The lack of peace is what came when Israel disobeyed the Law of God.

Gideon was Gods chosen man to bring Israel back. Most of us know the story of Gideon but most of us have never focused on this idea of peace in time of war. A confidence to move forward when faced with impossible odds. Israel had nothing because they had disobeyed God. Often we dont see how little they had. God had let them move into caves, lose their food supply, and live in fear for 7 years. They had chosen a different god to serve and God let their god supply them. Of course the other god was not interested in Israels success. Israel was Gods. By making their life hard the power of the Midianite gods was high. Israel needed something to give them hope that their god was stronger.Possibly this never has happened to you, but to me it has happened to me. It is often what we need to see the truth about God. By understanding God as Peace and the God who alone can give us peace we need to understand the problem in Israel. First we must understand that the lack of peace in our lives is because we are not 100% committed to God. We dont trust God enough to do the job. We dont trust God to hear our cry. But what we dont realize very often that this is not true. Our emotions get in the way of our view of God.This is all ok. We struggle for many reasons. It is not only because of sin, if you read the scripture, but also a test, as you find in Job, that we lack peace. The difference between Job and sin is that Jobs confidence was never shaken. Only his friends had given up on God.In these verses it was because of sin. God never abandoned Israel. God let the people choose their god and let their god supply all their needs. We find something here that we dont talk about much as Christians. If you are Gods you have freedom to choose to worship other gods, but you cannot expect God to enter your freedom. Christianity is a choice.Once you choose God the promises of God are never far. When we see God as peace we find that our view of those who oppose us is not the same. Instead of seeing them as challengers to our faith and who we are, we see them as God sees them. They are a people without hope and are insecure in their gods ability. Gideon made an altar and named it Jehovah shalom because He had witnessed the presence of God and was not dead. The peace that Gideon had came from the hope that God had not forgotten His people, and that God had a plan to get out of the situation. God had a plan. God had not forgotten His people. God will always give us choices. The last thing we find is that Gods choice is not always our choice.

Page 44