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5/06/2015

Jehovah Shalom

Judges chapter 6
Jehovah Shalom, the Lord is peace.
Before we can talk about the Lord being the Lord of peace, we must talk about our Lord as Jehovah Tsidkenu, the Lord our righteousness.

Isaiah 32:17
17 The fruit of that righteousness will be peace;
its effect will be quietness and confidence forever.

The people of Israel were really poor when Joshua had died. They were in captivity to other nations for not doing the right thing.
A little background to Israel's story:
Judges 2:11
11 Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals.
13 because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. 14 In his anger against Israel the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist.15 Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.
16 Then the Lord raised up judges,[c] who saved them out of the hands of these raiders.
18 Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them. 19 But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.

Joshua 6
6 Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.
10 I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me.”
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 saveIsrael out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
15 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clanis 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.”
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.
There is no revelation that God is peace until you find an obedient heart before God. There can be no experience of peace without obedience. It is an impossible thing to have peace without obedience.

Romans 5:1
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ

As soon as the judge had died, they went back to their old ways. And here God is still willing to deliver them and give them peace. The reason of the bondage (no peace) is disobedience. God always knows where to find his man. God takes the least expected. He can use anyone. Gideon is hiding the wheat (cowering), yet God calls him "mighty warrior." Why? Because God is with him. When God calls you, He is able to make of you what He has declared. Gideon is not only cowering, he is doubting God. He questions God on why all this has happened to them. He is basically telling God: You have either lost your power or You are not with us. But neither is true. It is the Israelites who have left God. Your unbelief and disobedience has brought you to the place you are today. Yet God still loves men. What a glorious grace, shouting mercy to whoever will com to Him! No matter what you have done, if you turn to Him He has never yet turned a seeking soul away. Have you left Him? Will your unbelief and disobedience keep the gracious God Who has never left you? Why are you not experiencing peace? He is Jehovah Shalom to the obedient heart.

Romans 8
32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

2 Corinthians 10
4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

Is Gideon mighty because of himself? No! Because of God Who is mighty to use us. It is a good thing God is patient and our assurance. We would rather reason and rationalize than believe God. What is this assurance? His presence.

Hebrews 13
5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
“Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.”
6 So we say with confidence,
“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?”

Gideon requires a sign. We can't just take God's word. What a patient tender God we have! He understand us and remembers we are dust. We forget that, but He remembers our frailty. God's presence was able to turn Gideon's heart filled with fear to filled with peace. And out of this peace came great courage.

Ephesians 2
14 For He Himself is our peace

John 16
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

And out of this peace came great courage in Gideon's life. That very night he took down the altars of Baal.
There is no defeat of the enemy until your idols are gone. When a person has peace with God and a realization of the presence of the Savior you better worry of what he might do. Out of courage comes hope.

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