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updated 10/31/2023
I have grieved over the events unfolding in Israel. It is truly heart wrenching. It is moving me to really consider what will be needed for peace. Honestly though, it was a heated conversation with a young adult in my family that really pushed me to look more closely at this idea. Here is what I found.
The word peace is of Latin origin. It’s from the same root as pact. In essence, the origin of peace, as we say in English and several other Western languages, is to have an agreement to cease conflict. It seems that this is a popular idea today as well. Something about the source of the word remains valid today.
What about Shalom though? Is shalom the same as peace? Not exactly. The absence of conflict is a subset of shalom, but shalom is so much more. One meaning of shalom is prosperity. What? Yes, for example, King David asks one of his generals how is the “sh'lom of the war,” meaning, how is the war prospering or faring as we might say.
If shalom can also mean prosperity, now we have a whole new realm of possibilities for understanding how far and wide shalom can reach into our lives and what it takes to sustain it. See, prosperity doesn’t happen by accident. True prosperity, not the kind sold by fake prophets and false teachers, is a direct result of an intense and dedicated reduction of chaos.
True prosperity, not the kind sold by fake prophets and false teachers, is a direct result of an intense and dedicated reduction of chaos.
When random thoughts are organized by training and education, learning promotes life.
When random overspending is replaced by disciplined saving and hard work, economic growth and stability promote life.
When short-term random relationships are curtailed and replaced with lasting healthy ones, emotional stability promotes life.
This is Shalom. Where peace requires making a pact to cease violence, shalom requires a cutting off of the things that act against life. This is how one word can be both peace and prosperity, because chaos, the opposite of shalom, acts against life. So, just as the willfully ignorant hate those who pursue intelligence, the morally poor hate those who aspire to rise above depravity, and the rebellious hate those who promote shalom because the righteous leave no room for the darkness where chaos thrives. They are light. This is the hard part. The Lord’s blessing promotes hatred among the lost and righteousness requires the destruction of the bastions of that darkness.
Like a seedling breaking through soil, life grows and the organization of it requires breaking through resistance. Anytime life moves forward, there will be resistance. Anytime life prospers in the presence of others, there will be hatred. The blessed are always hated by some and sometimes many. Making pacts with everyone is not sustainable or wise. Sometimes, those who promote darkness or chaos must be removed. Anyone who has made a vow to promote chaos over life has no love of the Father
within. So there is the dilemma. Should one make pacts in the short term that promote death in the long term (by hiding those who promote chaos) or accept the destruction of chaos in the short term so that shalom will reign?
When our Lord returns, will he come establishing pacts or will he first bring judgment and destruction?
Shalom
Bob Lampkin is a passionate messianic minister and linguist, exploring the world through the holy tongue and the word. If this article has edified your faith, consider making a contribution to support this ministry so we can reach even more people.
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