Day 91: Judges 6-8; Luke 8:1-25
Yahweh Shalom (I AM is our Wholeness & Wellbeing, our Peace)
In a day when God-encounters were few, God's angel showed up in the presence of Gideon. It obviously took Gideon a little while to realize that this was no mere mortal. Then, fear ensued. To be in God's presence (which to Gideon, the angel directly represented) was to die. God's word: Shalom (may all that makes you whole and complete, and everything that is for your well-being, your peace be yours)! All Gideon had known was fear and conflict, and war, not peace. That the Creator and Covenant God would speak peace to him was beyond comprehension. It was commonplace for moments like this to be memorialized by building altars and attaching names. Gideon adds a beautiful 'God-title' to our vocabulary: Yahweh Shalom!
God is all about resolving conflict and breaking down dividing barriers. Paul reminds the Ephesians about how Jesus destroyed the enmity of prejudice and privilege, in essence applying Gideon's God-title to Jesus: "For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in His flesh the enmity...so that in Himself He might make the two into one new [person], thus establishing peace..." (Ephesians 2:14-15, NASB 95).
Today, live in the Presence of the One Who is Shalom!
In a day when God-encounters were few, God's angel showed up in the presence of Gideon. It obviously took Gideon a little while to realize that this was no mere mortal. Then, fear ensued. To be in God's presence (which to Gideon, the angel directly represented) was to die. God's word: Shalom (may all that makes you whole and complete, and everything that is for your well-being, your peace be yours)! All Gideon had known was fear and conflict, and war, not peace. That the Creator and Covenant God would speak peace to him was beyond comprehension. It was commonplace for moments like this to be memorialized by building altars and attaching names. Gideon adds a beautiful 'God-title' to our vocabulary: Yahweh Shalom!
God is all about resolving conflict and breaking down dividing barriers. Paul reminds the Ephesians about how Jesus destroyed the enmity of prejudice and privilege, in essence applying Gideon's God-title to Jesus: "For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in His flesh the enmity...so that in Himself He might make the two into one new [person], thus establishing peace..." (Ephesians 2:14-15, NASB 95).
Today, live in the Presence of the One Who is Shalom!
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