Day 1
Memory Verse – Philippians 4:6 -7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
The word in Hebrew for peace is Shalom. You may be familiar with this term, as it is a greeting among Israelis. “Peace,” they say to one another as they pass in the streets or enter a friend’s home. But, once again, our English word does not do justice to the actual meaning of the Biblical term. While in English peace has come to mean “absence of conflict or war,” in Hebrew shalom signifies wholeness, completeness, soundness, harmony. It is not the absence of something, but rather the presence of something. It is, essentially, harmony in place of conflict and soundness in place of destruction. And the verb that is closely associated with shalom means to restore or to bring peace between people. It contains the picture of repairing or building up a wall or a house to make it whole
Numbers 6:22 The Lord said to Moses, 23 “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:
24 “‘“The Lord bless you
and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.”’
27 “So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.”
The Lord’s plan for his people right from the start of their forming a nation was for them to live in shalom. He built them together as a nation, made them whole and complete. He set up a system of priests, prophets and judges for them to follow so they would only know peace. However, a nation blessed with shalom did not last long, as the people rebelled against the Lord. God allowed the nations surrounding Israel to harass them in an effort to bring the people back to Him.
Read Judges 6
Here we find a man named Gideon who is so afraid of the Midianites, so anxious that they will come to steal his wheat harvest, that he is threshing the wheat in a winepress. This detail may get lost on us because many of us have not seen the difference between a threshing floor and a winepress. Suffice it to say, they are not interchangeable in use. He is threshing the wheat in a winepress to hide the wheat, and this makes his job significantly more difficult. But his fear and anxiety get the better of him. Despite his obvious terror, the Lord meets him there and calls him, “mighty man of valor.” Seriously? Gideon is anything but courageous. Nevertheless, the Lord sees what Gideon could be – what he WILL be – by the time God is done with him. And in the end, God declares in verses 23-24, “But the Lord said to him, ‘Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.’ Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, The Lord Is Peace.”
The Lord is Shalom, and He brings shalom, even in the midst of anxiety and torment. God used Gideon to defeat the Midianites in a powerful, supernatural way, which brought shalom to the nation.
What did you think when you learned that peace means much more than what it has come to mean in English?
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Thinking about Gideon’s call, what has God called you to do that will help bring Shalom to His people?
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