17 November 2024
JEHOVAH SHALOM – THE LORD IS PEACE
(The Names Of God: TNOG 16)
The Name Jehovah-Shalom is found in Judges 6:24: "Then Gideon built an altar unto Jehovah and called it Jehovah-Shalom," which means “Jehovah is Peace.” Shalom means “peace, harmony, wholeness, completeness, calmness, or tranquility”.
Jehovah in Person is Perfect Peace. He is called "the God of Peace" (Rom 15:33; 2 Cor 13:11; Heb. 13:20, etc.). He is the Source of Peace in His attitude toward His people: "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith Jehovah, thoughts of peace, and not of evil" (Jeremiah 29:11). And through Isaiah He speaks to His people: "O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! Then had thy peace been like a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea" (48:18).
It was the LORD Himself Who appeared to Gideon as the Angel of Jehovah in Judges 6:22, when he addressed Him as "O Jehovah Elohim," (O Sovereign LORD). “But the LORD said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die”. This was the most striking and meaningful revelation of Jehovah to Gideon and Israel in this restless and fearful period of Israel's history, when they were persecuted and enslaved by the Midianites.
In the New Testament, JEHOVAH is called the “God of Peace” many times. It is also applied to the Lord Jesus Christ. In Isaiah 9:6, He is called the “Prince of Peace” as well as the “Mighty God” and the “Everlasting Father”. Eph.2:14 says “He is our Peace”. Christ also assures all His redeemed with His blessed promise: “PEACE I leave with you; My Peace I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid…Come to Me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (John 14:27; Matt11:28).
Christ accomplished that peace for us by His Death on the Cross. In believing and receiving Him into our life we received this divine peace: "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom 5:1). It is through His death that we were reconciled to God (Rom 5:10), for "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself" (2 Cor 5:19); and "having made peace through the Blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, whether they be things in earth, or things in Heaven" (Col 1:20). Through His Atoning Sacrifice He brought reconciliation and peace in our relationship with the Holy God.
Peace is everywhere spoken of in the New Testament as from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. It is only by reconciliation with God through the Blood of Christ that we have peace with God. He is to us the Peace of God. There is no hope of peace apart from Him. First, He made us righteousness by His Blood, and then peace in reconciliation.
Let us be ever thankful to God for “the Peace of God that passes all understanding that garrisons our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil.4:7). May we always come to Him in troubled times, so that we may find “rest for our souls” (Matt.11:29).
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