Peace Be With You

Judges 6:11–14 NKJV

11 Now the Angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order 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, you mighty man of valor!” 13 Gideon said to Him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.” 14 Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?”

After this, Gideon responds to God and ultimately makes Him an offering on an altar of stone. The Angel of the Lord receives the offering by consuming it with fire and disappears.

Judges 6:22–24 NKJV

22 Now Gideon perceived that He was the Angel of the Lord. So Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! For I have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face.” 23 Then the Lord said to him, “Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die.” 24 So Gideon built an altar there to the Lord, and called it The-Lord-Is-Peace. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

This is the origin story of Gideon. When we find him, he is hiding in a winepress threshing wheat. His people were struggling and suffering and the hands of the Midianites.

Gideon feels small, insignificant, and incapable. He protested God’s declaration by saying that his clan was the poorest in Manassah and that he was the least in his whole family (Judges 6:15).

Gideon is wondering where God is among His people. He is wondering where the miracles of deliverance are and why God has not shown Himself strong on their behalf (cf. 2 Chronicles 16:9).

Gideon sees his circumstances as God forsaking him and His people. Gideon believes that it was God who had handed them over to their enemies.

And God responds to Gideon by saying, “You are a mighty man of God. I sent you. You will save Israel from the Midianites. Go in your strength.”

I wonder how many people today are like Gideon. There are things that we are hiding from. Things that are constant reminders of our lack or our inability. We feel surrounded by a multitude of things and as a result we have no peace. Instead we are anxious and nervous and stressed out living with an expectation that bad things are going to happen at any moment.

I wonder how many people are wondering where God is among His people, asking where the miracles of deliverance and demonstrations of power are (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:4).

I wonder how many people see their circumstances the way Gideon did. They think that God has forsaken them and that God is not only allowing them to face these difficult things, but that He actively gave them over to them.

God’s response to Gideon, and to you, is “Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die…mighty man of valor. Go in this your strength.”

When Gideon heard the declaration of God, he built a special altar to the Lord to memorialize the moment God intervened in his life. And he named that altar, Jehovah-Shalom, or The LORD-Is-Peace.

You Were Meant for Peace

That encounter with God changed Gideon’s perspective and empowered him to move forward with God. The Lord revealed Himself to Gideon as a god of peace. But not just the god of peace, but God Himself is peace. In other words, He is the source of peace. Peace is a gift of God.

Peace is a characteristic of the kingdom of God (Romans 14:17). Peace is associated with the Messiah of the kingdom of God, with one of His titles being “Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). Jesus offers His peace to us so that we might not be troubled nor afraid (John 14:27).

But what does it mean to walk in the peace of God?

Illustration: Computer needing defragmentation. Fragmentation is when parts of files are stored non-contiguously in a hard drive. Instead of being next to each other, these parts are scattered in pieces all over. This happens due to constant creating, modifying, and deleting of files. And eventually fragmentation can cause a computer to slow down, causing stress on the hardware, and ultimately reduce the life of the hard drive. Defrag-ing the hard drive can put those files back in place, reduce stress on the system, and extend the life of the hard drive.

In a similar way, our lives are fragmented. This is the opposite of living in the peace of God.

The main Greek word for peace is eirḗnē. This word primarily speaks of a state of being, not a relationship or attitude. The general meaning is the absence of war but it can take on a broader sense.

The Hebrew word for peace is shālôm. It is a much broader term. It carries the idea of “fully experienced well-being.” Shalom is the covenant blessing of well-being, given to us by God. It is much more than the absence of something. It is the presence of something better. To the Hebrew mind, peace is more than a political condition. It is an experience of divine favor. It is a wholeness, stability, peace, prosperity, health, completeness, safety, and blessing that comes from covenant relationship. “Implicit in shālôm is the idea of unimpaired relationships with others and fulfillment in one’s undertakings” (TWOT).

Walking in Peace

Peace With God

The entry point of peace is a right—unimpaired—relationship with God.

Romans 5:1 NKJV

1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

When there is nothing separating us from God, there is peace (Isaiah 59:2).

When we are connected to Him like a branch to a vine, there is peace (John 15:1-4).

If you are lacking peace in your life—lacking a “fully experienced well-being”—then start with your relationship to God.

Is your relationship good? Are you right with God? Are your sins cleansed by the blood of Jesus?

Are you connected to Him, abiding in Him?

The LORD-Is-Peace. He is the Prince of Peace. He is the Source and Giver of peace. Divine favor, wholeness, stability, prosperity, health, completeness, blessing—shālôm—is found in Him.

Prompt people to pursue Him; to press in until they enter into this gift of shālôm.

Guarded by Peace

The second thing we need to walk in the peace of the Lord is to have our hearts and minds guarded by peace.

Philippians 4:6–7 NKJV

6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

God does not want you anxious, intent and striving and worried and concerned. This word actually is connected to sleeplessness and struggle. God wants you to instead have His peace—His shālôm—which surpasses or transcends all understanding.

That peace is to guard your heart and mind. In other words, it will guard against anxiety and worry. That same word can be used in the sense of being held prisoner. In other words, you can be the prisoner of peace instead of anxiety.

Philippians 4:6–7 The Message

6 Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. 7 Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

The way we ensure that we are protected from anxiety and worry is to pray. It is to worship and praise and talk to God about the things that you are dealing with in life. And that is the place where peace enters in and displaces fear and doubt and worry.

This is what Gideon experienced: in the midst of his circumstances and distress, God spoke and peace followed. Ultimately on the strength of that word and the accompanying peace, Gideon rose up and delivered his nation.

God wants you to be a “non-anxious presence.” He wants you to walk in His peace. When we pray, we enter into God’s peace. When we praise, we enter into His peace. His presence dispels fear. His voice speaks life. Press in to God in prayer and praise and allow His peace to guard you and keep you!

Entertaining Life and Peace

Isaiah 26:3 NKJV

You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.

One of the key ways that we maintain life and peace is through setting our mind on the right things. We entertain life and peace, like we would an honored guest in our home. We do so by setting our attention on God.

Romans 8:5–7 NKJV

5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.

Life and peace go hand in hand. Paul uses a word for life that describes God’s kind of life—a divine life that is indestructible and eternal. This life and the peace of God come to us as we set our mind on the things of the Spirit.

The more we entertain the Spirit in our thinking, the more we will experience life and peace.

Philippians 4:8–9 NKJV

8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. 9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

If you want to maintain a life of peace, set your mind on the Spirit. Make sure that what you are watching, listening to, entertaining are things that point you and pull you to God. Keep your mind stayed upon the Lord and He will keep you in perfect peace!

Conclusion

Illustration: Christmas cards with “Peace” proliferate during this time of year.

One of the greatest blessings that we can have from God is His peace. This peace is not simply no conflict or no problems in our lives. It is a peace that makes no sense in the face of our circumstances.

It is a peace that guards us and keeps us and secures us from anxiety.

It is a peace that is full of divine favor, completeness, wholeness, stability, prosperity, and a “fully experienced well-being.”

It is a peace that flows from knowing God and being in a right relationship with Him.

God wants you to walk in that peace. This is the strength that you need to overcome in life and accomplish all that He has declared over you.

Numbers 6:24–26 NKJV

24 “The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; 26 The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.” ’