Jehovah-Shalom

Draft

Judges 5:31 ESV

31 “So may all your enemies perish, O Lord! But your friends be like the sun as he rises in his might.” And the land had rest for forty years.

The book of Judges is a cycle on how faithful God has been to the people of Israel. Over and over again the people of Israel turn away from God and they get oppressed by the neighboring nations and they call out to God for help. God sends them Judges to defend them and glorify the name of the Lord only to fall again after a brief time of peace.

Judges 6 Summary

The Israelites, having displeased the Lord, were oppressed by the Midianites for seven years, enduring ruined crops and widespread poverty. When they cried out for help, God sent a prophet to remind them of His past deliverance and their failure to worship Him alone.

Peace is not arbitrary. It must be based upon definite facts. God has all the facts on his side; the world does not. Therefore God, and not the world, can give peace.

Billy Graham

Judges 6:11–35 ESV

11 Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14 And the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” 15 And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” 16 And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” 17 And he said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. 18 Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.” 19 So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. 20 And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” And he did so. 21 Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight. 22 Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord. And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.” 23 But the Lord said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” 24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, The Lord Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites. 25 That night the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it 26 and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” 27 So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night. 28 When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. 29 And they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And after they had searched and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” 30 Then the men of the town said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it.” 31 But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down.” 32 Therefore on that day Gideon was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he broke down his altar. 33 Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East came together, and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. 34 But the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him. 35 And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they too were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them.

It’s easy to be a Christian. Would you agree with this claim? A Christian is a follower of Jesus Christ. Everything He does and teaches through the Bible we do. Now, if Jesus then is our model as a Christian. What would your answer be if I asked you: Did Jesus live an easy life? The obvious answer would be “No.”

John 15:20 NIV

20 Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.

Then why do you expect that yours would be easy?

It’s hard to be a Christian, but it is harder to not be a Christian.

You most probably already heard of the ongoing war of Iran and Israel in the past few days and the bombing of US and Iran. People are robbed of peace by hearing the news. Because of the oil prices in the Philippines. Air India’s airplane just also crashed last week. Only one survivor of 242 passengeres.

In the Bible there are different aspects of peace

Personal Peace/Internal Peace- Peace in the Sense of Welfare (inner well-being).

Social Peace/External Peace

Peace with God

Peace does not just mean the absence of war. In the Bible, it is often associated with prosperity and joy.

God called Gideon, the unlikely person to become the Judge of Israel.

The angel declared that the Lord is with him and that he is a mighty man of valor. (v. 12)

Gideon complained to the angel that the Lord was not with them because they experienced the current hardships they have. (v. 13)

Gideon certainly did not see himself as a mighty man of valor. He clan is the weakest in Manasseh and he is also the least in his father’s house. (v. 14-15)

Gideon even asked for a sign from the angel to confirm if he is indeed being sent by God. (v. 17-18)