This time of the year is notorious for people being busier than normal.
In USA the nation celebrates Thanksgiving on 27th November. It causes an increase in travel, preparations for visitors and buying food to feed the families that reunite every year. Decorations for the day are an added project, along with cooking and serving a large turkey meal.
In less than one month preparations for Christmas celebrations begin. This time with added expense of gifts which are exchanged. The debts begin to mount up along with the stress. Around the world where Christians remember and celebrate the birth of Messiah, Christmas is a big event; and yet it spawns the opposite of what part of the angels message in Luke 2:14 was …. “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth PEACE, goodwill toward men!”
For many families, shalom/peace is the last thing that describes this time of the year. The Holy Days have transitioned into simply holidays just like the word itself.
We are not to forget the original reason for these celebrations by getting caught up in gift giving and days of over eating, which seems to have expanded to include the New Year as well. For new readers it must be mentioned here that December 25th is probably not when Messiah was born; and Western New Year celebration is very pagan in origin, as the Gregorian calendar is not the same as the Hebrew one. We have looked at these subjects in previous posts. However back to the shalom/peace the angels spoke of, in context:And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
This peace/shalom seems to be in short supply during these winter festivities, as the focus moves further and further away from the birth of our beloved Messiah.
The priest Zechariah saw in the birth of Messiah the coming of God’s light “to guide our feet into the path of peace”. Luke 1:79.
Isaiah 9:6-7 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. / Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from that time and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will accomplish this.
He is the Prince of Peace the Sar Shalom and in the Hebrew word Shalom is the fullness of all that is missing from our lives. When two Jewish people meet, they greet each other with “Shalom,” and when they depart, they also say, “Shalom.” shalom – שׁלום comes from the root: sh-l-m, which means: to be complete, sound, or whole, denoting wholeness or completeness,
Along with peace, it means much more than the absence of war or other disturbances. The word carries the ideas of health, prosperity, safety, completeness, harmony, and fulfillment. It speaks of a full and satisfying life.
Shalom does not describe just the absence of something, (such as war or anxiety), but rather the presence of something. It’s a state of wholeness, harmony, and divine order.Shalom is what happens when everything is functioning according to our Heavenly Father’s design.
This one Hebrew word holds the key to understanding:
the heart of our Heavenly Father,
the mission of the Messiah,
and the kind of life we are called to build in partnership with Him.
Insert the full meaning of shalom/peace in the following scriptures for an amplified understanding.
Luke 19:38 Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.
Matthew 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Ephesians 2:14-18 For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has torn down the dividing wall of hostility / by abolishing in His flesh the law of commandments and decrees. He did this to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace / and reconciling both of them to God in one body through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility. …
Yeshua doesn’t just give shalom. HE iS shalom. His mission was to reconcile heaven and earth, Jew and Gentile, humanity and our Heavenly Father.
Colossians 1:19-20 For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, / and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through the blood of His cross.
Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled; do not be afraid.
Hebrews 13:20-21 Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, / equip you with every good thing to do His will. And may He accomplish in us what is pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Isaiah 57:19 bringing praise to their lips. Peace, peace to those far and near,” says the LORD, “and I will heal them.”
Psalm 29:11 The LORD gives His people strength; the LORD blesses His people with peace.
Micah 5:5 And He will be our peace when Assyria invades our land and tramples our citadels. We will raise against it seven shepherds, even eight leaders of men.
Zechariah 9:9-10 Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. / And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem, and the bow of war will be broken. Then He will proclaim peace to the nations. His dominion will extend from sea to sea, and from the Euphrates to the ends of the earth.
Romans 15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
1 Peter 1:2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by His blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance
When Yeshua appeared to His disciples after the resurrection, His first words were “Shalom aleichem,” which means, “Peace be upon you.” He wasn’t just offering comfort; He was announcing victory because through His death and resurrection, the broken relationship and loss of shalom/peace between Father God and humanity was healed. The curse was reversed and true shalom had been made possible again.
When Yeshua speaks shalom/peace…He creates shalom/peace because the words that He speaks are always spirit – ruach and life- chaim.
We should ask ourselves have we ever truly received what Yeshua speaks?
My peace/shalom I GIVE to you ….. GIVE is in the present tense – NOT in a past or future tense…it’s Now. Now faith, today, this moment. This peace/shalom comes from looking into His face and fully understanding and receiving His quiet contentment in the fullness of its Hebrew meaning.
Reflecting His shalom/peace is proof that we are in right relationship with our Heavenly Father because we are exhibiting the freedom to turn our minds to Him. If we are not right with the Father we can never turn our mind anywhere but on ourselves. Allowing anything to hide the face of Messiah Yeshua/Jesus from us either causes us to become troubled, or gives us a false sense of security.
When we communicate with Yeshua confusion stops. We are troubled when we don’t take Him into account. In Him there is no confusion. We are to do as Hebrews 12:2 says: looking unto Jesus and receive His Peace/Shalom as He creates it for us. If we try to worry our way out of a problem we destroy His effectiveness in us. As He walks toward us on the waters of the sorrows of our lives, we will hear His voice calling our name above the sound of the storm saying:Peace/Shalom.. Be still…Be still and know that I am God. When we are tempted to despair or be anxious in a present difficult situation, when everything seems chaotic and the pressures of life seem to overwhelm us…we are to remember Phil. 4:6 and …. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace/shalom of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
It is all part of our Heavenly Fathers plan and He is working out the details of the circumstances so that He can bless us and reveal Himself to us in a new way.
This ‘busy-ness’ we tend to fall into, reminds us of the account of Martha and Mary inLuke 10:42as Messiah asks us the same question:
Psalm 119:165 says Those who love your Torah have great shalom/peace nothing makes them stumble.
Living in shalom/peace means much more than feeling calm during chaos. It’s a lifestyle of alignment with our Heavenly Father’s purposes in every area of life—spiritual, emotional, relational, and physical.
Some practical expressions of shalom:
In the area of reconciliation by repairing relationships and avoiding conflict.
In generosity by sharing resources so that no one lacks what they need.
For justice by standing against systems that oppress or devalue others.
On Shabbat/Sabbath by making time and space for rest and renewal which is the rhythm of creation itself.
By displaying integrity in living whole and being the same person in private and in public.
In the ancient world, when people greeted one another with shalom, they weren’t saying, ‘I hope you’re relaxed.’ They were declaring, ‘I desire for your life to be whole.’
Yeshua’s central message was the Kingdom of God. And His Kingdom is the ultimate expression of shalom/peace: The rule of our Heavenly Father bringing order and wholeness to a broken world.
In Hebrew thought, peace/shalom is never separated from justice. As Isaiah 32:17says,
“The work of righteousness will be peace (shalom), and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.”
That’s why shalom -peace and tzedek – righteousness, always go together, hand in hand. When He reigns, peace and righteousness kiss.Psalm 85:10. For followers of Yeshua, pursuing shalom means joining His mission to bring heaven’s order into the chaos of earth.
“You keep him in perfect peace (shalom shalom) whose mind is stayed on You.”
That double expression, shalom shalom, suggests complete peace: peace with our Heavenly Father, within ourselves, and with others. It’s a reminder that divine wholeness begins in the heart and radiates outward.
During these ‘holydays,’ may the shalom/peace of our Heavenly Father replace all chaos, worry, anxiety and stress and fill our hearts and minds in Messiah with nothing missing, nothing broken, complete, wholeness in body, mind, and spirit.
Shalom, I give you, Shalom, I leave with you.
Shalom, Shalom ‘Mishpachah’
‘Family/Tribe’
משפחה
Mish-pa-KHa,
friends, visitors and every reader…
Please don’t leave this page before making certain you are His
and are truly born again from above.
Know of a certainty that Jesus/Yeshua is
your Redeemer, Savior, Lord
and soon returning King
and that you have a personal relationship with Him.
You are greatly loved and precious in His sight.
It’s all about Life and Relationship, not Religion.
NOT SURE? YOU CAN BE..
SAY THE FOLLOWING FROM YOUR HEART RIGHT NOW…
Heavenly Father I come to you in the Name of Jesus asking for forgiveness of my sins for which I am truly sorry.
I repent of them all and turn away from my past.
I believe with my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus is your Son and that He died on the cross at calvary to pay the price for my sin, so that I might be forgiven and have eternal life in the kingdom of Heaven. Father I believe that Jesus rose from the dead and I ask you to come into my life right now and be my personal Savior and Lord and I will worship you all the days of my life. Because your word is truth I say that I am now forgiven and born again and by faith I am washed clean with the blood of Jesus. Thank you that you have accepted me into your family in Jesus’ name. Amen.
