Craig: 00:28

Welcome back to the Fourth Wave podcast. My name is Craig and I will be doing a a season with you. I have been around at least a little bit since the very beginning of this podcast. Derek came on to the Christian nonviolence Discord channel or server, which I had invited him to a little while before that, just asking if anybody wanted to help him with this project. And I said right away, oh, yeah.

Craig: 01:05

I would love to be part of that. Unfortunately, I'm too busy, too much going on, I wouldn't be able to make the commitment. So I did what I could. I helped I listened to the first few and helped him around. And since then he and I have occasionally talked about it and I would tell him, Oh, I've got this topic or this or maybe I'll do this.

Craig: 01:31

But I haven't been confident enough to actually commit myself. So a while ago, I approached him and I said I think I'm ready. I recently had a third child, and so I don't know why this was the time that I thought was ready because it was really the kids that was keeping me busy, but something pushed me, so I gotta follow. And I'm pretty darn excited to be here. I've I've really wanted to be involved for a long time, so I'm excited to go in.

Craig: 02:11

So this season will be on peace as understood within the Bible. Now this topic is massive, enormous, but my purpose in speaking is to hopefully help you understand, one, understand simply how central the concept of peace is to the everywhere, really, in scripture. And second, how to find, not find that peace, but find where it talks about peace because it talks about peace all over and we sort of miss it. So it's not just that it's important, it's literally covered in concepts and ideas of peace and calls for peace, and and we don't notice it. We don't notice it for a few reasons, but that's really what I what I sort of hope I get out of this.

Craig: 03:08

So this first episode will be peace as found in the Old Testament, the Hebrew scriptures, and the next episode will be peace within the New Testament. And then from there, at least what I have planned is I'll go over various passages or books and just see, you know, wrestle out where we can find peace in perhaps somewhat surprising ways and how it can be relevant to us and how we can apply it. So the we'll start with the Old Testament here, and the word that we typically translate to peace is shalom. And I will actually use Shalom pretty liberally even when talking about the New Testament often I will use the word Shalom even though they didn't use it there. And I'm not trying to be annoying or, you know, technically correct.

Craig: 04:13

In fact, I'll be wrong. A lot of times I'll use shalom, but I think it's good to use a different word, like a word other than peace just to help distance us from all the the connotations that peace has in our language and in our cultures. There's overlap, but there's different as well. So if we use a different word like shalom that we're not as familiar with, hopefully, we can start a little bit more of a clean slate rather than trying to have to get rid of some of the gunk that's in the way from our current understanding of peace. Now, the word Shalom in the Bible is really broad, vague, rich, you might want to say.

Craig: 04:59

There are at least 14 different meanings that have been identified. Some are simple like a greeting, Shalom, Salom, stuff like that. It could also mean just peace, harmonious relationship with God, peaceful inner presence in this in the midst of persecution or fear, uncertainty. It can even mean prosperity or material. Wealth, it can mean health.

Craig: 05:27

Sometimes they just say, and he was in good shalom. He was in good health. Stuff like that. So going through a dictionary definition would be rather difficult. So I like how Terry L.

Craig: 05:40

Bressinger explains it and he says, Shalom is a term with broad semantical range, and it captures virtually every aspect of a positive and healthy relationship: wholeness, prosperity, harmony. Willard Swartley says something similar when he says that the base denominator of Shalom's many meanings is well-being, wholeness, and completeness. The reason why I prefer breasting ears a little bit is because it mentions specifically that it's an aspect of a healthy relationship. And we'll find that it Shalom maybe not every time we talk about it, but it encompasses every relationship. Relationship with ourselves, with others, with other groups, different nations, with God, with creation.

Craig: 06:36

And then when it talks about it, whatever relationship it's discussing at that moment, it's that completeness, completeness, that wholeness, that aspect that we're looking at. Now, Shalom, I think you would be hard pressed to find a Christian that didn't think that peace was important to their life, important in the Bible, important to their faith, but I I think most Christians really underestimate or misunderstand just how central it is or should be at least. How central it is to the scriptures certainly. We see this in different ways. I'm not gonna make a huge argument for this, but hopefully just as we go through this you'll start to see, oh, maybe it is really, really central.

Craig: 07:31

But we do see some indications of this just even with the creation story. There's nothing and there's order, there's structure. Now order isn't totally synonymous with Shalom, but there's a lot of similarities there and that's a type of Shalom there, where everything's working in order how it should be. Even Abraham being promised to unite all peoples or his descendants would would reach all peoples. That's peace talk right there.

Craig: 08:04

That is Shalom, when we all work together. And then in Exodus is really that is central to so much Old Testament thought. And one reason is that it's this is really where God, where Yahweh here steps into the forefront become to become that personal God of the specific people of Israel. Now he made himself known before from the Garden Of Eden to, of course, Abraham and the patriarchs, but this is really where we have the people, the the the whole nation that has become very more unified perhaps a bit at this point from being in slavery, and it becomes their God rather than Abraham's kind of God that he follows and with promises, now we really see. He leads them out.

Craig: 08:59

He directs them. We get laws from him, stuff like that. And it's interesting that at this moment, he's a liberator. He is the God of peace. So this is really where He becomes framed.

Craig: 09:18

We see this character of God as one of peace. He breaks these chains from this enslavement. He yeah, so it takes him away from this very oppressive, very unshalom situation and brings at least his people into peace, into shalom. And we'll see a lot of the well, we won't go into it too much, but if you see a lot of this stuff later in Exodus, but in Deuteronomy and Leviticus, it's specifically mentioned, for I am the one that brought you out of Egypt. Or unlike Egypt, you will do things this way.

Craig: 09:53

So one of the clearest places that we see this, I think, is Leviticus 25, which are the Jubilee Laws. Now these laws, along with many other ones, as I've already said, are direct response to their living conditions in Egypt. So they were meant to create a society within God's people where no one was in need and where God was honored. So obviously God was not honored in Egypt, but obvious but also not everybody's meat were met. There was a very top down structure.

Craig: 10:28

The the luxury of pharaoh and different people up top was only possible, through the slaves. So the the basic idea is that every fifty years everything would reset. People would get their ancestral lands back or their their houses that they bought. There were systems in place. There were good systems that would allow them to, you know, sell their house, of course, especially if a, you know, different family couldn't come and buy it from you or to sell yourself into servitude of some sort.

Craig: 11:01

Perhaps there's a drought that year or something you didn't do so well, so you could go to somebody else and they would let you you know, they would take care of you, basically. But if that keeps going on, certain families will get more and more wealth. They'll accumulate more land, and others will get poorer. So every fifty years everything resets, debts are lifted, people get their homes back. One thing that I find really interesting about this is that it's not just a set of laws prescribing the perfect community, it assumes that bad stuff is going to happen.

Craig: 11:41

It tries to get into stuff beyond laws, like, okay, so if you know Jubilee is coming up, so you're not gonna get as much from this guy who's who's asking to, you know, go into your service or whatever because you know you're gonna have to give it back in two years, you still do it. It doesn't matter. You know, it's not supposed to be this way that you can work this system, but it recognizes that basically people will. That, stuff happens in nature. Like I said, droughts and stuff like that.

Craig: 12:12

Perhaps people have bad practices and because of that they fall into hard times, stuff like that. So every fifty years it's a reset to go back. So we try to really live this community, this society of people that is this beautiful picture of Shalom, which we'll get into here in a moment what that would look like. And when it inevitably starts to crumble, there's a reset button so that we can keep reminding ourselves. Go back to that.

Craig: 12:40

Reset. Okay. This didn't work up here, so we'll go back and we'll keep working from there. So I think it's really great. And as I said, it it comes directly out of out of Egypt coming from there.

Craig: 12:52

They're not allowed to have slaves at least among themselves because God freed them from slaves. How dare you put them back into slavery? So this is us this awesome idea of God as the peacemaker. So let's look a little bit of what it looks like in practice. These two passages are what Walter Walter Bruckerman describes as, shalom in all its essence or something like that.

Craig: 13:22

Probably should have looked it up. And so I'm gonna quote them in full. In fact, I plan on quoting a lot of the scripture for this particular episode in full because I think it really helps us get it get it, I guess. So this one is Ezekiel thirty four twenty five-twenty eight: I will make with them a covenant of peace, and banish wild beasts from the land, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. And I will make them and the places all around my hill a blessing, and I will send down the showers in their season they shall be showers of blessing.

Craig: 13:59

And the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase. They shall be secure in their land, and they shall know that I am the Lord when I break the bars of their yoke and deliver them from the hand of those who enslave them. They shall no more, be a prey to the nations, nor shall the beasts of the land devour them. They shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid. And I will provide for them renowned plantations, so that they shall no more be consumed with the hunger of the land, and no longer suffer the reproach of the nations.

Craig: 14:34

And this is Leviticus 26 verses four to six. Note, this is right after this Jubilee laws. So this is what it should look like. Right? This is what I want your community to look like.

Craig: 14:49

If you walk in my statutes, and observe my commandments, and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread from the foal, and dwell in your land securely. And I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I shall remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land.

Craig: 15:24

So in these passages we see an interpersonal dimension to Shalom, deliverance from slavery, lack of war. We also see the creation dimension dwell securely in the wilderness, banished wild beasts. Even trees and fields will yield its fruit and showers in this season, but that goes with the economic and well-being dimension. Okay? Though especially for an agrarian society, that's where their wealth and their health comes from.

Craig: 15:56

So trees and fields will yield fruit. They will have enough to eat. And there's a God dimension. Usually in the Hebrew Bible, the relationship with people and God is through covenant. Not as much in the Psalms, but yeah, so here a covenant of peace.

Craig: 16:16

I am the Lord, walk in my statutes, observe my commandments. So we see all these different, aspects and dimensions here. It's not just, you know, I think we read this and we just see, The sword shall not go through your land. See peace. Because that's what peace typically means to us in English, doesn't it?

Craig: 16:38

It means a lack of war or fighting. In fact, two countries can be at peace and still hate each other's guts. They've just decided not to fight for the moment. The other aspect of peace that I think or definition of peace is an inner peace, which, you know, tranquility maybe, which I think is actually better described as a lack of anxieties and stress. And that's really how we see peace in English.

Craig: 17:08

A lack of war, lack of fighting, lack of stressors, stuff like that. Peace, we describe it in a negative manner, not as though peace is bad, but we describe it by what it's not. We get rid of these things and there's peace. It's not quite how we see it in the Bible. As we've already seen, it's quite a bit bigger than that.

Craig: 17:33

But, well, I think actually the biggest difference between our understanding of peace and the Biblical definition of Shalom is that for the Bible there's a very strong moral connotation attached to it where I think that's missing for us. When we think of world peace, it's just basically just magically nobody fights. It's pretty much all we're looking at here. But in the Bible, it's really attached. So I'm going to go into some stuff, some passages that directly relate to that, but first I want to go over a few passages that actually express unshalom and we'll see, well, we'll see what we see.

Craig: 18:21

So these are sort of contrasting to those other two passages that I just mentioned. So Micah chapter two:one-two. Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil upon their beds. When the morning dawns, they perform it because it is in the power of their hand. They covet fields and seize them and houses and take them away.

Craig: 18:43

They oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance. Amos four:one Hear this word, you cows of Baasha, who are in the Mountain Of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their husbands, Bring that we may drink. So we see these really directly contrasting with the passages before, crushing the needy rather than everybody having what they have, oppressing the poor, and that people have power and they covet until they grab more and more, which again contrasts with Leviticus 25. So these are the things when we start to see these things, we we see this very unshalomness. And notice that right with them we see oppression, oppression, oppress the man, crush the needy, oppress the poor, stuff like that.

Craig: 19:40

So this lack of justice, injustice, I suppose, we have a word for it in English, injustice and oppression inevitably will lead to this unshalom, to this turmoil. Isaiah says a few times, I think it's somewhere in Psalms too, that there is no peace for the wicked. And I think we typically translate, like, that to mean well, I don't know. Either if you do wicked things, you'll have a lack of inner peace or maybe in the long run, you'll lose your peace. But and I think it's there too, I guess.

Craig: 20:23

But I think right here what it's just saying is by definition, there is no peace. There's no peace for the wicked because wicked peace presupposes a lack of wickedness. Where there is wickedness, there simply is not peace, whether or not there's war. And so I think shalom or peace, I suppose, is often seen as some sort of a passive state of comfort. Kind of envisioned of people basically living selfish, albeit not invasive, but hedonistic lives.

Craig: 21:08

And I I don't see that in the scriptures, especially in the New Testament, but in the Old as well, we're called to be peacemakers. The moral connotations attached to Shalom are necessary in order for Shalom to flourish. It's not something that simply exists. There are forces that fight very hard to maintain unshalom status And we must, as Paul says, and I don't wanna bring the New Testament too much in here. I want the Hebrew Bible here to stand on its own, but I think it's worth noting here that when Paul says to live our lives worthy of calling, that's what he was talking about.

Craig: 21:51

The these lives of peace. And so we'll get into that more the next episode, obviously, but it's really strong in the Hebrew scriptures as well. So Psalm eighty five ten through 15. Love and faithfulness meet together, righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven.

Craig: 22:14

The Lord will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest. Righteousness goes before him, and prepares the way for his steps. Psalm 70 two:seven In the King's days may the righteous flourish, and peace abound to the moon be no more. Isaiah thirty two seventeen to 18. And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness, and trust forever.

Craig: 22:44

My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. Isaiah 4eight 18. Oh, that you had paid attention to my commandments. Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. In Isaiah 60 verse 17, I will make your overseers peace and your taskmasters righteousness.

Craig: 23:08

So I just went through a flurry of verses. I understand. But I hope you see all these the effect of righteousness is peace. The result of righteousness, quietness, and trust. Okay?

Craig: 23:21

Faithfulness springs from the earth. Righteousness looks down from heaven. Love and faithfulness meet together. Righteousness and peace kiss. It is this they're really strongly attached.

Craig: 23:33

Peace is the effect of righteousness. I mean, it literally says that in Isaiah. So it's married. The idea of Shalom is married to the concept of righteousness. So I am personally of the opinion, and I kind of implied this before, but I hope now we can see that a situation where everybody has every material possession they want and it just kind of happens to be no real conflict.

Craig: 24:02

We just sort of get together. Maybe there's no conflict because we have all of our material possessions. And, I mean, emotional needs and everything. Everything just kinda works together. I I think that's actually less of a it's less close to an ideal view of Shalom than a situation where perhaps we don't always quite have enough food, where conflicts do begin to rise, but we share food.

Craig: 24:36

Sometimes maybe we lessen our food a little bit to help others. We teach them how to overcome some sort of a a food shortage where we work through despite these huge terrors that threaten to really ruin our society. We work through them with peace. Well, love, I guess, to create this peace so that it doesn't totally tear us. In fact, we, we mend it and heal together.

Craig: 25:05

Now, perhaps when Shalom comes in fullness, we will have all of our physical needs met and stuff, but it will only be attached with these people who are living these these selfless lives, this love that we that we see. So prominent in in the New Testament, but this is really where it comes from right here. This is where Jesus and the writers of the New Testament are able to speak of this love through primarily the prophets here. They're leading the path here. So that's how I see Shalom.

Craig: 25:41

It's just absolutely attached to this idea of righteousness. You don't get peace by unpeaceful means. Now, of course, we see in the scriptures sometimes people do kinda they try to wage war for peace or whatever, but it doesn't really tend to work out, to be honest. And as we see, more and more in the scriptures, really, it says you need this righteousness and this following this following God. So I I spoke at the beginning of this about how we tend to describe peace in negative terms.

Craig: 26:18

This is we get rid of these things and we will get peace, but I think scripture more often speaks of peace in positive terms. Certainly, it's more powerful when it does speak this way. So, again, I'll quote in full a few things here. So Amos chapter five fourteen to 15, Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live. And so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said.

Craig: 26:47

Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate. It may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. Isaiah one sixteen-seventeen Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes, cease to do evil, learn to do good, correct oppression, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. In Psalm 3four 14, Depart from evil and do good seek peace and pursue it. So this is not just keeping your head down.

Craig: 27:26

This is not just wait and peace will come or something. And it's not just avoiding conflict or avoiding evil is a very active ingredient here. Establish justice, correct oppression, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. Notice here that this also implies that there is injustice that we must work to rid from the community. There is oppression that we must work to rid from the community.

Craig: 27:54

It recognizes injustice and demands that we work to correct it. This is peace. This is shalom. This is how it comes from. It's not something that we just stop doing evil ourselves.

Craig: 28:07

We must go in and, de root, unroot, root the evil. What is that sort of phrase? I don't know. Dig the roots out. Okay?

Craig: 28:19

That's that's what we need here. So I I feel we have a pretty good idea of what shalom is. Okay. We have economic stability, health, personal relations, relations with God, relations with creation. But it it's important here for us to note, we skirted around this perhaps, but I really wanna tackle this here.

Craig: 28:43

It simply can't be peace for for some. If only some have peace, it's not shalom. So a lot of these passages that I'll put here are the or a few of these pass ages are the you know, people say peace peace when there is no peace. And how I had always understood those before is simply there are prophets who wanna tell you not that you can sin. Basically, they don't wanna tell you to stop doing things because nobody likes that.

Craig: 29:18

And so they're false prophets that but these passages that I'm putting here are not just saying, oh, you know, they're false prophets because they don't want to tell you about the impending doom. They say peace, but beware because because they're lying to you. You know, you're gonna be judged. They say that their peace is false because there simply isn't peace. They might be living in that kind of luxury, but others aren't.

Craig: 29:45

So it's false. So in Jeremiah six thirteen-fourteen, From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain, prophets and priests alike all practice deceit. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. Peace, peace, they say, when there is no peace. So they dress the wound of my people as though it's not serious.

Craig: 30:07

They're greedy, they're getting all this stuff, but there's not peace for the people. Ezekiel 13 ten-eleven Because they lead my people astray, saying peace when there is no peace: because when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash therefore tell those who cover it with whitewash, it is going to fall. This fake idea of peace, it's not gonna hold out or it's gonna be exposed. Think maybe strongest here. Amos chapter six one through seven.

Craig: 30:41

I dropped off a couple of verses here. Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, to you who feel secure on the Mount Samaria, you notable men of the foremost nation to whom the people of Israel come. You lie in beds adorned with ivory and lounge on your couches. You dine on choice lambs and fatted calves. You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments.

Craig: 31:04

You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions. But you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph. Therefore, you will be among the first to go into exile. Your feasting and lounging will end. So I don't know about you, but that's really convicting to me.

Craig: 31:23

I don't like to hear these verses. My bed is not adorned with ivory. I don't dine on choice lambs, but I'm pretty comfortable. I don't have a lot of fears or discomforts. Often, I could look at my life and say, yeah, it's pretty peaceful.

Craig: 31:43

Certainly, you know, an individual individuals, it's harder, but certainly in the broader themes, I'm in a country that has no fear of attack, know, I'm not afraid of any sort of racial attack on me or anything like that, so it's pretty easy for me. I don't have to worry about my food, But this is this is condemning that. How dare you say that? There's peace, though. Why aren't you grieving over the ruin of Joseph?

Craig: 32:13

Who cares that you feel secure on Mount Samaria? Oh. So we should never be satisfied with our own Shalom if not everyone has it, because if not everyone has it, it's not Shalom. The last aspect of Shalom that I want to talk about is in relation to the idea of the Kingdom of God. I need to say in relation to the idea because the phrase itself is never actually used in the Old Testament.

Craig: 32:44

The concept, however, is very strong. One thing that we need to note when looking at this is that Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek all have a more abstract understanding of the word kingdom than we do in English. In English, when we hear kingdom, we generally think of the actual territory that is owned and controlled by royalty. Royalty. It is usually better accurately understood in the Bible, though, as lordship or rule, reign, sovereignty, perhaps dominion.

Craig: 33:18

We need to understand it as designating God's sphere of influence or control, which is any person or group who acknowledges his sovereignty. When we understand it like that, we can see that it's discussed quite a bit. We've even gone over some verses in this episode which discuss it. So why is this important to the discussion of Shalom? Because, perhaps one of the best ways of describing Shalom is through the concept of the Kingdom of God.

Craig: 33:48

When we follow his commandments and statutes, Shalom follows. The writers of the Bible are all yearning for the time when God is in control rather than other forces, whether those forces stem from who or what is often referred to as the Adversary directly or from human will. Thus, any time we see a verse or passage praying for God's reign, discussing following his commandments, referring to God as King or Lord, we need to step back and recognize the big picture here. Now, you may already understand that God's dominion is perfect Shalom, But we should have an altered view of what that means now. Whenever it discusses God as king, we need to picture in our minds this vibrant and inclusive community that is characterized by unity, righteousness, safety, and care among and for all those who follow him as king.

Craig: 34:48

It can be helpful when we are meditating on some passages to actually flip over to a verse or passage which describes what his reign will look like. So I very often read over any number of them daily, really, just in my devotions so that the image of Shalom, of his reign, is always clear within my mind. I'll leave a list of some of the passages I refer to most often in the notes if you're interested. But then, after reviewing one or maybe more of those passages, when we go back to the verse that we're studying, we can more fully understand the picture the author is trying to convey. Now, I am sure there are exceptions.

Craig: 35:31

I don't want to give the impression that we should simply see any of these keywords think it must necessarily refer to the kingdom of God or to Shalom. But on the whole, I do think you will find that it will usually describe a situation in which God is sovereign overall. His will is being done. And what will result when His will is done but perfect Shalom? And what is Shalom but when His will is being done?

Craig: 36:00

I want to finally mention what is generally considered to be the ultimate peace passage: Isaiah two:two-five. See a parallel of this in Micah four:one-five: It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills, and all the nations shall flow to it and many peoples shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways, and that we may walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem he shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

Craig: 36:58

O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord. We usually just quote the swords into ploughshares and spears into pruninghook's part, and for good reason, but when we aren't aware of the text surrounding it, we get a very truncated view of what it's actually describing here. It's not simply people deciding to convert the tools of war into tools of agriculture. Look at it. It's describing all nation flocking to God.

Craig: 37:33

They ask Him to teach them His ways, and then they follow those ways. And that is when He becomes our judge, which clearly in this case is our peacemaker, because it allows us to convert our death dealing weapons into life providing tools. It is not individualistic, it is not through our own ideas and efforts, it's a promise and a gift when we all come together to worship, listen to, and follow our God. And that brings us to the end of this episode. Obviously, this is but scratching the surface, and there were any number of ways I could have approached it.

Craig: 38:13

But I hope that after listening, you have a bit stronger understanding of what peace means in the Old Testament. It encompasses every aspect of a positive relationship, whether it be towards ourselves, others, another group, or other nations, God, or creation. It is not simply good feelings or a lack of conflict, but indicates wholeness or completeness. And it's not something that simply exists, though it always comes from God and is truly a gift from God rather than of our own making. We must reach out in order to receive it.

Craig: 38:51

That means that we must strive to stop everything that is un Shalom, whether it be oppression, inequality, corruption. We also cannot separate Shalom from righteousness, which implies that one cannot use unrighteous means to obtain it. Lastly, I hope that you are able now to at least begin to see the centrality of peace or Shalom in the Old Testament, as well as to be able to see it more clearly as you read through the Bible yourself. Perhaps passages that you've read numerous times will show a different color this time around, as there was a shade of peace within it that you had simply never noticed before. Next week, we'll discuss peace within the New Testament.

Craig: 39:39

But for now, peace.