Jehovah ShalomНамуна

Gideon and Israel had to learn that the true source of shalom or peace is the experience of the presence of God. 

When God summoned Gideon to deliver Israel from the Midianites, Gideon stared into the reality of the chaos and turmoil of his people and confessed, 

“O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house” (Judges 6:15).

God’s response to Gideon’s confession of inadequacy was not the promise of great personal power or wisdom to lead, nor did God assure Gideon that there would be unlimited military resources or a strategic plan against his enemy. Rather, God simply promised Gideon that regardless of the overwhelming odds that he was facing, He would be with Gideon: 

“But the Lord said to him, ‘Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man’” (Judges 6:16).

Gideon and the people of Israel had to learn that God’s promise of His presence was sufficient to face whatever challenges, including the Midianites, they would encounter. Israel’s idolatry was fundamentally a lack of trust in God, and as they looked to other gods, masters, and lords to supply their needs and win their battles, they found themselves returning to the bondage and slavery from which they had been redeemed in Egypt. To find peace in the midst of their turmoil, Gideon and Israel needed to return to the promise that God would be with His people and learn, like the prophet Isaiah, that 

“The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace because He trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for in God the Lord, we have an everlasting Rock” (Isaiah 26:3-4). 

For Gideon, this reaffirmation of God’s presence with him and the trust that this promise evoked led him to build an altar as a memorial, a visible witness to all of Israel; the inscription of that altar read, “The Lord is Peace” (Judges 6:24)