Making Choices

There are parts of the Bible that are very hard to understand. We can read through certain passages in the Old and New Testaments and really struggle to make sense out of what we read. Some passages present us with a paradox, a seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true.

In my previous Blog entries, I wrote about the richness of the Hebrew word shalom – how it encompasses interpersonal relationships, the health and well-being of people and animals, personal security, the welfare of society, and other aspects.

But the Bible also contains passages that bring a different perspective to the meaning of shalom, a perspective that we might be tempted to ignore. Here’s an example. In Leviticus 26, there is the conclusion to what scholars describe as the “Holiness Code” that covers chapters 17 through 26. The whole book of Leviticus, which most of us rarely read, records laws that the Lord gave to the Israelites to help them form a nation out of twelve nomadic tribes. Detailed regulations are given concerning religious worship and sacrifice, economic life, the administration of justice, political rule, and family structure.

Chapter 26 offers insights into why God so strongly and clearly states that if the people obeyed these commands, they would experience His blessings and His shalom. Specifically God promises to put “His dwelling place” among them – which basically means that God would be with them -- and He assures them that they would experience His shalom both spiritually and materially, including physical security, an abundant harvest, and the presence of God in their community. Their faithfulness would result in all of these blessings from God.

But God also makes it clear that disobedience would result in disaster – the cursed D’s: disease, destruction, desolation and death. So here’s the problem: There is a tension between our understanding that peace is a gift of God, not the result of human activity, but at the same time the promise that if we follow God’s commandments, we will create more peaceful conditions. If we don’t, our disobedience will result in the lack of shalom – the cursed D’s.

To put this another way, God is the primary source of shalom, yet men and women are given responsibility for the existence of shalom in their society or its absence. That’s a tough tension, not easy to resolve.

As I have reflected on this, it strikes me that this issue of the consequences of our actions, the consequences of the choices we make, deserves our attention. God has created us as free moral agents. Our freedom to make choices is an essential part of our humanity. This is in part what it means when the Bible says we were made in the image of God.

We have the freedom to make choices and that includes saying “No” to certain behaviors and actions. If we are really free – and we want to live a life according to Jesus’ commandments – then we are free to choose to avoid behavior that undermines God’s desire for shalom in our world.

So What?

• We are not helpless victims. Victimization is a common attitude in our time and, even though we are sometimes are hurt by the actions of others, we can choose not to respond in kind.
• Dealing with paradoxes in the Bible is not unlike dealing with them in our daily lives. Paradoxes are created when two opposing forces or ideas seem to be incompatible. But living with pressure or tension is not necessarily bad – it can also keep us sharp and alert. Can you think of some illustrations of this in your life?
• Jesus, the Prince of Peace, commands his followers to keep His commandments. Jesus does not want our vague expressions of love and He never asks us to feel certain ways about Him. He asks for a love expressed in our lives by the choices we make, by acts of our will. This is how we demonstrate our love for Jesus.
• There is another difficult question that is related to this discussion: Why do bad things happen to good people who are following Jesus’ commandments? I will reflect on this in subsequent entries.

Struggling with Ambiguity & Lack of Direction

The last three months have been a difficult time in my life, a time in which my ministry in Russia has become very confusing.  I have prayed for clear direction for my work, but no clear direction has come.  As I look to the future, I realize that I have no idea what lies ahead.

For those of you who know me, you will understand that for twenty years I have been working in Russia with the goal of building a faith-based liberal arts university, which -- by the way -- I was asked to establish by Boris Yeltsin’s Minister of Education in October 1990.  It took five years, in participation with a group of Russian and American educators, to get the school established, eights years to get it accredited, and nine years to build a campus facility.  Every step of the way was a battle, but through a series of miraculous events, we were able to get the school in operation and housed in a beautiful building.  Then, within three months of a joyous building dedication in May 2010, the Board was forced to make the difficult decision to suspend the Institute’s undergraduate program.  A series of decisions quietly made in the Kremlin to protect state universities at the expense of private schools, because of a dramatic decrease in the number of college-age students, made it impossible for the Institute to compete legally in the marketplace.

My dream, my work for twenty years, now appeared to be over.  I could not understand how so many miraculous events could occur to make the Russian-American Institute a reality, yet now it was clear that it had to be closed down.   God’s intervention on our behalf was evident numerous times, so how could this happen?  I went through a period of mourning, just trying to make sense out of a series of events that appeared senseless.

Living with ambiguity is difficult for everyone.   When events like this happen, it is hard not to be paralyzed.  Wrestling with doubt, questioning God’s presence in the midst of radical challenges in life – this is what I was struggling with.  Why?  Why now?

In times like this, going back to God’s Word and re-discovering His promises proved to be a helpful way of getting through this discouraging period.  I still don’t have any answers to why this has happened – why the Institute has to close its undergraduate program – but now I have a sense of expectancy as we search for a new mission in Russia.  Yes, I still would like some answers to my “Why?” questions, but I know those answers may not come for quite awhile.

But for me the bottom-line is this: God is a God of “Shalom” and He desires to bless and protect me.  I need to put my trust in His promises.  My questions may not get resolved quickly, my doubts may not be answered soon, but I have learned once again that trusting in God, even in periods of ambiguity, while not easy, is what is needed. 

This assurance of God’s desire to care for us is made beautifully evident in Numbers 6:22-27.  In this passage, God instructs Moses to tell Aaron and his sons, who were from the tribe of Levi and were set apart to serve as priests, to announce a blessing  from God on the people each day.  In Biblical literature, a blessing is a very special type of speech.  It is something that God gives us and yet we can also give God.  In these verses, God blesses His people, and in the Psalms, the writers often bless God.

Here are the words of the priestly blessing: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.”  God is making it clear to His people that He has a covenant with them, that they bear His name, and that He will bless them.  What is the nature of His blessing?  Shalom (verse 26).

The promise of God was, first of all, protection.  “The Lord bless you and keep you.”  The word “keep” means watch, guard, and shelter.  “The Lord make His face to shine upon you.”  This graphic expression is the Hebrew way of describing one’s emotions.  For example, Genesis 4:5 tells us that when God refused Cain’s sacrifice, Cain’s face was “downcast” or “his face fell.”  On the other hand, a favorable disposition was often described by a facial expression that “shined.”  When the Bible says God’s face “shined” when He looked on His people, it meant God was showing  His care and love and pleasure.

All of this graciousness and blessing from God results in one conclusion: Shalom!  God wants His people to have shalom.  God’s desire for His people today has not changed.  His wish for us is shalom. 

In times of ambiguity, in times when we lack clear direction in our lives and our prayers never seem to be answered in the ways that we expect, we need to trust the God who offers us blessing and protection.

So What?

• Having doubts, questioning God – these are experiences all of us go through and God is not angered by this.  Doubt is not the opposite of faith, fear is.

• David, the King of the Jews who God loved, often struggled with doubts that he expressed to God.  Read his struggles with God in Psalm 22:1-4 or Psalm 28.

• When we have friends who are going through times of doubt, times when their lives lack direction, what can we say to encourage them?  Does God’s promise of shalom offer us a helpful response?

Shalom in the Garden of Eden

The first two chapters of Genesis describe the work of God as Creator of the world. They tell us that God was pleased with His unfolding creation, so pleased that He repeatedly described it as “good.” In fact, verse 31 of the first chapter tells us that following the sixth day of creation, when God looked over all He had made, the results of His craftsmanship were “very good.” God, acting in space and time, created a perfect, harmonious universe of night and day, water and sky, land and seas, trees and plants, sun and moon, fish and birds, livestock and wild animals, and finally men and women. Nothing more was needed and He took the next day, the seventh day, off.

God’s intention for His created order is powerfully illustrated in verses 8-9 of Genesis 2 where it describes how He created all kinds of trees in the Garden of Eden, trees that were both “pleasing to the eye” and “good for food.” God’s creation activity was marvelously economical!

In these few brief chapters of Genesis, we can see God’s original desire for creation. He created a beautiful garden where harmony existed between nature and animals and humans, where there was lots of good food for all who lived there, and where men and women were given creative work to do with God as the employer. The Garden of Eden is a picture of true shalom.

An interesting note: The Bible begins with the story of creation, depicted as a beautiful harmonious garden, and the Bible ends in Revelation 20-21, with the vision of a world gloriously restored and made whole by God after Jesus returns in all His glory. Lots happens in between, of course, and perfect shalom did not continue, but we will look at this later.

So What?

• When we look at the world around us – the beauties of our world, the plants, the trees, the flowers, the animals – it is exciting to realize that God designed this world for our pleasure as well as our use.  It was created to be both impressive and practical.  Let’s be impressed and take care of this creation.
• When we see relationships that are broken among people we know, let’s work to bring reconciliation, rather than just ignore this conflict and hostility.  This is peacemaking in our own backyard and we can make a difference.

Joseph's Shalom

The well-known story of Joseph recorded in chapters 37-44 of the Book of Genesis contains several different usages of the Hebrew word shalom. The story of Joseph’s life begins with a description of the patriarch Jacob who had twelve sons by four women and who chose to live in the same place where his father Isaac had resided, the land of Canaan. We know very little about Joseph’s youth, except that he tended sheep with his older brothers and reported to his father about some of their wicked behavior.

Jacob definitely showed favoritism toward Joseph because Joseph “had been born to him in his old age.” This favoritism was so obvious that Joseph received an extravagant gift of a multi-colored coat that greatly angered his brothers. Verse 4 of chapter 37 reads that his brothers “hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.” Here’s the word shalom – his brothers could not speak “peaceably” to him.

This dramatic portrayal illustrates one aspect of the Hebrew word shalom. In this context, shalom involves interpersonal relationships. The relationship between Joseph and his brothers was exactly the opposite of what it should have been. There was no peace between them.

As the story of Joseph unfolds, it becomes apparent that his father did not notice the stress between his twelve sons that had resulted from his favoritism to Joseph. He instructs Joseph to travel to a distant grazing area where his older brothers are tending the family’s sheep herd. Verse 14 of chapter 34 contains Jacob’s request that Joseph find out about the shalom of his brothers and the shalom of the flock. In this context, the word shalom refers to the general well-being and safety of everyone and, unlike the previous use of the word, has little to do with personal relationships.

This is a very common usage of the Hebrew word shalom. The same usage appears later in the story when Joseph is sold as a slave by his brothers and winds up in prison in Egypt, until his God-given skill at interpreting dreams is reported to Pharoah. Chapter 41 records an incident in which Pharoah calls Joseph into his presence and inquiries about his gift of interpreting dreams. Joseph’s modest answer is “I can not do it, but God will give Pharoah the answer he desires.” Or, “God will answer the desire (shalom) of Pharoah.” In both of these stories, the word shalom meant the overall general welfare of everyone involved. This is a rich dimension of this Hebrew word because it incorporates a deep interest in the whole situation that people find themselves in.

There’s another dimension of this word that comes out after Joseph is appointed Prime Minister of Egypt and given responsibility for collecting and storing food in anticipation of a severe drought. Chapter 42 of Genesis records the journey of Joseph’s brothers to Egypt in search of food. When Joseph recognizes his brothers, he frightens them by accusing them of being spies and demands that they leave one of the brothers as ransom until they return to Egypt with their youngest brother Benjamin. When they return to Egypt, this time accompanied by Benjamin, they were afraid that the Prime Minister would make them into slaves. But, to their surprise, the Prime Minister’s steward said “It’s all right. Don’t be afraid.” – or “Shalom to you.”

In this context, the word shalom is more specific than a reference to one’s general well-being. It is a guarantee of safety offered by a person who has the ability to do harm. This is another very common use of the word shalom.

The fourth and final usage of the Hebrew word shalom that appears in the story of Joseph refers to the physical health and soundness of Isaac. When Joseph’s brothers return to Egypt with Benjamin, Joseph hosts them at a dinner in his house and, during the course of the meal, inquires about the health of their father. The brothers respond: “Your servant our father is still alive and well” (Genesis 43:28). In this context, shalom has a very down-to-earth meaning which incorporates all aspects of one’s bodily health. When Joseph asks about his father, he wants to know “Is he healthy? How’s his stamina, his alertness?” “Yes,” the brothers respond, “he is doing just fine.”

There is an additional meaning to the Hebrew word shalom that can be found earlier in the Book of Genesis, in the story about the end of Abraham’s life. In chapter 15, God makes a covenant with Abram and, as a part of this covenant, God promises that Abram “will go to [his] fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age.” Here’s a fifth meaning of the word shalom -- it means completing one’s life in the fullness of time and dying at a good old age. To “die in peace” means to end your time on earth when it has been completed according to God’s gracious pleasure. It is now time to join God in heaven.

So What?

• One thing I learned from this study of Shalom as used in Joseph’s life was that God, who is a “God of peace,” has a big expansive view of how He wants us to live.  God is not concerned just about our private lives or just our spiritual lives, He cares deeply about all facets of our lives and the lives of others even including animals.

• Being a peacemaker (shalom-maker) is an exciting invitation to give your life meaning and a focus.  It is a broad invitation to use your gifts and abilities to bring healing to our broken world.

• It makes it clear that God does not see peace simply as a lull between periods of war, but as a positive, creative vision that restores people and creation and opposes violence and injustice.

• What we have to struggle with is how we can make a difference in a world so full of hatred and violence and broken relationships. 

What's Up? Why a Blog on Shalom?

I have heard it said, “Every idea has a biography.” So let me briefly explain the origin of this blog and the idea behind it.

When I was in grad school at the University of Maryland pursuing a Ph.D. in European and Russian history, I often thought about how my Christian faith related to my academic work. I knew God meant faith to be more than just a “private matter,” but I was unsure how to flush out the connections between my religious beliefs and what I was studying. My history profs were of no help and, in fact, their general approach was to ridicule religion and blame it for much of the violence and ignorance in European and Russian history.

After earning my degree, I spent four years in the State Department’s Historical Office, where I edited many volumes in the Foreign Relations of the United States series, particularly those focused on the early years of the Cold War. In an effort to offset these daytime hours chronicling conflict and war, I began an in-depth study of biblical peace, with the hope of gaining some insights that I could integrate into my work on foreign policy.

I left the Department of State to become founding director of the American Studies Program for the Christian College Coalition in 1976. This semester program was specifically designed to work alongside students as they wrestled with public policy issues through eyes of faith; the study of biblical peace—shalom—was definitely part of the mix!

The event that focused my studies in a more concentrated fashion came in May 1983, when I served on the executive committee that organized a national conference on “The Church and Peacemaking in a Nuclear Age.” I was asked to edit the conference proceedings which were published in a book entitled Perspectives on Peacemaking: Biblical Options in the Nuclear Age (Regal Books, 1984).

Then, four years later, I wrote a 16-week daily devotional guide I titled Shalom: God’s Intention and Our Response, which I thoroughly enjoying preparing because it combined the results of all of my study on this subject. The manuscript was never published, but now serves as the primary source for the “thought pieces” in this blog.

I was blessed to be born and raised in a Christian home and educated in quality Christian schools through college and what I learned and experience during those years impacted my adult life in many valuable ways. Still, my multi-year study of biblical peace opened up new and refreshing insights from the Bible that I had never seen before. It gave me a vision for how my faith could and should shape the way I evaluate all that goes on around me, and then how I should respond in thought and in action.

I hope the blog will appeal to a wide range of readers. My desire is to see us all grow as people of faith in our understanding of how we can be peacemakers, shalom-makers, on a daily basis as we interact with the people in our lives and the world in which we live. As followers of Jesus, we have a calling to be “agents of hope,” builders of God’s Kingdom in our world which desperately needs reconcilers and healers. And, incidentally, those who practice peacemaking also receive peace—shalom: a deep sense of purpose and joy.