of the smallest tribe in all Israel. Try to imagine this, America does not deal with the kind of oppression Israel was facing at the hands of the Midianites but think to what this would be like, think to how you would react.

It does not take too much reading of the Bible to see that G-d often chooses small people, weak people, run of the mill nothing special kind of people to do great things. He used young Gideon to fight off an oppressive nation, He chose David as a young shepherd to lead a nation, He chose a cupbearer named Nehemiah to rebuild the holy city, and He chose to incarnate Himself as a town carpenter. Perhaps you, even now, are feeling the bearing down of the world and it seems too large for you, I know I feel this a lot and I would venture to say these men did too. But G-d is not a far off god, He is not one to leave us to fight these battles on our own. That is why He tells Gideon,

"Peace to you, do not fear; you shall not die." (Judges 6:23)

You better believe that this spoke directly to Gideon’s fear, but what does G-d do with his fear? He gives him peace. He not only tells him that things will be okay and that he will make it but He gives him peace. Gideon goes on to make an altar and call it Jehovah Shalom (The L-rd is Peace) because he knows this to be true. The L-rd is the source of peace and He is able to give it freely. I pray you would seek Him for it, I know we are all in desperate need of it.

Grace and PEACE beloved

In Christ,

AC