Shalom

 

Luke 24:36

While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

The Hebrew word Jesus used for peace here, is shalom, derived from the root word ‘shalam’, which means ‘make it whole again’ or ‘restitution’.

As you read through the Bible, you soon realise that this word shalom has many more nuances and applications than merely meaning peace.

For instance, in Gen 3:27-28 Joseph askes his brothers: Then he asked them about their well-being, and said, “Is your father well, the old man of whom you spoke? Is he still alive?” And they answered, “Your servant our father is in good health; he is still alive.” And they bowed their heads down and prostrated themselves. In Hebrew, the words translated as well-being, well, and good health is all one word – shalom.

The biblical meaning of shalom is an inward state of completeness, wholeness, tranquillity. It is used as a greeting in Israel today, but when you greet someone with ‘Shalom!’ you are actually saying, “May health and prosperity rest with you!” Another common greeting used is “Ma shlom’kha” which means “How are you?” Do you see the word shalom in there? You are really asking, “How is your completeness or how is your peace?”

When God gave Moses the Aaronic blessing (Numbers 6:23) to speak over Israel, it ended with “And give you peace (shalom).” This was given when Israel was preparing to take over the Promised Land, leading to many battles of war. God was blessing them with an inner peace and completeness even in times of war, by sharing in His countenance and protection.

When we are asked to pray for the peace (shalom) of Jerusalem (Ps 122:6) it is not merely in order that Jerusalem can exist without conflict, it is so that Jerusalem can fulfil her destiny to be restored to completeness and become the city of our great King Jesus! We are thus praying for the return of Israel’s Messiah, our Prince of Peace, to establish His throne in Jerusalem.

In Luke 2:14 the angels announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds, and said Glory in the Highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men! With these words they did not declare that suddenly all wars on earth would end, they proclaimed the fact that true peace could only now be obtained through the personal presence of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

And He is the only way by which we can obtain this peace, as Jesus promises in John 14:27 - I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.

Points to ponder:  Am I going to take Jesus up on His word?

Shalom

Grounded in Truth

 

Acts 19:32

The assembly was in confusion: Some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there.

What led up to this unfortunate incident in Ephesus? The bright light of God’s truth was shining into the satanic darkness brought about by idol worship – and the battle lines were drawn! Paul started his ministry there by baptizing only twelve disciples in the name of the Lord Jesus. When he laid his hands upon them afterwards, the Holy Spirit came on them and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. This was the core group that then went on to evangelize the rest of the city.

As Paul usually did, he started teaching in the synagogues, until some people there became increasingly stubborn and started discrediting the teachings of Jesus. Paul then moved to a lecture room in the city and for two years held revival meetings there, teaching from ten to three every day. God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, for instance any cloth that had touched his skin was put on the sick anywhere and their diseases left them, and they were even delivered from evil spirits! After the incident between the Sons of Sceva and a demon-possessed man, the whole city took note of Who Jesus was, and many previous magical arts believers openly confessed their evil ways and burned their magical books.

This is where we start seeing the parallels to the times we now live in. A silversmith who made silver shrines of the goddess Artemis, seeing the alarming rate at which he was losing his customers, called his craftsmen together and started inciting them to great fury by playing on their loss of wealth and the challenge to their false beliefs in this pagan goddess.

They stormed out in great rage, rousing the city as they went, and dragged Paul’s travel companions with them to the amphitheatre with the intent of doing them harm. Some shouted one thing, some another, but as is quoted above, most of them did not even know why they were protesting. None of them had gone to the trouble of ascertaining for themselves what the truth of these allegations were.

We see the same sweeping up of emotions over irrational and false claims among people today. Worldwide people are up in arms, brandishing banners and placards with slogans like “From the river to the sea”, and when asked by reporters on live TV broadcasts what those words mean - which river and which sea are they referring to - they cannot say. Answers like “I just picked up the banner from the organizers’ table”, show that no effort was made to investigate the truth behind the allegations they are protesting about.

Points to ponder:  Am I diligently guarding the building of my belief system by checking the truth of statements that cross my path daily? Am I perhaps listening to the wrong sources? Do I turn to the Word of the eternal living God for my answers, or do I start believing lies simply because they are being repeated long enough and loud enough?

Stand for Truth

Who Jesus is

 

Mark 6:41

And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all.

We can teach and take to heart many valuable lessons from this passage, like e.g. generosity – the little boy shared his meagre lunch of only five loaves and two fish. The disciples using what Jesus gave them and then seeing that they still had plenty left over. The increase Jesus provides if we are just willing to give Him what we have in hand. Jesus not doing the miracle on His own but using the disciples to bring it about. And many more.

But later on in Mark we read that the disciples were filled with fear and dread when they saw Jesus walking on the water towards their boat, and the reason Mark gives as to why this was so, is written in Mark 6:52 “for they still didn’t understand the significance of the miracle of the loaves. Their hearts were too hard to take it in”.

What then is this significant point Jesus wished to make with the miracle of feeding the (many more than) five thousand?

He was revealing to the crowd that He was the same God Who had fed the Israelites with bread and meat in the desert during their Exodus! There before their eyes, bread and fish appeared miraculously, waiting for them to collect and eat it, just as was the case thousands of years ago with their forefathers.

This incident happened during Passover, which is why there were so many people gathered in this remote place. They were all on their journey to Jerusalem for the Feast. And if only they had eyes to see, they would have seen their Passover Lamb standing before them, proving beyond doubt that He, and the Father God Who would later give His Son’s body as the only permanent sacrifice for their sin, are One!

Jesus did not explicitly tell them this at that time, as He knew that they would then insist that He take up His role as reigning Messiah King, and it was not yet the time for that.

Meanwhile, He kept training His disciples in the ways of the Kingdom. They would retain those hard hearts until after His resurrection, when they finally truly understood that Jesus is indeed God Immanuel, God with us, as we see Peter boldly proclaiming in Acts 2:36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

Points to ponder: How many miracles happening in our own lives and in the lives of others around us would it take before we understood Who Jesus is? Would we be willing to look and really SEE our Saviour at work among us, and believe what we see?

Jesus Messiah

Your time to wear the crown

 

Dan 3:23

So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, securely tied, fell into the roaring flames.

These three Hebrews were severely punished by king Nebuchadnezzar because they refused to worship the golden image that he had set up. They were not prepared to compromise their devotion to their own God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

I can only imagine what went through their minds at that precise point in time, when they realized that they really were being thrown into the fire, that God had not delivered them before this moment. Remember that the miraculous deliverance of Daniel from the lions in the den still lay in the future, they could not have taken heart from remembering this.

They did not know that God was going to use the greatest crisis of their lives in a spectacular display of His glory and majesty, making them famous examples of faith in adversity throughout all of history!

And they so easily could not have been part of this if they had compromised. They could have found quite a few excuses for giving in to this powerful pagan king whom they served, excuses that all of us would be very tempted to use in similar circumstances. Excuses like:

God will understand if I do this just once… We don’t have to renounce our God, we bow down only to show respect for the king… In Rome, do as the Romans do… This is only once, only for ten minutes… Everybody else is doing it… We would lose our jobs and standard of living if we don’t give in... We can do more good by staying alive…

We know from history that their brave resistance led to their dramatic protection in the fire itself, where even their clothes did not smell of smoke when they came out. It led to King Nebuchadnezzar acknowledging that there is no other God like the God of the Hebrews, and it led to the king promoting the three friends in Babylon to higher positions.

They did not know the wonderful results of their choices beforehand. They only knew that they would steadfastly deny the worship of all foreign gods, no matter what the consequences. And herein lies the heart of the matter - we are not always assured that God will rescue us from the planned evil that people, who hate God, bring on us when we stay true to Him, as martyrs throughout history will testify to. But we can always know that He will use our martyrdom for His glorious purposes on earth, and that we will be richly rewarded in Heaven, among others receiving a crown of glory!

Points to ponder:  Think about the following words of Spurgeon: “It is ours to do the right and leave results with the Lord.” Am I prepared to lose everything, rather than do the unrighteous thing? Am I prepared to face rejection from all around me, rather than accept that bribe? Am I prepared to be ridiculed in public because I boldly stand for Jesus?  Am I prepared to face even death, rather than deny my God?

Wear the crown