Yahweh Shalom

 

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. 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. 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. 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.” But the LORD said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD and called it, The LORD Is Peace. (Judges 6:19-24 ESV).

 

“Shalom” is such a common word, especially in Israel. When I first visited it was the first Hebrew word I learned to use. It was combined in daily greetings much as we might say “good morning,” or “good evening.” The meaning is much deeper than that however. We see that in our reading today. It takes place in a strange setting. People usually threshed grain in the open, where the wind could blow away chaff from the grain being tossed up in the air. But Gideon worked under the cover of a winepress. Gideon and all his people feared the Midianites, who often came to raid their land and ruin their crops.

 

Hiding in the winepress, Gideon meets a visitor, “the angel of the LORD [Yahweh],” who ironically assures him, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.” This encounter initiates Gideon’s call to be God’s deliverer of his people from the Midianites. At the end of this story, Gideon builds an altar, calling it Yahweh Shalom, “The LORD is peace.” Gideon uses this name for God in response to a word of assurance: “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.” Shalom, the Hebrew word for “peace,” refers to “completeness, soundness, flourishing, or well-being.” Gideon needs this assurance not because he fears the Midianites, but because he has seen the angel of the Lord face to face.

 

Throughout Scripture, fear is the normal reaction to seeing God’s messengers. Sinners cannot endure God’s holiness. Yet, if we have come to know Jesus, we too have seen the face of God (cf. John 14:6-7). Instead of reacting with fear and terror, though, we can say, “Yahweh Shalom, The LORD is our peace.”