Yahweh Shalom
Gideon felt small...He was from the smallest clan and the smallest tribe and he was threshing wheat in a winepress which is not efficient for wheat, but it is efficient for staying out of trouble.
God appears to Him.
It is not an angel of the Lord, but the angel of the Lord: A pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus.
Gideon doesn't recognise him and they talk. Gideon raises the aching question, "If God is with us then why are we experiencing such pain?" This question reflects the age old debate we call Theodicy: "Where is God when we are hurting?"
The Angel's answer is to commission Gideon to be part of the solution.
Gideon decides to bring an offering and asks for a sign.
When Gideon has prepared the sacrifice, it is miraculously consumed by fire.
Gideon realises that He is in the presence of God and assumes that this will result in his death.
But God speaks the words we hear so often in Scripture: "Peace!" and "Don't be afraid."
-It's God's promise of His presence in Lev.26:6
-It's the promise of restoration in Jer 30:10 and 46:27
-It's the comfort given to Daniel in Dan10:19
-It's the news given to the shepherds in Bethlehem's fields in Luke 2
-It's the reassurance of Jesus in John 14:27
Gideon encounters God and gets given the mission of rescuing Israel from the mighty multitudinous Midianites. What name might we expect him to associate with God? One might expect "God Almighty" or "God of the Armies" or "God our Deliverer" but Gideon calls the Altar "Yahweh Shalom"
- He had lived in fear of his enemies
- He had lived in the struggle of Theodicy
- And he'd lived with the deep sense of inadequacy and brokenness
But God found him, heard him and called him.
His simple sacrifice was received and Gideon experienced deep and profound SHALOM.
In Hebrew "Shalom" is more than the absence of trouble.
It is wholeness, health, internal integration, connection, purpose and comfort.
Gideon's enemies are still there and he is going to have to pull down his father's idols and lead an army.
But Gideon, out of all he had experienced in his God-moment, holds on to one thing above all else: "When God met with me, I felt deep peace."
He is YAHWEH SHALOM.
| The LORD answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together." 17 Gideon replied, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. 18 Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you." And the LORD said, "I will wait until you return." 19 Gideon went in, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak. 20 The angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And Gideon did so. 21 With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of the LORD touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the LORD disappeared. 22 When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, he exclaimed, "Ah, Sovereign LORD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!" 23 But the LORD said to him, "Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die." 24 So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it The LORD is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. (Judges 6:16-24) |
