Jehovah Shalom (Judges 6:19~24)

 

Jehovah Shalom (Judges 6:19~24)

¹⁹ And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it.

²⁰ And the angel of God said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so.

²¹ Then the angel of the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight.

²² And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the Lord, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God! for because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face.

²³ And the Lord said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die.

²⁴ Then Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord, and called it Jehovahshalom: unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

²⁵ And it came to pass the same night, that the Lord said unto him, Take thy father's young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it:

²⁶ And build an altar unto the Lord thy God upon the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down.

²⁷ Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the Lord had said unto him: and so it was, because he feared his father's household, and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night.

Introduction)

1. The author of book “The bread just steamed” and “The bread in the world” Mr. Man Jae Lee recalls his past and describe his life like this “I went through the Korean war in my teenage, and live my life to learn and get a store in Seoul. Like a solider struggle for his life in the battle field, like an animal living in the wild. Then at my age of 47 I met Jesus, when I first stepped my foot on the church front door, I felt peace and think “I’m a child in the God’s bed.”” So he asked God “your name is peace isn’t God?”

2. Before we go into the text we need to know about what is Asherah, long story short

Asherah is a Goddess of the Phoenucua, and Syria. She is one of three Canaan Goddesses, also wife of Baal and represents richness. Especially Phoenucua people worshiped her. Usually, the statue of Asherah located next to the Baal Statue.
This Goddess was obscene, In Exodus 34:16 says “¹⁶ And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.”

In Isreal worshiping Baal and Asherah was banned because of its sexual immorality.
But when Ahab and Jezebel ruled the Israel, they began to worship Asherah (1 Kings 16:33). In consequence, kingdom of Israel collapsed.
Elijah killed Asherah’s Prophets, 1 Kings 18;40 says “And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they took them: and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.”

Body

Israel was oppressed by Midian for seven years, they looted goods and food from Israel, there was no peace in Israel. Let’s see verse 1

 "And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord: and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.”

It was punishment from God for worshipping false gods; however God also had a plan to save them. God sent Gideon to save He’s people. However Gideon was suspected the message was from God or not.

God’s messenger shows him a sign, and then Gideon believed messenger. Even though His children abandoned Him, God always comes back and trying to help them. This is gospel and this is His grace.  

God still have pity and comes to people who are in pain even they abandoned God.

 Anxiety and distrust was in Gideon’s mind, but he felt peace after God came for him. Gideon called God as ‘shalom Lord' or 'God of peace' is called. He realizes the true peace comes from God. So what is the meaning of Jehovah shalom?
1. God protects you
when Scotland was under British, there was a independent activist “Robert Bruce.” one day, the British army chased him so he hide into some cave, however British army also found the cave, Robert thought his going to die. However after he went into the cave a big spider starting to make its net at the entrance of cave, the British army saw the net and assumed Robert didn’t go in there.

When the British army returned, he praises God in that place. After he became a king of Scotland, he named this cave as “Jehovah Shalom cave”.

God always watching us with his flame like eyes, and He always protects us.

Father of Gideon, Joash worshiped false god, in his yard there was small temple for Baal and Asherah.

The mission God gave to Gideon was break the temple of Baal and crash the statue of Asherah, Gideon was puzzled because if he does that his father will be angry, and the people in town will obviously kill him eventually. So, he did the mission that God gave him during the night, but he got caught anyways. But he still survived, not because of his smart brain it was because of God, God protects his people all the time, whatever it cost. This is the meaning of Jehovah Shalom. God is protecting you with his flame like eyes believe it and have peace in your mind.

2. God is with you
Baird was the captain of Antarctic expedition team. After him and his team arrived at Antarctic, he went to the South Pole by himself and with radio. Soon, the massive ice cold wind strikes him, the battery on the radio explode because of low air pressure and he lost sense of direction. After few hours his body starts to paralyzed, he sat down on the ice field and waiting death to come.

At the moment of desperation there was a word that came up from his heart. 'Immanuel', 'God is with us I’m not alone, and he decide to let God decide his fate, he walked towards the direction that he thought he was from. And he made it.
God is with us all the time, he knows our think, he is with us until the end of this world. St. Bernard said “ I never saw God coming to my mind, but He was there all the time.” And Wesley put an empty chair near him, later he said the empty chair was for the Jesus.

Let’s go back to today’s text.

Gideon was not someone, he was shy and perfectionist. Every one of his family worshiped false gods, insulting false gods will lead him to be isolated or oppressed. In Judges 6:25-27 we can see he crush the Asherah statue during the night, probably because he was scared even though God ask him to do so.

 ²⁵ And it came to pass the same night, that the Lord said unto him, Take thy father's young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it:

²⁶ And build an altar unto the Lord thy God upon the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down.

²⁷ Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the Lord had said unto him: and so it was, because he feared his father's household, and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night.

After Gideon did what God asked him, God wanted to him to strike Midian. But Gideon was not confident, because compare him with Midian, he couldn’t see the possibility.

 

Scared Gideon tested God again he ask him “Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said.” And God did so, then Gideon tested God again “this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew” And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.

 We can see how patient our God is, patient is one of the fruits of Holy Spirit, it is one of His character. As your faith grows your patient will grow too, wherever you are what the circumstances are if the God is with us everything will be Jehovah shalom.

3. God works
in a hotel room, in Sysco, Texas, young man was suffering, on the desk there were tons of pills, the young man who was struggling in the pain suddenly flops down his knee and starting to pray. “God! My mother said you will be my fort and shelter, everyone could forget me but you won’t, I forgot that long time ago, but I believe you are live and work!" He finally opens his eyes and goes out from the room.

“Investors, you invest your money is precious but we are bankruptcy. I couldn’t see you so I bought sleeping pills to commit suicide. However, when I was a kid my mother told me the word of God; it reminds me God is the refuge. So I did prayer of repentance and then I got the courage to stand in this place. I definitely believe that God works. So if you can delay repayment and interest I will pay off all”

The two biggest investors let him to do business again, the new business was successful, and this was the story of Conrad N. Hilton the founder of Hilton hotel.

 The work of God is perfect, so we don’t need to worry about what is next to the corner. When Gideon was sure that God want him to do this, he gathered 32000 solders, but it was very small number compare to Midian army, however God wants him to send back more people, So Gideon let 31700 solders back to home and take only 300 soldiers from them.

God order Gideon to do patrol, at the enemy’s gate Gideon heard two guards talking about his dream. His dream was, one wheat bread rolling into Midian army and crashed all the Midian army’s barrack, then the other solder replied, that dream means Gideon’s knife edge will slash Midian army. This is the evidence of God’s work! So Gideon gained confidence, fought with them and won the battle. Believe that God is with you then He will do his work in your life.

Conclusion) we are dealing with all the problems in our daily life. Whenever you do, let the Jehovah Shalom of God to lead. When we take our life’s problem, he will give you the answer or pathway to avoid those problems because God want to give us a peace. Peace of Jehovah Shalom is a big gift from God. I bless you and me, all of us to be with God who gave us peace