The Lord Is Peace
So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there, and he named it “The Lord Is Peace.” To this day it stands at Ophrah of the Abiezrites. (Judges 6:24)
This afternoon and evening, as we continue our Advent series, we look at the Angel of the Lord’s appearance to Gideon, to save the people of Israel from the Midianites.
While Gideon spoke with the Angel of the Lord who was the Son of God preincarnate, Gideon made known that he was the least of his father’s sons, from the weakest of the clans of Manasseh. Essentially, Gideon was a nobody. But God chose him to do great and mighty things. He rescued the Israelites from the Midianites and Amalekites with only three hundred men. And he turned the people of Israel back to God for a time. But it is the name of the altar that Gideon built that could be a symbol of salvation.
When God the Father sent Jesus into this world, he picked the lowly town of Bethlehem, and a humble virgin pledged to be married to a humble carpenter to give birth to the savior of the world. He chose to reveal this first to humble shepherds who were watching over flocks in the countryside. And yet that humble baby would be the one who would bring us eternal peace.
Gideon brought the people of Israel peace from the oppression that the Midianites had brought upon them. Jesus brought the world peace from the oppression that sin and Satan had placed us under. Jesus was the incarnation of the name that Gideon gave to his altar. Jesus is the Lord who is peace. He has given us eternal peace with God through his humble sacrifice on the cross. And he will return to bring us to the place of eternal peace. Amen.
The song for today is “What Is this Bread” by Concordia Publishing House