Tag Archives: Peace Makers

In the Current of Peace

12 Monday Sep 2022

Posted by in Isaiah 45:7, Studies

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“Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God.”

This is Matthew 5:9 and is the passage of scripture I’ve had in mind since beginning this particular study on peace.  I have been certain that I must understand exactly what peace is before I can make it and now, after gaining a greater understanding of the peace of God, I want to take a look at this scripture.

First, a brief recap on just what is the peace of God.  It is not the absence of something.  The way the world looks at peace is it exists as long as there is no open conflict and this conflict can mean anything from verbal disagreements to open warfare.  I have seen this is not the case in the peace that comes from God.  His peace is a facet of His life and becomes a way we live.  It does not depend on circumstances and, in fact, His peace is all the more real in the midst of conflict.  Peace is an aspect of the Fruit of the Spirit and the peace of God grows in us and flows out of us more and more as we understand who we are in Jesus Christ and who He is in us by the Indwelling of His Spirit.

As I studied the Hebrew letters comprising the word for peace (shalom), I was struck at the relation to the heart.  The letter Lamed is the middle letter of shalom and is the tallest of the Hebrew letters.  It is the only one that ascends above the line and I learned this extending upward symbolizes the aspiration of the heart.  The first letter of the Hebrew word for heart (Leb) is the Lamed and Lamed has to do with what the heart longs for: to rise up, to elevate, and to connect to God.1 The third letter of shalom is the Mem and, while studying the Mem, I found another reference to the heart.  In his book, Mr. Bentorah writes the Mem represents a broken heart.  The little break in the left hand corner of the letter Mem shows us a picture of our hearts as vessels filled with pain and suffering but with a little hole in the corner where all that pain and suffering can pour out so God Himself can refill the heart with His love and presence.2

I do want to devote more study specifically to the heart but wish to stay focused on peace for the sake of this current study.  Reading these references to the heart reminded me of two scriptures.  The first is Isaiah 26:3 and I’m quoting it out of the Amplified Bible: “You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You.”  The second is Colossians 3:15 and, again from the Amplified: “And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds, in that peaceful state] to which as [members of Christ’s] one body you were also called [to live].”

I see in these two scriptures both the absolute truth of God’s statement in my study passage-“I make peace”-and how we are peacemakers.  The peace is not ours in the sense that we have anything to do with making it.  God Himself is the source of it, it belongs exclusively to Him, and He freely gives it to us.  We are not passive recipients.  We keep our minds stayed-and other translations have fixed-on Him and I do like all the verbs listed in the Amplified: commit, lean, and hope.  We also let His peace rule in our hearts.  The English word ‘let’ in this passage amuses me because it sounds so easy.  We just simply let His peace rule.  I don’t know about you but the “letting” is one of the most difficult things I’ve had to do, especially when I am in a situation where I am being verbally and emotionally attacked.  When I am faced with being-by necessity-in close proximity to someone who is dismissive, belittling, and patronizing, the most difficult thing for me to do is “let” His peace rule.  I have to constantly remind myself that all I am in Christ and all He is to me is also His desire for that person.  I have to remind myself of their identity, choose to see them as one beloved of the Lord, and one for whom Jesus is actively seeking. 

We say the words “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” every time we quote the Lord’s Prayer and I wonder how often we take time to consider what that means.  I know Jesus Christ.  I know my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.  I know this is true because the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation has opened the eyes of my heart to see this reality.  That’s it.  I don’t know it because I have studied hard and learned it although I learn more and more what exactly my inheritance in Jesus is through study so will not ever disparage study!  My point is I am not who I am in Christ Jesus because I’m special.  I do choose to respond to what He has shown and continues to show me.  I fix my heart and mind on Him and choose to keep my attention there no matter how I am treated or what I might experience.  This keeping of my focus on Jesus Christ can be a battle but I can do all things through Christ who infuses His strength to mine (Philippians 4:13) and His Spirit in me is my strength.

It is so very difficult to explain this Christian life.  I choose but can only choose what He has revealed to me.  I commit myself but can only do so because His Spirit strengthens me.  It is me but it’s also Him.  It is a we and us but I am not disappearing into Him.  I’m aware of constantly aligning my will and thoughts and decisions with His.  There really is no better description that “I am crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in (of) the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). 

This is how we make peace.  The Strong’s Concordance gives the Greek word translated “peacemakers” in Matthew 5:9 as eirenopoios.  The word is a compound word and can be broken down into eirene-peace- and poieo.  It takes a veritable paragraph to define poieo.  The main definition is “to make or do” but then there is a list of words which all seek to fully explain its meaning.  The very first is “abide” and I am immediately taken to the upper room where Jesus is explaining the life that was about to be the disciples’ life and is our life now.  “Abide in me and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself (and let us not forget Peace is part of that fruit!) unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:4-5).

“I make peace,” God declares through His prophet.  My study of Isaiah 45:7 has shown me how true that is.  I won’t repeat my study on the word “make” but I do not think I am wrong when I say He is peace and, through the workings and processing’s and chastising’s and corrections; makes the peace He is a reality in us.  His is the strength enabling us to keep ourselves in Him.  We abide in Him, and His peace flows out of us like a never ending stream to the world around us.  Truly we are blessed to be peacemakers because we will be recognized as sons of God! (Weymouth New Testament).

Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  Amen.

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

  1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRp8BGVAt8k
  2. Bentorah, Chaim, Hebrew Word Study: Beyond the Lexicon, Trafford Publishing, USA, 2014, Pages 119-120

Other References

Matthew 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. (biblehub.com)

The Amplified Bible, Expanded Edition, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, The Lockman Foundation, 1954,1987

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1990

Getting a Grasp on Peace

04 Monday Jul 2022

Posted by in Isaiah 45:7, Studies

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Image by Avelino Calvar Martinez from Pixabay

Hello and welcome to Renaissance Woman as I continue in my study of Isaiah 45:7: “I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things.”  I am moving on from my study of the word “make”.  The Hebrew word translated make, asah, is one I do want to look at further but, for now, I am content with what I have already discovered.  God is an artist, The Artist, and He pours His very self into everything He makes.  In Isaiah 45:7, the thing He is making is peace.  What does that mean?  What is peace?

I looked at peace a bit when I was conducting my study on the Fruit of the Spirit.  In that study, I saw peace as something that belongs to Jesus and can only be given by Him.  It is given to each individual believer as we come to see ourselves in Him and Him in us through the Holy Spirit.  It is not something that can be imposed on us from without rather peace becomes our way of being as His life is formed in us.  The peace of Jesus Christ is not something we can impose on others but flows out from us as the springs of His life in us overflow.  Such were my conclusions during that study and, while I still wholeheartedly believe what I wrote, I did not define what peace is. 

As I try to answer that question, some of my favorite scriptures on peace come to mind.  There is John 14:27: ““Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”  There is Isaiah 26:3: “You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You.”  I especially like the Isaiah verse as it states “whose mind is stayed on You” and I have been meditating a great deal on the importance of my thoughts.  Since peace is an aspect of the Fruit of the Spirit, I define it as something internal, something that comes from the life of Jesus Christ within me.  The verse in John does quote Him as saying, “not as the world gives do I give to you,” which tells me His peace is different than the peace I find in the world.  Is the difference between Jesus’ peace and the peace of the world that His is part of the flow of His life and, to the world, peace is something external?

I looked up peace in my New World Dictionary and find the answer to that is yes and no.  The first entries under “peace” are, 1., freedom from or a stopping of war, 2., a treaty or agreement to end war or the threat of war, and 3., freedom from public disturbance or disorder; public security; law and order.  This series of definitions can be summed up as “peace is the absence of conflict” which I admit is how I used to think of peace.  This idea of peace is fragile.  An argument escalates, or a law is opposed and this peace is broken.  This kind of peace is imposed on people from without and such imposition often breeds resentment.

Of course, the peace defined in the dictionary is not always imposed.  The fourth entry under peace says, “freedom from disagreement or quarrels; harmony; concord” and then under “make peace” I read, “to effect a reconciliation with, to end hostilities, settle arguments.”  Two individuals or disparate groups of people can choose to make peace with other, to cease from hostilities, and to settle conflicts.  And yet, there is no need of a heart change for this kind of peace.  It is not imposed from without but neither does it infer those parties ceasing from hostilities are now of one accord or that any restoration of relationship will follow.  This too is an absence of conflict but, just because they may not be acted on, does not mean resentment and bad feeling ceases to exist.

In entries five and six in the dictionary, I finally find peace defined as, “an undisturbed state of mind; absence of mental conflict, serenity, calm, quiet, tranquility”.  These definitions are certainly closer to what I think the peace of Jesus is and yet this peace too can be found in the world without Jesus being mentioned anywhere.  There are religions where the practices are meant to lead to serenity and a tranquil state of mind.  I have met some of the practitioners of these religions and they do seem more calm and confident-more peaceful-than I have ever dreamed of being.  I once watched a documentary where different religious leaders were interviewed and all of them spoke of life being good, peaceful, and blissful.  I listened carefully and Jesus as the source and giver of peace wasn’t mentioned once, even among those leaders who professed to be Christians.  If this is so, if this kind of internal peace can be achieved without Jesus, is He even necessary in our day to day lives?  Is the only bonus to a Christian life that belief in Jesus means you get to escape hell?  What is this peace He promised to leave with us and just how does it differ than that given by the world?

I looked up the Greek word for peace used in the John passage in the Strong’s concordance.  It is eirene (G1515) and means, “peace, prosperity, one, quietness, rest, set at one again.”  The entry in Strong’s Concordance suggests eirene comes from the primary verb eiro which means “to join.”  This same Greek word is used in the Septuagint in place of the Hebrew word translated peace in Isaiah 45:7 which is shalom.  The Strong’s gives a similar definition for shalom (H7965): well, happy, health, prosperity, rest.   

I see these definitions in Ephesians 2:14 where, speaking of Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul says; “For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation”.  Here, peace is unity; being set at one again with no divisions or separations.  I feel this passage sums up most of the definitions of peace I’ve come across but it all happens within the peace that Jesus Christ Himself is.  What is this peace?  I’ve looked up definitions, compared and contrasted, and still don’t feel I have a grasp on it.

In Isaiah 45:7, God declares He is the One who makes peace  and then in Matthew, Jesus declares, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Mt. 5:9).  I feel there is more to this peace than a lack of war, conflict resolution, or a tranquil mind.  Just what more there is, I do not know.  I need to know because I cannot make peace if I do not know just what it is.  My prayer is that in the upcoming weeks the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation will open my eyes to see what this peace is that God makes, this peace that is Jesus Himself.

Until next time…

Unless noted otherwise, all scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible Old and New Testaments, The Authorized King James Version, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Printed in Colombia, 2003

References

Guralnik, David B., Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second College Edition, William Collins + World Publishing Co., Inc., Cleveland • New York, 1974, 1976

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1990