Tag Archives: Shalom

Chapter-a-Day

Rhythms

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The Lord said to Moses, “Give this command to the Israelites and say to them: ‘Make sure that you present to me at the appointed time my food offerings, as an aroma pleasing to me.’”
Numbers 28:1-2 (NIV)

Here in Iowa I continue to feel the natural change in seasons. Yesterday morning as I set out on a walk it was almost chilly. Later in the day when I went out to check the mail, my body was still expecting the blast furnace heat of the summer sun. Instead, I almost shuddered with the crisp coolness of the air.

This change is part of the natural rhythm of creation and every year this change brings back a flood of memories. The return to school and coming home to mom’s chocolate chip cookies and afternoons playing football in the back yard with the neighborhood kids. The excitement of Friday nights at the high school football game. The smell of burning leaves and countless pillars of smoke rising into the sky for blocks and blocks.

Just this past week as Wendy and I took some vacation we took time to talk about and review our rhythms. Labor Day weekend itself has become a ritual for us and four of our friends who have spent the weekend together for every year for years. It’s become part of the annual rhythm of our lives. But we have daily rhythms and weekly rhythms, as well, whether or not we are even conscious of it.

As Wendy and I examined our daily rhythms we came to the conclusion that things needed some tweaking. Rhythms can be healthy and productive, but sometimes what started as a good thing slowly leads towards the shadow side. Less productive, less healthy, and less life-giving. Sometimes it happens so slowly and subtly that you hardly notice.

In today’s chapter, as the Hebrews sit encamped across from the Promised Land and prepare to enter in, God tells Moses to remind the people of the sacrifices, offerings, and festivals that He had prescribed 40 years before at Mount Sinai. Daily rituals. Weekly rituals. Monthly rituals. Annual rituals.

Spiritual rhythms.

For modern readers, this can easily feel repetitive and silly. Don’t they have a PDF of all this on the hard drive? Why all the repetition?

But that’s just it. They didn’t have a PDF or a hard drive. The written word was rare and the ability to even read or write was just as rare. People needed to be told things, and important things needed to be repeated. Repetition is the key to memory, like crisp fall mornings conjuring dreams that I have to return to high school because there was a class I failed to take.

God is drawing His people near at this momentous inflection point in their journey. Remember who I am. Remember who you are. Things are about to change. I was with you on the road out of Egypt. I’ve been with you on the road through the wilderness. I will be with you on the road in to the Promised Land. These rhythms of offering, sacrifice, ritual, and communion will provide you with the daily, weekly, monthly, and annual connection points you’ll need.

Spiritually, I need my rhythms, too. I need to be mindful of my rhythms. I need rhythms that help connect me with God and others. I need rhythms that foster Life and shalom in increasing measure. This means that sometimes I have to stop. I have to examine my rhythms. I might even have to make some changes. Which is exactly what Wendy and I have implemented this week.

But one rhythm that won’t change is early mornings in the quiet with God, reading a chapter-a-day, meditating on what the Great Story has for me, and sharing it here.

Thanks for being a part of my rhythm, friend.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
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Chapter-a-Day

Our Tent is Full

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“How beautiful are your tents, Jacob,
    your dwelling places, Israel!

“Like valleys they spread out,
    like gardens beside a river,
like aloes planted by the Lord,
    like cedars beside the waters.
Water will flow from their buckets;
    their seed will have abundant water.”
Numbers 24:5-7 (NIV)

Wendy and I are still amidst the slow process of addressing the contents of our lake house that was sold last December. This past weekend Wendy placed a shoebox on the kitchen island that contained all of the photos that we’d collected over 15 years and displayed on the walls there. I spent a little time digging through them. So many good times and memories with our family and dear friends. As Wendy and I paused to pray before breakfast yesterday, I felt a surge of gratitude for God’s goodness and blessing, and I expressed our thanks and praise.

Today’s chapter is a continuation of the story of Balak, King of Moab, and the spiritual guru for hire named Balaam whom he’s hired in hopes of cursing the Hebrew tribes camped in the wilderness and ensuring their defeat. Twice Balaam has gone through his pagan divination rituals only to have God demand from him a blessing for the Hebrews. Now, a third time, Balak demands a curse from the famous seer.

What’s interesting about this third oracle is that Balaam does not go through his normal pagan divination rituals. Instead, he “turned his face toward the wilderness” to look at the Hebrew camp. The Spirit of God comes upon him and he utters a word of prophecy like a true prophet of God and Israel. The Gentile pagan is used by God to bless His people, much like Zoroastrian astrologers from Persia showing up in Bethlehem to bless the infant Jesus with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. God is God. Throughout the Great Story God breaks standard operating procedures to use the most unlikely of individuals for His good purposes.

Balaam’s final message of blessing over Israel is fascinating when I meditate on the context. The Hebrew people are wanderers at this point in the story. They have no fortress. They have no palaces. They have no city walls or city gates. They are wayfaring strangers traveling through a wilderness of woe. But Balaam sees beauty in their tents, their tribes, and their families. The Hebrew people are a “garden” of goodness filled with a flowing abundance of love, joy, and shalom. Balaam sees the very thing God intended for His people all along and declared back at Mount Sinai before they set out. These people are different. God is with them. They are blessed.

As I meditate on these things in the quiet this morning, my mind wanders back to the photographs from fifteen years of family and friends at the lake. Good food, good drink, quiet conversations over coffee in the morning, laughter and the sharing of life over cigars and Scotch on the dock as the sun sets. So much love, joy, and shalom. Our tent was full of abundance of the things that matter most in life.

Our tent is still full of that goodness. Despite the fact that our season of having the lake house is over, our tent here in Pella is just as abundant with goodness. Just this past week Taylor and four of her girlfriends (and one baby girl), came to our house for a girls retreat. Wendy and I were so blessed to host them, to overhear their laughter and their tears as they made time to share life. In an hour or so Wendy and I will gather in the kitchen for our morning ritual of coffee, smoothies, the headlines, and the sharing of our lives together.

Shalom.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
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Chapter-a-Day

Cutting In at the Cultural Dance

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Cutting In at the Cultural Dance (CaD Matt 10) – Wayfarer

As you enter the home, give it your greeting. If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet.
Matthew 10:12-14 (NIV)

Other than a four-year collegiate sojourn in the Chicago area, I have lived in Iowa my entire life. I just read an article a few weeks ago about the fact that Iowa has among the happiest people in the world. You’ll never read that or hear about it in the news. Every year you’ll hear the major news streams buzz about Scandinavian countries and Bhutan being the happiest places on earth, but that whole thing (like most things coming out of the main stream press these days) is a complete sham.

Of course, happy places have their quirks, and so it is with living in the midwest. For example, there is an etiquette to visiting others and being visited. When you arrive, it’s customary to bring something with you for your host. Typically it is food of some kind. Wine is what Wendy and I most often bring with us when invited to another home for dinner. I once invited a musician over to the Vander Well Pub for a pint. He brought the entire collection of his jazz combo’s CDs as a gift. There were, like, six of them. Awesome. I love jazz.

There is also an unspoken but well-worn tradition of guests leaving a host’s home here in Iowa. You don’t just leave. There’s a type of dance you do that begins with non-verbal signals to everyone that it’s about time to leave. This proceeds to small verbal hints like saying, “Well, this has been lovely. Thank you.” Then there’s the rising from your seat and continued banter as you make your way toward the entrance. More conversation. More giving of thanks and offers to reciprocate. The host makes a show of sending you home with the leftovers of whatever food you brought, which must be rebuffed. The promise of returning your casserole dish is given, by which you turn it into an invitation to have your hosts over to your house. You put your coat and shoes on as the conversation continues and discussion of possible future get-togethers commences. If you know your hosts well, you might experience a series of good-bye hugs during this entire culturally choreographed good-bye dance. It can sometimes take upwards of a half-hour from the first non-verbal hint you’re ready to leave to the point you are in your car driving home.

I thought of this as I read today’s chapter. Jesus sends The Twelve out into towns and villages to proclaim the good news that the Kingdom of God has come near. Jesus gives them instructions for entering and leaving hosts’ homes and tells them to bring their “Greeting” which in the Jewish tradition of the day meant bringing the blessing of “Shalom” which translates as “peace” but means so much more than that. Jesus then offers instructions for when the disciples are not welcome or if the hosts turns on them once they hear the message the disciples bring with them. If that happens, Jesus tells them to let their “shalom” return to them, shake it off, and go on their way.

Sometimes on this chapter-a-day journey I run across a passage and God’s Spirit whispers to my spirit that I need to spend some time meditating on that. So it was with these verses I pasted at the top of today’s post. I have never once heard a sermon given on these instructions of Jesus. They are verses that I myself have read countless times without even giving them consideration. Yet there is something there in the being a guest and how I enter and leave another person’s home that I think is worth more consideration.

When I enter another person’s home, what do I bring with me? I’m not talking about a casserole, dessert, or bottle of wine, but shalom. Do I bring a blessing? Do I enter with God’s peace and presence to gift to those who invited me in? What spiritual blessing can I gift and impart to my host and their family? In the quiet this morning, I find myself needing more time to meditate on these instructions and to consider what it might mean for me and Wendy, especially in light of the well-worn cultural dance of entering and leaving here in Iowa. I’ve learned along my life journey that sometimes one has to do something novel in order to “cut in” during a deep-seated cultural dance.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!

Chapter-a-Day

God With Us

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God With Us (CaD Lev 3) – Wayfarer

The priest shall burn them on the altar as a food offering, a pleasing aroma. All the fat is the Lord’s.
Leviticus 3:16 (NIV)

I saw an adorable post on social media the other day. A young child had been given the assignment to draw what it means to be “safe.” The child made a rudimentary sketch of himself in bed between his dad and mom. Such a simple childlike understanding. “If I’m with dad and mom, all is right with the world. I’m loved, provided for, and protected.”

The Hebrews had a word for that sense of wholeness, peace, and well-being: Shalom. While the word is literally translated as “peace,” it has a much broader definition that envelopes experiencing that feeling of “God is good. Life is good. I’m good.“

It is difficult for a modern reader to understand how radical the instructions God was giving to Moses and the Hebrew people was at the time it was given. The world in which the Hebrews lived was filled with thousands of gods. Egypt alone had well over a thousand gods in their religious pantheon. The gods were often attached to a place. Every town and city-state had its own god. So when you left that town, you left that god and would go visit the god of the next town. In ancient Mesopotamian religions, the gods inhabited their own spirit world and had little regard for human beings who were lesser than and relatively unimportant to them and their world.

The God of Moses is so very different.

God initiated the relationship with Moses and the Hebrews. He heard their cries from slavery, showed up, and delivered them. He’s led them into the wilderness and now God initiates the establishment of an ongoing daily life and relationship with them. They don’t have a place yet. Thus, God has Moses create a tent temple that they can carry with them. Wherever they camp, they set up God’s tent temple smack-dab in the center of camp. The people set-up camp around it. God isn’t associated with a place, He is associating Himself with a people. He is Immanuel: “God with us.”

This is important in understanding the third of the five different sacrifices God establishes for His people to make on the altar of His tent temple in today’s chapter. It is known as a “fellowship” offering, but also as a “peace” offering because the word used for this offering is rooted in the Hebrew word “shalom.”

What makes the Fellowship offering unique is that it is the only one of the five offerings in which the person or persons bringing it get to participate in consuming the food that is burnt on the altar. All of the other offerings are handed to the priests, the priests then handle the sacrifice and, at that point, everything is between the priest and God. With the “fellowship” offering, everyone is involved in sharing the offering together. It is, in a sense a communal meal together with the individual, the priest, and God. It foreshadows a day when God Himself will come to the table, make Himself the offering, and say to us, “Take this and eat. It’s my body broken for you. Take this and drink it. It’s my blood shed for you. Do this whenever you get together an remember.”

But humanity isn’t there yet. They are just infants and toddlers in their understanding of this One God, this Creator God, who is also a parent. God is providing simple ways to show the ancient children so that they might understand. He is with them. He loves them. He is protecting them. He will provide for them. “I’m right here in the center of your world, your community, and your family. Cuddle in next to me, my child. Be safe. Find shalom.”

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Chapter-a-Day

Best of: Dwell

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Today’s post, published back in November, resonated with my friend Matt. He wrote, “It was a reminder that God dwells in my heart. He takes up residence there. And my “property” is not for sale. He’s never moving out!”

If you have your own favorite chapter-a-day post that has stuck with you over time, please feel free to let me know. You can reply to this post or email me at tomvanderwell@gmail.com.

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
Ephesians 3:16b-17a (NIV)

When I was young, I was always on the go. I remember in high school getting up at 5:00 a.m. for swim practice before school. I then had practice again after school before going to play rehearsal that would sometimes last until 10:00 at night. My mom complained that I was never home. To her chagrin, that never really changed. Once I had my drivers license, it only allowed me more freedom and opportunity to spread my wings and fly wherever I wanted. And I loved being on the go.

It’s funny how life changes. I find myself these days feeling entirely the opposite. I love to be at home. I love our bed, my office, our kitchen, and our living area and pub on the lower floor. I love working from home and being where Wendy is always. I confess that sometimes feel pangs of grief that I have to run an errand. I don’t just love our house. I love to dwell in our home.

In today’s chapter, Paul states that he’s praying for the Ephesians that “Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” In Monday’s post, I mentioned the difference between growing up in the church and entering into a relationship with Jesus. But entering into a relationship with Jesus changes things entirely, because Jesus wants to dwell within me. I am His dwelling place the same way Wendy’s and my home is our dwelling place. The implications are life changing…

I don’t have to pray for God’s presence because He is always present in me.

Prayer can be an on-going inner conversation that I have with God at all times because He’s always present within me.

At any given moment I can be prompted, inspired, taught, convicted, challenged, soothed, encouraged, and/or motivated by the Spirit of Christ in me.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself encouraged by meditating on the fact that Christ loves to dwell in me the way that I like to dwell with Wendy in our home. Just last week I wrote about the shalom that God desires for all of us. This morning it strikes me that dwelling in my home is where I feel shalom even as Jesus’ shalom dwells within the home He has made in my heart.

Monday’s Chapter: Romans 15

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Chapter-a-Day

Dwell

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I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
Ephesians 3:16b-17a (NIV)

When I was young, I was always on the go. I remember in high school getting up at 5:00 a.m. for swim practice before school. I then had practice again after school before going to play rehearsal that would sometimes last until 10:00 at night. My mom complained that I was never home. To her chagrin, that never really changed. Once I had my drivers license, it only allowed me more freedom and opportunity to spread my wings and fly wherever I wanted. And I loved being on the go.

It’s funny how life changes. I find myself these days feeling entirely the opposite. I love to be at home. I love our bed, my office, our kitchen, and our living area and pub on the lower floor. I love working from home and being where Wendy is always. I confess that sometimes feel pangs of grief that I have to run an errand. I don’t just love our house. I love to dwell in our home.

In today’s chapter, Paul states that he’s praying for the Ephesians that “Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” In Monday’s post, I mentioned the difference between growing up in the church and entering into a relationship with Jesus. But entering into a relationship with Jesus changes things entirely, because Jesus wants to dwell within me. I am His dwelling place the same way Wendy’s and my home is our dwelling place. The implications are life changing…

I don’t have to pray for God’s presence because He is always present in me.

Prayer can be an on-going inner conversation that I have with God at all times because He’s always present within me.

At any given moment I can be prompted, inspired, taught, convicted, challenged, soothed, encouraged, and/or motivated by the Spirit of Christ in me.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself encouraged by meditating on the fact that Christ loves to dwell in me the way that I like to dwell with Wendy in our home. Just last week I wrote about the shalom that God desires for all of us. This morning it strikes me that dwelling in my home is where I feel shalom even as Jesus’ shalom dwells within the home He has made in my heart.

Note: I’m taking the next two days off.
Back next Monday!
If you need a fix, here’s the link to Haggai. Only 2 chapters!
https://tomvanderwell.com/2019/10/21/haggai-oct-2019/

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Shalom

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Shalom! (CaD Ezk 47) – Wayfarer

Then he led me back to the bank of the river.  When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh.
Ezekiel 47:6b-8 (NIV)

When most people hear the Hebrew word “Shalom” it is understood as a greeting like “Hello” or “Bonjour.” And that’s because “Shalom” is used as both a greeting and a departing salutation, more like “Aloha.” But what many people don’t know is that Shalom which is literally translated into English as “peace” has a meaning that cannot be simply contained by one comparable English word.

Shalom is a word that embodies a larger sense of wholeness, well-being, good health, rest and tranquility. It is both a greeting but also a blessing to the person to whom you say it. Shalom is derived from the root word “Shalam” which is used repeatedly in Exodus 21 and 22 regarding instructions for “making things right” between people when there has been material loss or injury. God was instructing his people to “make it right” (Shalam) which becomes the foundation for the wholeness, well-being, peace, rest, and tranquility of Shalom.

This is important in understanding what is being described in this vision Ezekiel is having of the restoration of his defeated and destroyed nation in these final chapters. On a macro level, everything Zeke is describing is the “making things right” on multiple levels. His vision is of ultimate Shalom.

In today’s chapter, there are three amazing concepts being communicated.

First, Zeke sees a river that flows out of the temple he’s just described. The temple is the source of a river of life that flows out of the temple into the Dead Sea and turns the Dead Sea into a living, flourishing source of life and provision for all. This foreshadows two things. First, it foreshadows Jesus, who says Himself that He is Living Water springing up to transform any who are dead in their sins to eternal life (or, you might say, ultimate Shalom!). It also foreshadows the vision John is given of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21-22. In fact, I encourage you to read and compare the first part of today’s chapter with those last two chapters of the Great Story.

Second, in Zeke’s vision he’s given the general boundaries for the restored Promised Land that God had always promised to His people where they would find Shalom. Throughout the history of humanity, land means life. From the land we find security, shelter, provision, and prosperity.

Finally, and this is huge, God tells Zeke that “foreigners living among you” are to be considered “native-born Israelites.” In other words, there is no longer any distinction between Jews and the Gentile outsiders. God’s shalom is for everyone. Everyone becomes a child of Abraham. Everyone is given an inheritance of God. Everyone is an heir of the Divine. Everyone is given an allotment of God’s ultimate shalom.

In the quiet this morning, I am overwhelmed with God’s goodness and the desire He has expressed from the beginning for humanity to experience shalom. I’m reminded what Jesus told His followers just moments before His arrest and just hours before His execution. He told them that they can expect trouble and suffering in this world, but He also told them “Peace (Shalom) I leave with you; my peace (shalom) I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Yesterday morning, Wendy shared a song with me that I had never heard before (I’m really awful at keeping up with current culture!) by Jelly Roll called “I’m Not Okay“. I haven’t been able to get it out of my head. It gets to the heart of what Jesus was saying to His followers, to us, to me. Even when things are not okay, everything is going to be alright.

Shalom, my friend.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Contrasting Statements

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Contrasting Statements (CaD Jhn 16) – Wayfarer

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33 (NIV)

Contrasting statements. On the desk in my office is a list of fourteen contrasting statements. These contrasting statements are key differences in understanding between members of a certain team of people. They are the source of conflict within the system and because of them, every member of the team is experiencing a lack of peace on multiple levels.

Systemic conflict lies at the heart of the Great Story. In the beginning, God creates the universe and everything in it. He caps off creation with a man and a woman, places them in the Garden, and calls it “very good.” There is shalom, the experience of wholeness, goodness, completeness, and peace. Then the evil one enters the garden and introduces both doubt and temptation to the man and woman. Interestingly, the evil one’s basic tactic in the disruption of shalom was the introduction of contrasting statements: “Did God really say…? You won’t certainly die!“

From that original sin, humanity has been yearning for shalom and God has been actively acting to restore it. That’s the Great Story in a nutshell.

In today’s chapter, we are approaching the climactic event of the entire Story. The key players are all involved. At the beginning of his account, John introduced us to Jesus as the God of Creation who came to Earth in human form. The evil one, having successfully filled the head of Judas Iscariot with contrasting statements, has put the wheels into motion to have Jesus arrested and killed. Both Jesus’ followers, His enemies, and the crowds are the humans across the spectrum of belief to whom Jesus seeks to provide restoration, redemption, and the new life of shalom.

Jesus’ followers have no idea of what’s about to happen. They are expecting the restoration of shalom the only way the world, and the Prince of this World, knows how to deliver it: gain power, exert force, suppress resistance, maintain control. God, however, had long ago tried to explain to humanity that His ways are not our ways. He will provide shalom, not by power but by suffering, not by force but by surrender, not through the suppression of resistance but through love, forgiveness, and freedom from sin and death.

Throughout Jesus’ final discourse to His followers, He continues to bring up the peace that He will provide. In the same manner, this peace is not like the peace the world seeks or promises. The shalom Jesus provides is not peace from trouble, but peace in the midst of trouble. Jesus continues to warn His followers of the trouble, persecution, resistance, and suffering that will be theirs to experience and endure. At the same time, Jesus promises them the peace of God’s Spirit to, as Paul put it to the believers in Philippi, “guard their hearts and minds” as they experience trouble and walk in Jesus’ footsteps of suffering, surrender, and love.

In the quiet this morning, my mind is on contrasting statements that don’t appear to offer a path forward. Then I think about the contrast between the world’s way and God’s way. As a disciple of Jesus, I have been provided the footsteps to follow into humility, surrender, and maybe even suffering. The way of Jesus reveals to me that death is the path to new life. And, I will find peace along this path.

I’m back on Facebook for those who liked to read my chapter-a-day posts there! Facebook refuses to give me access to my old, hacked account, but I have started a new account. Please feel free to search for me on Facebook and friend me. If Facebook won’t let you friend me, please go to my Facebook profile and “Message” me on Facebook Messenger, which should then allow me to friend you. Cheers! -Tom

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

“No Peace for the Wicked”

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“There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”
Isaiah 48:22 (NIV)

I am intrigued by words and common phrases. Where do familiar phrases come from? How do they change over time?

When I read the final verse of today’s chapter I suddenly had memories of my Grandma Golly and Grandpa Speck. I could hear them with my memory’s ears muttering the words, “No rest for the wicked!” They would say it when they were busy and had too much to do. Notice that they changed the word “peace” with “rest.” As they referenced it, I always took it as a reference to the theological concept of original sin. In the Garden of Eden God punishes Adam’s sin by condemning humanity to toiling for our food:

To Adam [God] said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
    through painful toil you will eat food from it
    all the days of your life.

This got my curiosity going and prompted a little research safari online. I found it interesting that some of the more popular online sites for the origin of phrases interpreted the phrase “No peace for the wicked” as a Biblical reference to the hell-fire and brimstone awaiting sinners. Wow, I’ve gone from original sin to eternal hell-fire and brimstone.

So what exactly was Isaiah getting at?

First of all, the Hebrew word interpreted “peace” in this verse (and paraphrased “rest” by my grandparents and others) is the Hebrew word shalom – which is commonly translated into the English word “peace” has a broad definition of peace that also includes tranquility, wholeness, and welfare. It is an overall positive sense of well-being. It makes sense, therefore, that our Hebrew friends use the word like “Aloha” is used by our island friends. It is used for both “hello” and “good-bye.” It is a wish of well-being both in your coming and going.

Earlier in today’s chapter God through the prophet Isaiah speaks to the Hebrew people taken in exile to Babylon. He promises their return and homecoming from captivity, then says,

If only you had paid attention to my commands,
    your peace would have been like a river,
    your well-being like the waves of the sea.

“No shalom for the wicked,” is no reference to eternal hell-fire and brimstone. It’s not a direct reference to original sin. It is a loving parent speaking to wayward children being welcomed back into a loving embrace. It’s dad reiterating the moral of the story. It’s mother’s reminder after scolding: “Listen carefully, my dear child. When you don’t pay attention and are disobedient, then the natural consequences lead away from wholeness, tranquility, well-being and peace.”

And, that’s a good lesson. That’s a lesson this grown-up child needs to be reminded of on a regular basis.