|
|
|
Home
About Us
Spiritual Growth
Training and Support Store
Donations
Contact Us
|
Genesis 15:1-21
The first use of the word “shalom” in the Bible is in Genesis 15:15: “As for yourself, you shall go to your ancestors in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.”
The first appearance of the word “shalom” is in a very auspicious context. Genesis 15 is the story of God’s covenant with Abraham. It follows a three-step promise: first, there is the divine promise (15:1,7); second, Abram’s protest (vss. 2-3, 8); third, divine reassurance (vss. 4-6, 9-21). The promise is two fold: (1) Abraham will have a child who will be the progenitor of a great nation through whom God’s promise will be brought to the world (vss. 1, 4-5); (2) those descendants will live in a specific land that God promises to Abram (vss. 7, 13-16, 18-21). And the text tells us, “And (Abram) believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness” (vs. 6).
The most important part of this story, however, is the covenant making ceremony that occurs. God makes this profound promise to Abram. Abram at first questions it and then finally trusts God for that promise. But God then reassures Abram regarding the integrity of this promise by voluntarily and without prodding, acting out a binding covenanting ceremony (15:17-21). That covenant ceremony is as follows:
God commands Abram to take a three year old heifer, a female goat, a ram, a turtledove and a pigeon, kill each, cut each in half and then lay the halved portions opposite one another (so that they are the mirror images of each other) with a pathway between the halved carcasses (vss. 9-10). Abram does as he is instructed.
The Interpreter’s Study Bible commentary states, “The slaughter and splitting of animals reflect an ancient Near Eastern covenant ritual according to which the covenanting parties walk between the pieces of animals, thus taking upon themselves the fate of those animals should they violate the covenant (see Jer. 34:18).” (p. 32)
The text then tells us, “a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between thewse pieces” (vs. 17) as Abram watched. The fire pot and torch are symbolic of God (viz. Lev. 2:4, Isa. 31:9). In other words, what is happening here is that Yahweh is undertaking the obligations of the covenant; he is not asking Abram to do so. “God takes sole responsibility for fulfilling the covenant with Abram” (p. 33). He will give Abram a son (which doesn’t happen until Gen. 21), and he will give the land of Canaan to Israel (which doesn’t happen for another 400 years). But God will be true to his word! He guarantees his promise to Abram. And all Abram has to do is to believe it, trust God and obey!
It is within this context that God promises to Abram something more than a son and a permanent homeland – a promise that Abram did not request but is given as a free gift of grace. God gives to Abram the promise of shalom (15:15) and therefore, of long life. But that long life will be lived in shalom – in a sense of fulfillment, completion and peace, at one with God, with his own future, with his descendants’ future, and therefore at peace with the world. This is the first introduction of shalom, both as a theological concept and as a word. And it is an introduction that reminds me that God is always a God of grace to me, delivering to me far more than I request, need or even expect. His gifts are always unanticipated and overflowing!
Genesis 28:1-22
The next instance of the use of “shalom” is Genesis 28:21. Like 15:15, it is again used in the context of the making of a covenant – this time with Jacob. It is the story of Jacob’s dream at Bethel (28:10-22). He dreamt that there was a ladder ascending to heaven with angels ascending and descending on it (actually, the Hebrew word translated “ladder” is better translated “stairway”).
God makes a covenant with Jacob at Bethel, just as he had earlier with Abraham at the site that would become Jerusalem. Bethel, of course, plays nearly as important a role in the history of Israel as does Jerusalem – and in Genesis 15 and 28, both of these pivotal sites is chosen by God to be the places where he makes major covenants with those who will be the forebears of Israel – the “children of the covenant”.
Bethel was one of the major tabernacle/temple sites in pre-Davidic Israel, superceded by Jerusalem after the Temple was established there during the Solomonic monarchy. But once the Israelite Empire divided into the two nations of Israel and Judah, Bethel became the dominant religious shrine of the northern kingdom while Jerusalem (with its Temple) remained the dominant site of the southern kingdom. Bethel remained the chief cultic site of Israel until the northern kingdom fell to Assyria. And it still continued to exist as a city after both the Assyrian destruction of Israel and the Babylonian destruction of Judah.
The covenant God made with Jacob reinforced the Abrahamic covenant and made it applicable to Jacob. Thus, whereas the Abrahamic covenant singled out Isaac rather than Ishmael as bearer of the Abrahamic line, so this covenant made with Jacob singles out Jacob as in the “official” line rather than Esau. As well, it blesses Jacob’s departure from Palestine to seek a wife back in Ur and promises a safe return. The covenant was as follows:
I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. (Gen. 28:13-15)
Jacob, overawed at his dream, declares “Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it! . . . This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (vss. 16, 17). Therefore, he named the site “Beth-el” – “the house of God”.
Jacob dedicates himself to God the next morning and makes this vow: “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in shalom, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house; and of all that you give me I will surely give one-tenth to you” (28:20-22).
This statement is not simply bargaining with God. It is a response to the awesome experience of having met God and receiving God’s commitment (covenant) to Jacob. It is therefore Jacob’s profound response. If God fulfills God’s promise to Jacob, protects him on his trip to Chaldea, returns him in safety to the shalom of this place, then Jacob will commit the remainder of his life to the worship and service of God. This will be his inevitable response upon his promised – and therefore inevitable – return!
So the use of the word “shalom”, and its consequent promise of peace, has occurred thus far in the making of the first two major covenants with the Israelite patriarchs. That is the importance of both the word and its promise.
Genesis 41:1-36
The next use of the word “shalom” is an unusual one. In Gen. 41:16, Joseph responds to Pharaoh’s statement that he understands Joseph interprets dreams. Joseph says, “It is not I; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.” The Hebrew actually says, “God will give Pharaoh an answer of shalom”. So here, shalom is translated “favorable”.
This is another significant passage of shalom. The pharaoh has two dreams of seven sleek and fat cows eaten up by seven ugly and thin cows, and of seven plump ears of grain eaten up by seven thin and blighted ears. Two similar dreams are an indication that this is, indeed, a message coming from God.
Pharaoh, unable to get a decisive interpretation of the dreams, calls on his prisoner, Joseph, to interpret. Joseph explains to Pharaoh that it is God who gives the dreams, God who enables Joseph to interpret the dreams, and God who will give an “answer of peace” to Pharaoh regarding those dreams. He then tells Pharaoh that the two dreams predict seven abundant years followed by seven years of intense famine. He therefore recommends to Pharaoh that the king adopt centralized control of Egypt’s agriculture in order to stockpile sufficient produce to see Egypt through the years of famine. Pharaoh, recognizing Joseph’s wisdom and ability, then makes the Hebrew the vizier of Egypt (the second highest position in the land) with authority to confiscate and stockpile the grain and to administer its distribution during the famine. Joseph does so, marries into Egyptian nobility, and begets Mannaseh and Ephraim.
Thus we see “shalom” used in conjunction with the three major events in Genesis of the Abrahamic covenant – the making of that covenant with Abraham, covenant renewal with Jacob, and with Joseph’s rise to power in Egypt that protects the continuance of the line of Abraham and therefore the covenant (also see its use in 43:23 and 44:17).
Exodus 18:1-27
The next use of shalom is found in Exodus 18:23 - "If you do this, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people will go to their home in peace."
The story is the story of Jethro's advice to Moses. This chapter really belongs to Jethro, the priest of Midian and Moses' father-in-law. Moses leads the escaping Israelite slaves toward Mount Sinai, and on their way, meet Jethro. The two men meet in joy in seeing each other. But Jethro also provides a valuable ministry both to Moses and to Israel.
First, he affirms Israel's worship of Yahweh, rejoices in Yahweh's deliverance of them from Egyptian slavery, and leads Israel, Moses and Aaron in the worship of God (18:1-12).
Second, Jethro provides judicial advice to Moses (18:13-27) that permanently impacts the formation of Israel. Seeing that Moses is overwhelmed by adjudicating all of Israel's legal cases, Jethro suggests a division of labor. He suggests that Moses confine himself to instruction of Israel in the divine law and adjudicating only the most difficult cases. For adjudication of the remainder, Jethro recommends the appointing of judges to settle the cases. With such a division of labor, Moses; responsibilities will be lightened, both authority and power will be equitably shared, and "all these people will go to their home in shalom" (vs. 23). Moses recognizes the wisdom of his father-in-law's advice, and immediately implements them.
What we actually have here is an initial application of the Iron Rule - "Never do for others what they can do for themselves". It is an organizing of the people that distributes power - that develops in many, many leaders the "capacity, ability and willingness to act". Thus, Israel organizes its life in a way that guarantees the continued development of a core of leadership and a freeing of itself from the continued performance of a single individual. And by instituting these changes, Israel takes the first steps towards the formation of a nation based upon the sharing of power on the part of the many rather than the concentration of power in the hands of a self-selected few (the Egyptian model). And thus Israel takes the first steps towards the eventual formation of a democracy.
Leviticus 26:3-13
The next use of the word “shalom” is found in Leviticus 26:6. It is used within a beautiful passage (26:3-13) in which God is sharing with the Israelites how they will be blessed as a nation if they remain in covenant with God and seek to build their nation and its ethics around him.
Leviticus 26:3-13 captures magnificently the priorities of the Israelites. Clearly, this passage is stressing that their culture, at its best, was a relational culture – and that was most clearly manifested in their relationship with God and God’s with them! God will live in their midst as their great king; he will “walk” among them. He will be their God; they will be God’s people. He freed them from Egypt, liberated them from slavery, enabled them to stand tall, unbowed with the weight of the burdens Egypt heaped upon their backs.
As a society in relationship with God, if Israel will be faithful to him, God promises them fertility of the land (vss. 4-5), 10), security in the land (v. 6), triumph over enemies (vv. 7-8) and prosperous offspring (vv. 9-10).
It is verse 6 that captures the very essence of God’s promise to Israel, fulfilled if they remain faithful to him:
“And I will grant shalom in your land, and you shall lie down, and no one shall make you afraid; I will remove dangerous animals from the land, and no sword shall go through your land.
This is God’s “peaceable kingdom”, promised to any nation or society that centers its public life on relationship with God and relationship with each other. One cannot help but wonder what would our nation look like if we were to be so centered as a people.
Numbers 6:22-27
The next use of the word “shalom” is very profound. It is the culminating word of the priestly blessing that Aaron and the Aaronic priesthood is to continually give to the people:
The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make his face to shine upon you
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you,
And give you shalom.” (Num. 6:24-26)
And then the chapter ends, “So they shall put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them” (6:27).
The New Interpreter’s Study Bible has an intriguing note on this blessing:
This benediction has often been used in the worship practices of many different Jewish and Christian traditions. The blessing’s ancient character and importance were confirmed by an archaeological discovery in Jerusalem. The blessing was found inscribed on two silver cylinders dating from 600 BCE. These cylinders are the earliest known fragments of any biblical texts, predating the Dead Sea Scrolls manuscripts by 400 years.” (p. 200)
Every phrase in the blessing is crucial:
Deuteronomy 29-30
The next use of the word shalom is in Deuteronomy 29:19. It is in the midst of the preamble to the covenant renewal ceremony that is to be done in Moab, as Israel readied itself to move into the Promised land. The covenant is to "establish you today as his people, and that he may be your god, as he promised you and as he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob" (29:13). Deuteronomy presents the consequences that will befall Israel in the present and in the future if they break covenant with God (29:10-29) and the blessings that will come upon them is they obey the covenant (30:1-10). Then, the ceremony reaches its apex with this challenge:
See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today be loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. But it your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall perish. (30:15-18a)
It is within the context of the curses that the word "shalom" is used. The translation of it into English is intriguing, as the translators tried to capture the nuance of its use. The verse reads, "All who hear the words of this oath and bless themselves, thinking in their hearts, "We are safe even though we do our own stubborn ways - the Lord will be unwilling to pardon the, for the Lord's anger and passion will smoke against them" (29:19a,20a). It is the word translated "safe" that is the word "shalom".
Thus "shalom" is being used by despisers of God (it reminds me of Jeremiah declaring how Israel's leaders will cry "Peace, peace", when there is no peace (Jer. 6;14) to thwart his will upon the people and to convince others that they can ignore or disobey the requirements of the covenant and will be "safe" (or filled with peace). But "it ain't necessarily so"!