Have you ever taken a personality test to get to know yourself better? To figure out your strengths and weaknesses, the way you function in a workplace, or how you best relate to other people? These tests can be excellent tools to help us learn why we might behave in certain ways. But ultimately, their power and depth are limited; at the end of the day, no one and nothing—including ourselves—will ever know us better than God knows us. And that’s a good thing.
In our passage today, a man named Gideon encounters an angel of the LORD. The angel tells Gideon the LORD is with him and that he’s going to rescue his people from the oppression of the Midianites.
Gideon doesn’t believe he’s worthy of the call to be a “mighty hero,” or as other translations say, a “valiant warrior.” He comes from the lowest position in his family, and his family comes from the tribe of Manasseh, the weakest of Israel’s 12 tribes. So it’s easy to see why Gideon wonders (and doubts) why this angel—if he really is the angel of the LORD—would call him and not someone stronger or smarter.
But after asking the angel for a sign to prove His identity, Gideon realizes who is standing before him: God Himself. He cries, “Oh, Sovereign LORD, I’m doomed! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!” (Judges 6:22 NLT). Gideon reacts this way because he has what the Bible calls the fear of the LORD. Not fear of God’s punishment or wrath, but a proper awe, respect, and reverence for God.
God immediately reassures Gideon that he has no reason to be afraid, because though he encountered God “face to face,” he won’t die. Gideon builds an altar and names it Jehovah-Shalom, or “The LORD Is Peace,” as an act of worship and a representation of this amazing quality of God’s character.
But God’s peace isn’t like what you might expect. It’s not always gentle and quiet. And receiving God’s peace doesn’t mean our lives will be easy or free from responsibility. His peace doesn’t give us permission to sit back and let other, more qualified people deal with the hard stuff. Sometimes, like in Gideon’s case, God’s peace is a precursor to war.
Philippians 4:7 says, “...you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus” (NLT). Did you catch that? God’s peace—and the ways and moments He gives it to us—doesn’t make sense to our limited human minds. But that’s what makes it possible for us to experience His peace in the most unlikely seasons. We can be standing in the middle of a storm, looking around at the world and all its chaos and heartbreak and sickness and uncertainty, and still have His peace. We can feel entirely unequipped to step into what God’s calling us to do, and still choose obedience.
That’s exactly how Gideon felt—unqualified to heed the call and unworthy to stand in God’s magnificent presence. But when God gave Gideon His peace, all his fears and doubts were silenced, and only the truth of God’s character remained. The LORD Is Peace.
Rest assured that if God calls you to something, no matter how scary or intimidating it may seem, you don’t have to be afraid. With full knowledge of all your weaknesses and imperfections, He still wants you for the job. He wants you to parent those kids. He wants you to serve Him in that role. So you don’t need to wonder whether He’ll equip you with everything you need to be successful. He will.
And the best part of all is that His peace goes with you, every step of the way.
