Jehovah Shalomনমুনা

Israel’s ultimate source of turmoil was the sin of idolatry. The Hebrew word shalom (peace) can be defined as a life put together, a life characterized by a sense of wholeness and well-being. Certainly, this term could not be applied to the Israelites who were cowering in the caves of their land under the oppressive power of the Midianites (Judges 6:1-6). When the angel of the Lord came to Gideon to commission him to fight the Midianites, Gideon gave voice to Israel’s sense of turmoil and desperation: “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’” (Judges 6:13). The answer to Gideon’s question, however, had already been given in Judges 6:8-10 through the mouth of an anonymous prophet sent to Israel: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘It was I who brought you up from Egypt and brought you out from the house of slavery…’ I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But you have not obeyed me.’” In other words, Israel’s turmoil was self-inflicted. Instead of following the one true God into the victory that He had promised them and had already miraculously displayed in leading them from slavery in Egypt, they turned aside to worship other idols, the gods of the tribes and nations that they were supposed to conquer. Idolatry is defined as the act of looking to anything other than God as our true source. Today, we are constantly assaulted with this same temptation to remove God as our true source and to give our hearts and our attention to other sources such as our jobs, our education, our relationships, and other things of this world. In so doing, we find, like Israel, that our lives are opened up to the chaotic, churning turmoil that comes from following other masters and other lords. The prophet Isaiah similarly noted that “the wicked”—those that reject God—are “Like the tossing sea, for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up refuse and mud. ‘There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked’” (Isaiah 57:20-21).