Hallowed Be Your Name, A Study of the Names of God - Part 11: Jehovah Shalom

Church, knowing & understanding the Names of God is one of the most noble tasks we can have because as we learn to hallow His Name, we come to know & understand Him, which is the chiefest of things one can do.
 
I for one want to come to know God more intimately and personally. I want to know Him in truth and have no false notions about who He is. And knowing His Names is a way to make sure that we have clear understanding of who He is as these various Names reveal to us His character and nature.
 
You see, while our names might not tell others a lot about who we are as people, God’s Names do. Yes, when we see Him as Jehovah Rapha, we know that healing is one of His primary interests. When we see Him as Jehovah M’Kaddesh, we know that He is in the sanctifying business. When we see Him as Jehovah Rohi, we know that His mode of operation is of a shepherd. And like we learned last week, when we see Him as Jehovah Tsidkenu, we know that He Himself is righteous and He delights in making others righteous. 
 
So we have come to recognize Yahweh and Yeshua as our healer and provider, as the shepherd of His hosts, as One who sanctifies and makes righteous, as the faithful, present One, etc.
 
And let me remind you that knowing who He is, is much more important to Him than knowing the technicalities of His various Names like being able to rattle them off or how to pronounce them. I would much rather you know me as the person I truly am than just knowing what my name is.
 
You see, there’s a lot of people out there who know who I am and know what I do (meaning, they know my name and that I’m the pastor of this church). But guess what? Most of these people don’t really know me. They don’t know what I’m into, what makes me tick, what I like to do for fun, etc. Even a lot of people that have come to church here for years don’t really know me. Sure, they know what I do and how I do it. But it’s like the children of Israel – the Scriptures teach us that they knew His acts, but Moses actually knew His ways. And why did Moses know His ways? It was because He took the time to get to know the LORD and He revealed Himself to Moses.
 
That’s what we need to do, saints! We need to take the time to get to know Him by inquiring of Him and praying over His Names.       
 
JEHOVAH SHALOM’S ORIGIN
 
Now this next Name of God I want look at is probably one of the most well-known Names He has – Jehovah Shalom.
 
One of the reasons it is more well-known is because the term shalom itself is very common. But even though we might be more familiar with this word, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we have the correct understanding of its meaning. And that’s what we are going to learn today as we study “Jehovah Shalom.”
 
Now this Name of God is first used by Gideon when the Angel of the Lord appeared to him at Ophrah in Judges chapter 6 … 
 
In the days of Gideon, the children of Israel were living in a constant state of fear and trepidation because of the Midianites. The Midianites, a once defeated enemy, had reemerged from the East and began plundering Israel which caused the Israelites to live in hiding, dwelling in dens, caves, and strongholds in the mountains (See verse 1).
 
You see, the Midianites would reap, destroy, and plunder every time the Israelites sowed, and this resulted in Israel becoming “greatly impoverished” (See verse 6) and to live in fear. So because of their predicament, they cried to God for help, and He sent them a prophet who reminded them that their own disobedience had caused their current troubles.
 
So it is important to realize that their plight was not because God was testing them or even because the devil was attacking them. No, this was self-induced – for verse 1 shows us that the children of Israel (yet again) did evil in the sight of the Lord which resulted in them being delivered over to the Midianites for these 7 years.
 
I say this to say that everything we will be learning today about God’s Name is not what the LORD was planning on doing for those who deserved it. No, it was to those who had brought this on themselves. And this is something that I believe we would do good to understand – that not all of our trials & tribulations are unjust. Yet, in the LORD’s great faithfulness, He promises to give us shalom.
 
So the Lord did not just leave them with – “Hey, it’s all your fault, you know?” No, He also sent them Gideon – a man who was not immune from this fear and non-peaceful state himself:
 
We find Gideon in verse 11 threshing his father’s wheat in the winepress “in order to hide it from the Midianites.” So Gideon was not threshing the wheat in the proper place, but in a private & unsuspecting corner because he too feared the Midianites.
 
So Gideon was just like the rest of the Israelites, but notice how the LORD refers to him in verse 12 – “The Angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, ‘The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor.’”
 
What an interesting way to refer to a man who was hiding in a winepress for fear of the Midianites. But as we see time and time again, the LORD likes to call those things that be not as though they were and called Gideon here what He knew he was to become.
 
Now in verse 13, Gideon was perplexed as to why, if the LORD was still with them, they had all of these things happen to them. But the LORD never acknowledged this; instead He “turned to him and said, ‘Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?’” (verse 14).
 
But even though the LORD commissioned Gideon to save Israel, he felt weak, frail, and incapable. However, his uncertainty and fear were dispelled by the promise God made to him of “I will be with you” (Judges 6:16).
 
Then, to confirm the identity of the LORD, Gideon asked for a sign. When he witnessed the food he prepared for the angel miraculously consumed by fire, Gideon was filled with even greater fear. He had seen the Angel of the Lord face to face! The immediate response from the LORD was: “Peace be to you. Do not fear, you shall not die” (Judges 6:23).
 
As a result of these words, Gideon’s heart was infused with confidence and courage. We might say, He experienced peace in the truest sense. And then the next thing we see is Gideon building an altar at Ophrah of the Abiezrites and named it “The Lord is Peace” or “Jehovah Shalom,” a tribute and reminder of the Lord’s provision and promise of peace.
 
So now he could confront the enemy and undertake these great exploits for God. His encounter with the God of Peace had taught him that he was not alone and that the LORD would be with Him against the Midianites. Yes, the day he set out to wage war against a numerically superior enemy, Gideon enjoyed the peace of God.
 
Church, we too can experience this shalom, not just after the enemies are defeated and the circumstances have changed, but like Gideon here, we can build our own altars of knowing God as Jehovah Shalom before our enemies seem defeated.
 
Therefore, peace is not just the absence of our Midianites; it is the presence of the One in the midst of our Midianites. Let me say it this way – peace is not the absence of problems; it’s the presence of the answer to every problem. This is why Paul speaks of this peace as that which “passes understanding” because it is present in the midst of our den of lions to give us rest in the middle of the storms of life. Amen!
 
So no matter what situation we find ourselves in or what circumstances we are experiencing, He wants to reveal Himself to us like He did to Gideon – as Jehovah Shalom.
 
SHALOM!
 
Now let’s look at this very common and recognizable Hebrew word shalom in detail …
 
I say it’s more recognizable to most people because the word shalom is probably a word that you’ve heard before. For most of us, we’ve generally heard it used as a Jewish greeting. We here in America might greet one another with a “Hi” or “Hello,” but with some Jewish people, they like to greet with this word “Shalom” – wishing peace to the person they are acknowledging.
 
But while the word shalom is generally defined as “peace,” it means so much more. So let me give you some definitions of this popular Hebrew word.
 
Strong’s defines shalom as to be safe or to be well. It describes it as welfare like health or prosperity. And at its root, this word describes “completeness, soundness, welfare, safety, and quietness because the root word, salem, describes being whole or entire. So the word shalom seems to best be described as “wholeness.”
 
Now why is this important to understand? It’s because this word shalom which describes being whole, complete, or sound is essentially what we see in the New Testament Greek word for “saved” – the word sozo.
 
You know, we spent time here defining this word for “saved,” and while that is the general one-word definition for sozo, that word doesn’t totally describe what it means. Sozo describes being made whole, being healed, delivered, set free, etc.
 
So I see shalom as the Old Testament counterpart to our New Testament word for salvation because both of these terms have one word definitions that most people use that do not fully encapsulate their meanings. Not to mention, their meanings are extremely similar because they both describe being made whole, complete, and safe & sound.
 
I like one definition I’ve heard that describes shalom: It’s this – Shalom is nothing missing and nothing broken. In other words, because it describes being complete, whole, and sound, there’s no room for anything being missing, incomplete, or broken. Glory!
 
THE GOD OF PEACE
 
So if the LORD’s Name is Jehovah Shalom, then this making things whole, complete, and sound, with nothing missing and nothing broken is a part of His nature! “Shalom” is who He is – the One who causes completeness, wholeness, safety. He is the God of peace – peace from war, peace from turmoil, and peace from strife, etc. He is the ultimate Peacemaker – which is why, when we too are peacemakers, we are called children of God.
 
In fact, we see “peace” described as one of the fruit of the Spirit, right? Well, the fruit of the Spirit are not just what God wants us to produce; they are what God Himself produces. Yes, they are called the fruit of the Spirit for a reason – because they are the Holy Spirit’s fruit. This means that they are a part of His nature and what He Himself is like. Therefore, peace is one of the Godhead’s core virtues that He possesses.
 
But the fact remains, this is who our God is. He is this God of Peace, no matter how broken and unhealthy things seem to be in our lives, and no matter how much anxiety and fear are pervading us. Shalom is who He is, saints!
 
In the New Testament, we see the Lord often referred to as this – the God of Peace. So this shows us that even from the New Covenant perspective, God was known as being associated with this peace well beyond the Book of Judges.
 
In one of these instances, the apostle Paul said, “The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:9).
 
The context of this verse is that of peace: Paul had just shown us how a believer can walk in peace no matter the circumstance. He said to rejoice always (4:4). Then he told them to not be anxious about anything, but to pray about everything while being thankful (4:6-7). And just before our verse, he said to think only on certain things (4:8).

So this leads us to the ninth verse where the apostle Paul brought them back to simply doing the things they learned from him and saw from his behavior. And if we would just do what he said and did, the “God of peace” would be with us.
 
In Romans 15:33, Paul prayed the same things – “Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.”
 
So, what did Paul mean by praying the God of peace would be with them? And what did he mean when he said that the God of peace will be with us if we do these things (Philippians 4:9)? Didn’t the Lord promise to never leave us nor forsake us? Didn’t He promise that He would be with us, even to the end of the world? Sure, He did! He was, is, and evermore shall be “Jehovah Shammah,” right?
 
So, why did Paul say that God will be with us if we do the things that He both taught and demonstrated in his life? That seems contrary to these other Scriptures that teach us that God is with us simply because of who we are, not because of what we do, right?
 
But we must understand that there is a difference between God being with us spiritually and Him being with us experientially (i.e. tangibly in the physical realm around us). God most certainly is with us all the time positionally—in the spiritual sense—but we also have the ability to have Him be manifested in our lives in an experiential and tangible way.
 
But we need to understand that us physically experiencing Him is not automatic. If it were, we would all be experiencing it—for God is no respecter of persons. No, in my experience, only a few believers consistently carry the presence of the Lord with them in their everyday lives. But this is a blessed place to live, saints—where His presence is experienced, felt, and tasted. Amen!
 
But the apostle of faith had a specific fruit of God’s tangible presence in mind here. Mind you, the context of all that he was teaching in Philippians 4:6-9 revolved around peace. So, it can be surmised that he is concluding his instructions on walking in the peace of God by saying “the God of peace will be with you,” right? Therefore, it is clear to me why Paul referred to God as “the God of peace” here: Again, it was because the subject up to this point in Philippians chapter four is the peace of God.
 
Now here is a powerful truth: The fruit of having the God of peace manifested in our lives is having the peace of God manifested in our lives! In other words, when we live in the presence of the God of peace, we will live in the presence of the peace of God. So, when we have peace, we’ve experienced a piece of God. Hallelujah! That is what the Holy Spirit had in mind as He inspired this truth to be recorded!
 
Therefore, the examples that the apostle Paul gave through his words and deeds are how we can experience more of the God of peace in our lives which, in turn, causes us to experience more of the peace of God in our lives. Peace is the manifest presence of the God of peace.
 
This is important to understand, saints – that peace is the manifest presence of God. This is why time spent in the presence of God is so important – because it yields peace!
 
ANTI-PEACE
 
Now, on the contrary, strife is the manifest presence of the devil. But when you have the peace of God all around you, that’s proof that you have God all around you. Fear and strife are the devil personified, while love, joy and peace are the Lord personified! 
 
So if the presence of the devil is strife, confusion, and basically anything that is “anti-peace,” then we are to resist it!
 
You see, if we look over at James 3:16, you will find a truth about strife that should cause you to avoid it like the plague it is. It says, “For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.”
 
This verse tells us that where you find these little foxes of “envy and strife” you will find disharmony, confusion, and also every evil work. And notice that James doesn’t just say some evil works, but he says every evil work. Some examples of “evil works” are sickness, disease, infirmities, poverty and lack. Basically an evil work would be considered anything and everything that has come into this world as a result of sin & the curse and what the devil uses to steal, kill, and destroy.
 
So this means that when we allow these “little foxes” such as strife to come into our lives, it packs its bags full of all these evil works and brings them with him. This would be similar to how, in the natural, these little foxes might bring certain diseases with them. Friends, this is what Ephesians 4:27 means when it says that we can “give place to the devil” in our lives. Why? Because when you give these little foxes place in your hearts, they spread their diseases.
 
You see, there are many believers out there who love Jesus and serve Him faithfully but have allowed these little foxes into their homes. As a result, they are struggling against some of these “evil works” and do not understand why they are experiencing such difficult circumstances in their lives. And while we do need to understand that all difficulties we encounter are not necessarily a result of someone yielding to these “little sins,” the fact remains that some of them can be. 
 
This is why the apostle Paul exhorted the church of Colossae with the following words – “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.” (Colossians 3:15). What he was telling them was that because we are called to being one body of Christ, we have to let peace rule in our hearts – that is, let peace call the shots, not strife, contention, and division.
 
You see, church, as First Corinthians 14:33 teaches us – God is not a God of confusion but of peace. So if there’s confusion and a lack of peace, then God ain’t in it. No, if there is confusion present, then it’s because the God of peace is not present. Jehovah Shalom produces the exact opposite of confusion.
 
SHALOM ON THE INSIDE & THE OUTSIDE
 
So when it comes to this peace that God is and desires to give, where does He desire to impact us? 

I ask this question because there are certain ways that we tend to think of peace. For example, for most of us here in the United States, when we think of peace, we first think of that inner tranquility and peaceful state that frees us from anxiety, fear, etc. But how many of you know that this is not all that peace describes? Sure, it includes having peace on the inside (that is, in our soul, mind, etc.), but the peace that Jehovah Shalom provides is also peace on the outside. So it’s not one or the other, but rather, it’s having peace in both our inner life and our outward life.  
 
As we’ve seen already, shalom describes wholeness, soundness, and completion, and it implies having nothing missing and nothing broken. Therefore, we are not just talking about that inward, tranquil state of the soul; we are also referring to peace in every area of our lives from our relationships, our finances, and our health.
 
This peace on the outside might also be how we use it when it comes to wars & conflicts. So peace on the outside might be peace from war. But as we’ve seen, peace describes having anything in our lives made complete, whole, or sound. That could be our physical bodies, our bank accounts, our relationships, and the list could go on and on.
 
Let me show you a few Scriptures where the God of Peace is referred to as doing such:
 
One that we ought to be very familiar with as we spent months camping on it earlier this year is First Thessalonians 5:23. If you recall, this verse says, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
 
So notice that He is called the God of Peace, and what He is specifically stated to do is to sanctify us “completely” and that our “whole” spirit, soul, and body would be preserved blameless. What we see here is exactly what peace is stated to do – make everything “complete & whole.” And here it’s describing not just things on the inside of us like our spirit & soul; it includes our bodies as well.
 
Second Thessalonians 3:16 says, “Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all.”
 
So here the apostle Paul said that our Lord of Peace will give us peace always and in every way. That sounds to me like the peace He is affording us includes any parameter of time and every circumstance of life. Amen!
 
Hebrews 13:20-21 says, “Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”
 
Again, we see our God of peace making us “complete,” but this time, it is in every good work to do His will. So this is obviously talking about more than just spiritual & soulish things. This is talking about having “peace” in every good work.  
 
Finally, Romans 16:20 says, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.”
 
Here the peace that God provides is said to crush Satan under our feet shortly. This is an obvious reference to the decimation of the devil and the kingdom of darkness when Jesus returns and puts His enemy under His feet.
 
Therefore, peace here describes an end to the battle between good & evil. It describes something similar to what we would describe as a people or place having peace because there is absence of war. And this is certainly something that peace produces – from total absence of warring & fighting to the end to all of the curse on the earth.
 
So all of this comprises what we’ve seen in all of God’s Names – Him being our Healer, our Provider, our Sanctifier, our Righteousness, etc. All of these Names describe shalom in the various areas of our life.
 
But I think we do well to spend some time talking about Him being Jehovah Shalom on the inside of us …
 
You know, there is a serious need for having peace in our hearts. If you’ve ever experienced this peace that I speak of, you know that it is one of the best feelings we can experience and one that money cannot buy.  
 
Well, as we’ve made the point of already, this shalom comes as a result of the presence of the Prince of Peace. I like to say it this way – the peace of God comes from the presence of the God of peace. So if we want to have peace on the inside, it can only come by the LORD taking up habitation in our heart.
 
Now that isn’t all there is to walking in God’s shalom. The Scriptures teach us about ways that you and I can tap into peace and a lot of these revolve around what we focus on and fill our minds with.
 
Philippians 4:6-7 teaches us how the peace of God will guard our hearts & minds and that is through us learning to cast all of those cares upon Him in prayer. Yes, by being thankful and taking everything to Him in prayer, we can experience more shalom in our lives.
 
But this ultimately revolves around the way we think. This is why Philippians 4:8 goes on to describe only thinking on things that yield peace. Saints, you show me a person who is filled with doubt, anxiety, fear, and turmoil and I’ll show you a person who has stinkin’ thinkin’. In other words, there is no one out there who mainly thinks on things that are true, lovely, noble, of good report, etc. that are riddled with negative emotions. Sure, there might be someone who is not mentally well, but even they are not thinking right, which yields the negative emotions.
 
I’m here to tell you, saints, where the mind goes, the man will follow. Yes, whatever we focus on in our hearts & minds is what will be produced in our souls. And I’m not necessarily referring to our lives replicating what we are specifically thinking on. That can certainly happen.
 
But let me give you a good example of what I’m talking about that most people struggle with:
 
Most people have no joy, are depressed, and have zero peace because their minds are always focused on themselves. Yes, they only think about things which concern themselves and you know this because this is all they talk about – themselves. It’s “me” in the morning, “myself” in the afternoon, and “I” in the evening. So many people spend all of their day thinking only on things which concern themselves, ranging from how they feel, what people aren’t doing for them, how they can be happy, etc., etc., etc. And I don’t think I need to tell you that this will only produce a fallen countenance. Why? Because we are not designed to have our minds full of ourselves. The LORD has designed us to be considering others and thinking about how we can love and bless them. Amen?
 
Let’s look at a verse that is a great example of how shalom comes into our inner lives…
 
Isaiah 26:3 says, “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.”
 
The fact the Bible says that He (the “You” here is Him), will keep us in perfect peace. Isn’t that what Philippians 4:7 says – that the peace of God will guard our hearts & minds in Christ Jesus? That means that it’s the peace itself, or rather the peace Himself, that will keep us in peace. But not just peace; perfect peace! And guess what Hebrew word Isaiah uses here – It’s shalom! But not shalom and some other word; He says, “shalom shalom” – thus the reason it’s translated as “perfect peace.”
 
So this isn’t just any old completeness, soundness, or wholeness; this is a complete, sound, and whole kind of completeness, soundness, and wholeness! Amen!
 
So how will the LORD of Peace be able to keep us in this perfect peace? It’s when those who trust in Him keep their mind stayed on Him!
 
You see, church, the key to having this peace is keeping our minds focused on the LORD. The Scriptures repeat this truth time and time again. Even in the New Testament, we are taught that to be spiritually minded is life and peace (Romans 8:6).
 
So if we are experiencing this shalom, we can conclude that we have evidently been keeping our minds stayed on the LORD and have been spiritually minded. On the flipside, if we are riddled with anxiety, fear, etc., then that means we haven’t been doing this. 
 
So Jehovah Shalom obviously desires for us to have nothing missing and nothing broken in every area of lives including our souls. And that’s exactly where this peace begins – in our heart, soul, and mind. Once we experience peace in there, finding peace on the outside becomes easier.
 
But it’s important to understand that this is His heart and who He is, church! He is shalom. He wants us whole. He wants us at rest. He wants us complete, sound, and entire – both on the inside and on the outside. He is our God of Peace, Jehovah Shalom!