God’s Peace that Passes Understanding

 

Part II – Made by Him for Him 

(Hesed and Shalom)

Introduction

 

As I said last week, I don’t like what I’m about to tell you, but I do however, unfortunately believe it to be true. We humans seem to think that there is some magic power in the Bible, and that, if we do nothing more than open its pages and skim over its words, we somehow have constructed the unrealistic expectation of God that we are entitled to be blessed and highly favored. The only part of that expectation that holds any truth to it is that if we open the Bible and read – ultimately some good will come from it. 

Logically and spiritually speaking, in order to get value, understanding, and the full benefit of God’s Word, a verse must oftentimes be read and re-read, and then most often read again before the transformative message of the love and power that God has put into it begins to appear as a revelation and understanding. With that in mind, let’s move back to move forward by rereading a few significant passages that contain deep connections for us as to “the why and the what we were made for.” 

Ephesians 2:10

“For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus (The Word) for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” NIV

“For we are what He has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” NRSV

We were made by God Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth – for God Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth. To  understand the why and what, we will begin by looking at the nature of God through one of the two most significant and frequent terms used in the Bible – Shalom – God’s peace. This will be an eye-opening experience! 

Shalom / שׁלום  is an ancient, multi-faceted ancient Hebrew word. In modern Israel today, this is still a Hebrew greeting. One can use it for hello or goodbye (like “aloha” in Hawaii). One can also use the word Shalom in it’s original etymology and primary meaning – to wish someone “peace.”

These word-play exercises and definition variants are nice, but, ultimately they are not what we are digging for. We are digging for the biblical word shalom to reveal and bring fuller understanding of God’s character and the gift of God’s peace. In that context, the word SHALOM is so much more than greetings, salutations, contentment, and curiosities. Shalom is at the very the core of WHO God is, and what He has promised to us.

Shalom / שׁלום is used quite frequently in the Bible. In the Complete Jewish Translation (Messianic) Bible, shalom is used 357 times. In common translations such as NIV, ESV, NASB, NKJV, shalom or peace is used almost as frequently. If you come up with a different number in your Bible please don’t spin off into a crisis of faith, it’s just a number, but not just a word. It is a God Word – Shalom…

 

God’s Peace is More Than We Realize

The complete definition of shalom, based on Strong’s Concordance renders to us; contentment, wellbeing, completeness, welfare, wholeness. If we add the biblical semantic range to Shalom it renders to us: being well, favor, friend, great, good health, perfect, safe, happy, friendly, welfare, health, prosperity, peace, rest, and safety.

Shalom is also a covenantal term, like Hesed. God’s Covenantal Shalom in the Hebrew Bible foreshadows to us the New Covenant, as it was prophesied by the prophet Jeremiah. 

Jeremiah 31:31-36.

“‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,’ declares the Lord. 33 ‘This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,’ declares the Lord. ‘I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,’ declares the Lord. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.’” 

Remarkably this New Covenant comes to us today through the death sacrifice and shed blood of Jesus. This was prophesied to us as Sar Shalom, or in the English translation – Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:5 

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace [Sar Shalom].”

This verse is so full of anointing and so very powerful – timeless and eternal.  The great composer, John Frederick Handel wrote a famous oratorio that you would know entitled… Handel’s The Messiah in which hefeatured many Old Testament prophecies, focusing on the book of Isaiah. 

But here is another remarkable thing about ancient Hebrew. I have told you that in antiquity, Hebrew is alpha – numeric. Each letter of the aleph-bet has a numeric value assigned to it. In addition to each letter having an assigned number, each number then had a meaning attached to each number. This whole complex process is called gematria. Please, enjoy a sigh of relief on me… we are not talking about gematria today. However, in ancient Semitic pictographs, Hebrew letters also can symbolize an entire word, or represent that word’s particular meaning.

For example: 

There are 4 letters in the Hebrew translation of the word Shalom – שׁלום

שׁ Shin means; destroy 

ל Lamed means; control/authority 

ו Vav means; adds/secures/establishes

ם Mem means; chaos

Here is the remarkable reality about the ancient or Biblical Hebrew. Using the process of Hebraic Gematria, true Shalom (Elohim/God’s Peace) means this…  Shalom / God’s Peace destroys the authority that establishes chaos.

How does that connects with us in the practical day to day of living, loving, and walking in faith? 

All of us who believe in Christ Jesus/ Yeshua can access the very Authority who destroys chaos.

The richness of God’s peace just gets better. God promises a Covenant of Peace in the Hebrew Bible. Let’s read four contextually specific verses that help us understand what God is saying to us about Himself as our Shalom.

Numbers 25:12 

“Therefore tell him I am making my covenant of peace with him.”

Isaiah 54:10 

“‘Though the mountains be shaken, and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,’ says the Lord, who has compassion on you.’”

Ezekiel 34:25 

“I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of savage beasts so that they may live in the wilderness and sleep in the forests in safety.”

Ezekiel 37:26 

“I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them forever.”

God’s Hesed, His relationship covenant, or promises, are from everlasting to everlasting. As we learned last week, God does not and will not break His promises.

The Hebraic phrase, “Shalom aleikhem” would have been spoken by Jesus to His disciples after His resurrection as he first appeared to them. These phrases are recorded in the Gospels of John 20 / Luke 24. “Shalom aleikhem” means “Peace to you,” or “Peace be with you,”  Shalom is Hebrew, used in the Hebrew Bible. The Greek equivalent for shalom written in the New Testament is, eirēnē, [pronounced – irayna] which, again, means more than simply chill, tranquility, or safety.

It is defined for us as: [one, peace, quietness, rest].

It is used or applied as: [peace, peace of mind; invocation of peace a common Jewish farewell which is shalom), in the Hebraic sense of the health or welfare of an individual].

Again, all these definitions point to the good that God pours into His people, this wholeness, contentment, welfare, security, friendship with others, and relationship with God. God’s peace is about His great love! Jesus would have used Shalom as His comprehensive blessing spoken over His disciples:

John 14:27 

“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

This peace that Jesus imparted to them and imparts to us is not  just a lack of strife or trouble. God’s peace is supernatural, not dependent on our circumstances but on God’s promises and Jesus’ conquering death on the cross. Because of His death and resurrection, believers are forgiven and our relationship with God is restored. No matter what happens in this world, we can claim that promise for all of eternity. Jesus even confirms that… 

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.”

Jesus gave His disciples a part of His own inner being. He gives it to us who believe as well. In fact, God’s peace, this shalom is nothing that we can buy, eat, or work for. It is a free gift, just for the asking.

Receive the gift He offers to you. There is more here for you; with His gift – shalom, we have eternal hope and the promise of eternity with Jesus.

For years we have worshipped and sang the words of the Micheal W. Smith song… “This is the air I breathe; This is the air I breathe; Your Holy presence; Living – in me…” Are these just words to one more song we sing while living our lives fairly disconnected and mostly in chaos? The words have new meaning for me once I have allowed myself a new understanding of Shalom. The Shalom of Jesus is like a source of air or the oxygen provided for us to breathe that supplies to us our own atmosphere. In spite of the toxic, contaminated, and tainted atmosphere of this world and all that is in it – we breathe peace. We breathe in His Shalom, and therein we live and move and have our being. 

This is as true for us today as it was for the disciples almost 2,000 years ago. Consequently, the Apostle Paul at the beginning of his letters in the New Testament began with, “Grace and shalom to you from God our Father and from the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.”

Other conduits of this Shalom:

Philippians 4:6-9

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”

I Thessalonians 5:23

“May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

I can’t remember who, but I read one biblical scholar who wrote that, “God’s goal in redemption through Christ is the restoration of what was lost in the Fall—shalom.”

Remember this, God’s covenant of peace וּבְרִ֤ית שְׁלוֹמִי֙ will not be removed.  God’s peace will withstand time and turmoil.

Isaiah 54:10

“For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but My steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you.” 

This promised Covenant of Peace can be accessed now to all who seek Jesus. And the final peace will be evidenced and completed in the end times, the age when the New Heavens and New Earth are established complete with the New Jerusalem. The mystery to be revealed to finding true shalom? Fill our minds appropriately. Probably more than appropriate to reread Philippians 4:8.

Philippians 4:8 

“Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

Finally, let’s embody God’s perfect Shalom as “complete and perfect harmonization with God.” He can and does impart it to us all. 

Shalom v’hesed b’adonai alekhem. שלום וחסד באדוניי עליכם – May the Peace and covenantal love of the Lord be with you.

God’s Peace – the Conclusion

Though the New Testament does not directly call Jesus the Prince of Peace or Sar Shalom, this title from the prophet Isaiah, (9:6) has traditionally been identified with Jesus as the One who brings peace to the world. Shortly after Christ was born, we can hear angels proclaiming: 

Luke 2:14

“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom His favor rests.”  

In the Epistles, Paul consoles the anxious Ephesian Christians by writing: 

Ephesians 2:14-16

“He Himself (Jesus) is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.”

The word for peace in the original Greek is eirene. Very much like the Hebrew beliefs of shalom, the New Testament certainly characterizes peace/eirene as something more than the absence of conflict. The Gospel of Mark tethers healing and peace by recalling Jesus’ words to a woman He has just healed. He tells her to “go in peace” (Mark 5:34). The New Testament further develops our understanding of peace by revealing Jesus as the origin, source, and centricity of all peace. Though we were alienated from God because of our sins, Jesus reconciled us, making peace through His blood. Peace with God produces peace with others and peace within ourselves. The Word of God teaches us that when Christ’s kingdom is fully established, all division and conflict will cease, and those who belong to Him will enjoy the everlasting fullness of peace—health, wholeness, well-being, tranquility, satisfaction, safety, prosperity, and perfect contentment.

I read recently an article from a U.S. Christian student who did a short-term study program at University of Jerusalem. Everywhere she went she met people who were troubled and constantly provoked by the present violence and imminent conflict, longing for one thing—peace. During her time in Israel, she visited Bethlehem. While there, she went to the separation wall that divides the West Bank Palestine from Israel. She wrote that she had expected to see the Palestinian side covered with angry graffiti. She was right about the graffiti, but not about the angry part. In fact she was so profoundly shocked by the paintings, images, and expressions scrawled across the wall that she wrongly took several photographs. Here’s what she saw written across various portions of the wall:

Peace

To Dream of Peace

Give Peace a Chance

Jesus said, Peace I Give You (John 14:27)

…End This Madness

The most profound image painted on the wall was that of a dove with an olive branch in its mouth. Why so profound? The dove is wearing a bullet proof vest! Later the visiting student had a chance to meet with some professors at Bethlehem Bible College. She learned as she listened, for the people of Israel and Palestine, peace is inextricably tethered to justice. They recoil at the way many Christian people in the West talk about peace, as though it is merely an interior experience or just about “me and my feelings.”

“Shalom I leave with you; My Shalom I give to you.”

…Yeshua