1. YHWH Shalom: I AM Peace
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Introduction
Introduction
Fun Girl Names
Clotilde = famous in battle
Etiennette = woman with a crown
Avriel = to open the flowers of spring
Eugenie = noble
Names have meaning, and in the Bible, the meaning of a person’s name was significant.
Prophet Hosea’s name means “salvation”
One of Hosea’s sons was named Jezreel, which means “God scatters”
One of the prophet Isaiah’s kids was named Shear-Jashub, which means “a remnant shall return”
The name Jesus, originally pronounced Yeshua, means “Yahweh saves”
God has many different names in the Bible, and each one reveals something about who he is. How often do we think about God’s names? How often do we pray God’s names over our families, schools, neighborhoods, church?
Starting a new series looking at a few of the OT names of God and how they apply to our lives… I highly recommend Praying the Names of God and Praying the Names of Jesus by Ann Spangler. Our first name is YHWH Shalom.
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Body
What does the name YHWH Shalom mean?
Explanation
YHWH = I AM
God is uncreated. He exists within himself. His existence does not depend on anyone or anything else. God is the only thing that is uncreated, and everything else depends on him for existence. See Col 1:16-17.
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
God is eternal. There has never been a time when God did not exist. And there will never be a time when God stops existing. See Rev 1:8.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
When you read the OT, and you see LORD, the Hebrew word is YHWH. The ancient Israelites had such a reverence for God’s name that, as they copied Scripture, every time they wrote YHWH, they used a brand new pen that had never been used before.
Shalom = translated in English as “peace” but means so much more
The English word “peace” means tranquility, quietness, calm, the absence of conflict. Shalom means all that and more.
Shalom means harmony, wholeness, peace, well-being, completeness—all is as it should be, as God created it to be, everything in its place, fulfilling its purpose in concert with creation.
We get glimpses of shalom when we experience the transcendent beauty of the mountains or the ocean, when we hear a symphony, when we taste a meal that has been perfectly prepared.
Biblical Illustration: The name YHWH Shalom first appears in the Bible when Gideon meets God in Judges 6.
Look at the end of this scene, Judges 6:22-24.
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. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.
Why did Gideon think he would die if he saw God face to face? And why did the Lord say, “Shalom to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.”?
Implication: Something is broken in the world. We do not have peace. There is not shalom. According to UNICEF, about 8,500 children starve to death every day (3.1 million per year). Meanwhile 42% of adults and 19% of children in the US have obesity, and the US throws away about 40% of the food we produce every year.
How can we have shalom? How can there be peace? Let’s look at Genesis 1-3 for the answer.
We were created with shalom. God intended us to have peace from the very beginning.
Shalom with God — Gen 1:26a, 27-28b; 3:8a
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
Shalom with self — Gen 2:25
And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Shalom with others — Gen 1:27; 2:22-25
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Shalom with the world — Gen 1:28
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Sin and Satan broke our shalom. When we believe lies and reject God, peace is lost.
With God — Gen 3:8, 23-24
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
We no longer have shalom with self — Gen 3:7, 9-10
Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
We no longer have shalom with others — Gen 3:12, 16; in Gen 4, Cain murders Abel
The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”
To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”
We no longer have shalom with the world — Gen 3:15-16a, 17a, 17c-19
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Shalom must be restored in the right order. We can have peace if we take the right steps.
Illustration: Fixing a Lego set that broke apart…
Implication: WWI, WWII, Vietnam, 9/11, Russia invades Ukraine, Nazis killed 12 million, Stalin killed 9 million, CCP has killed around 45 million… Racism, greed, selfishness, anger, gossip, bitterness, slander, lust… Insecurity, shame, anxiety, depression…
Application: If we want to restore shalom to the world, we must go back and restore the shalom that was broken in the beginning.
Step 1: Restore shalom with God through Jesus — Isa 9:6; Luke 2:14; Rom 5:1
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Step 2: Restore shalom with self through the Holy Spirit
Step 3: Restore shalom with others through extending God’s love
Step 4: Create communities of shalom that bless the world with a glimpse of Heaven
Conclusion: Practicing the Peace of God
Conclusion: Practicing the Peace of God
Stephanie: Confess patterns of behavior that hinder peace in your life
Andy: 1 Pet 5:7 (NIV)… Write your anxieties on a piece of paper… Communion
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
Jesse: Prayer for shalom in your family, in our church, in our schools, in your workplace