JEHOVAH-SHALOM
Jdg. 6:11-24
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. I’m going to see how good you are at completing a sentence. “FINISH THE SENTENCE:”
a. “I am ready to throw in the ______.” (towel)
b. “I’m just a bundle of _______.” (Nerves)
c. “I’m at my wits ______.” (end)
d. “I’m resigning from the human _______.” (race)
2. Wow! You got 100%! You’re the most uptight audience I’ve ever seen. Even the upright can get uptight!
B. TEXT
11 The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” 13 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14 The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” 15 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” 16 The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.” 17 Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. 18 Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.” And the Lord said, “I will wait until you return.” 19 Gideon went inside, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak. 20 The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And Gideon did so. 21 Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of the staff that was in his hand. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared. 22 When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, “Alas, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!” 23 But the Lord said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.” 24 So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord Is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
C. THESIS
1. We’re continuing our series tonight on the Covenant Names of God. We have previously covered Jehovah, Jehovah-Jireh, Jehovah-Rapha, and Jehovah-Nissi.
2. Tonight we’re looking at Jehovah-Shalom: it’s revelation, it’s meaning & the 2 kinds of peace, and the Source of our peace, Jesus Christ.
3. The title of this message is Jehovah-Shalom.
I. A NEW REVELATION OF THE CHARACTER OF GOD
A. REVEALED DURING TROUBLED TIMES
1. What more fitting place for God to reveal Himself as the “God of Peace” than the Book of Judges when the nation of Israel was in the midst of turmoil, chaos, and tribulation brought on by their backslidden condition.
2. The Bible is clear (Isa. 57:20-21) that “There is no peace,” saith my God, “to the wicked.” The root idea of the word “wicked” is “restlessness.” Worse than outward trouble is a broken relationship with God!
B. THE OCCASION OF THIS REVELATION
1. Israel, because of sin, was cruelly oppressed by the Midianites and cried out to God (Judges 6:2,7). Even Gideon needed reconciliation. Once he had made his sacrifice, he was called to deliver God’s people.
2. When Gideon realized he was before the Angel (Messenger of) of the Lord, he became afraid. Gideon had thought that Jehovah was actually against or opposed to Israel (vs. 13).
3. But Jehovah said to Gideon, “Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die” (vs. 23). Gideon undoubtedly then felt the peace of God come over him.
4. So he built an altar and called it “Jehovah-Shalom,” “The Lord is our Peace.” Jehovah would bring salvation, the deliverance, and the restoration necessary to give Israel peace; for peace was Jehovah’s will.
C. THE MEANING OF ‘SHALOM’
1. It is translated in the O.T. as “whole,” “finished,” “full,” “make good,” “welfare and well,” “render, pay, perform, perfect.”
2. It is also translated as “peace” some 170 time, but the basic idea underlying the word is:
a. Harmony of Relationship;
b. Reconciliation based on the completion of an action;
c. the payment of a debt, the giving of satisfaction.
3. The “Peace Offering” was an offering which restored relationship between God and man, which had been broken by sin. The result of this reconciliation is an undisturbed mind; a tranquility, a harmony, a calm even in the midst of the storm.
II. THE TWO KINDS OF PEACE
A. PEACE ‘WITH’ GOD
1. You will never have peace with God unless you become a child of God and are justified by faith.
2. Rom. 5:1 says, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
3. The war is over, the hostilities have ceased. We have peace with God. I hope you have that. The Bible speaks, in Gal. 5:22, of another kind of peace…
4. We have the Peace of a surrendered will; we’re no longer struggling against God’s will, but acquiescing.
B. THE PEACE ‘OF’ GOD
1. Col. 3:15 says, “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts.” Do you have that peace ruling in your hearts?
2. Phip. 4:7, “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
3. When Jesus Christ was about to face the cross, He made out His Last Will & Testament. He named you in it. He willed you His peace.
4. John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
5. This Peace is a fruit of the indwelling Spirit of God (Gal. 5:22).
6. Apart from being in the presence of God it is impossible to have peace! The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace” (Ps. 29:11, NIV).
C. ILLUSTRATION: HIS SMILE
1. Robert Louis Stevenson tells of a storm that caught a vessel off a rocky coast and threatened to drive it and its passengers to destruction.
2. In the midst of the terror, one daring man, contrary to orders, went to the deck, made a dangerous passage to the pilot house and saw the Pilot himself, lashed tightly to a post near the wheel -- unwaveringly, inch by inch, turning the ship out, once more, to sea.
3. The pilot saw the watcher and smiled. The daring passenger went below and gave out a note of cheer: "I have seen the face of the pilot, and he smiled. All is well."
4. Because Jesus took our sins and gave us His righteousness, God’s once sad face toward us has turned to a smile. All is well between us and God.
III. JESUS IS OUR PEACE
A. HE IS OUR PRINCE OF PEACE (Isa. 9:6)
1. Why? Because He, as the Messiah, would usher in the 1,000 year era of peace for Israel. Jerusalem, the Messiah’s city, means “The City of Peace.”
2. Jesus was typified by Melchizedek (King of Righteousness), the King of Salem, which means “Peace” (Heb. 7:2).
3. When Jesus was born, the angels sang, “Peace on Earth and good will toward men on whom God’s favor rests” (Luke 2:14).
4. Zachariah, John the Baptist’s father, said the Messiah was coming to “guide our feet into the paths of peace” (Luke 1:78-79).
B. HIS SUFFERING
1. Jesus “bore our griefs and carried our sorrows” Isa. 53:4. “Come unto Me and I will give you rest” (Mt. 11:28-29). “…Having made peace by the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things to Himself” Col. 1:20.
2. “Being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). Paul wrote, “For He is our peace…” Eph. 2:14.
3. In a world that stands under the judgment and wrath of God, there is only one place to stand where peace has been made with God – in Christ.
4. The wrath of God has already been there and cannot come there again. Praise God!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: “WHEN THE WIND BLOWS”
1. Years ago a farmer owned land along the Atlantic seacoast. He constantly advertised for hired hands. Most people were reluctant to work on farms along the Atlantic. They dreaded the awful storms that raged across the Atlantic, wreaking havoc on the buildings and crops.
2. Finally, a short, thin man, well past middle age, approached the farmer. "Are you a good farmhand?" the farmer asked him. "Well, I can sleep when the wind blows," answered the little man. Although puzzled by this answer, the farmer, desperate for help, hired him.
3. The little man worked well around the farm, busy from dawn to dusk, and the farmer felt satisfied with the man's work.
4. Then one night the wind howled loudly in from offshore. Jumping out of bed, the farmer grabbed a lantern and rushed next door to the hired hand's sleeping quarters. He shook the little man and yelled, "Get up! A storm is coming! Tie things down before they blow away!"
5. The little man rolled over in bed and said firmly, "No sir. I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows." Enraged by the response, the farmer was tempted to fire him on the spot.
6. Instead, he hurried outside to prepare for the storm. To his amazement, he discovered that all of the haystacks had been covered with tarpaulins. The cows were in the barn, the chickens were in the coops, and the doors were barred. The shutters were tightly secured. Everything was tied down.
7. Nothing could blow away. The farmer then understood what his hired hand meant, so he returned to his bed to also sleep while the wind blew.
8. We too can be secure when the storms of life rage by:
a. Being right with God and ready to face the Judgment Seat, and
b. Memorizing the promises of the Word of God. We don't need to understand, we just need to hold His hand to have peace in the midst of the storms. Sleep well. [Nathan Starr]
B. THE CALL
1. When Jesus went to the cross, He took all the world’s sins and their punishment on Himself. Since Jesus already suffered for our sins in our place, if we trust in Him, we’ll be spared the wrath of God for our sins, because it’s already fallen on Him!
2. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. [But] If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:8-9.
3. If you have areas of confusion or trials right now, let’s entrust those to God, and have faith that He is a faithful Creator, who knows what we’re going through and will either deliver us from our problems or give us grace to go through them.
4. Prayer for those with trials & salvations.
[Adrian Rodgers supplied the opening joke and some thought in section 2.]
