Shalom, “peace,” has been rejected by humanity in the actions of Adam and Eve. Their choice was to seize the rewards of the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, to be like God, and crafty like the serpent (There is a pun running through the narrative of the fall, where “crafty” and “naked” are distinguished by vowel-pointing, that though Adam and Eve wanted to be arum/crafty or wise they were still left arummim/naked). The rejection of I AM took away from us peace. Peace with God, peace with fellow humans (e.g. Cain and Abel and the people of earth before the flood as well as the people of Sodom and Gomorrah), and peace with nature and the created order (e.g. physical death, natural disasters, disease etc.) was all forfeit. So the question is how does humanity get back shalom? How is everything return to what it is supposed to be, the way I AM made it to be? In one word: grace.

You see, I AM created a community. Before the community, he flooded the world and then repopulated it with people who still reject both I AM and his shalom. It is the nature of humans to reject it. So I AM reached down into human history and into his creation and created a new community. And through this community, shalom would return. What does this look like?

First, I AM chose and called Abram, a man who lived in Ur amongst pagan polytheists and himself a henotheist at most (one who has a chief deity and the other deities are subordinate). I AM called Abram and promised him, “Go out from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household to the land that I will show you. Then I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, so that you will exemplify divine blessing. I will bless those who bless you, but the one who treats you lightly I must curse, and all the families of the earth will bless one another by your name” (Genesis 12:1-3). There are a couple of ways to understand this text. One is that Abram will be the paradigm of what it means to be a “blessing” or that Abram is I AM’s source of “blessing.” I think both might be in play. In Abram’s family, in the nation that comes from him, I AM will pour out his blessing, including the restoration of peace within that family. The nations will see it and seek what Abram has. All will see what it looks like for a return of the peace they do not understand they are missing. Through Abram I AM will return shalom back to creation.

So I AM blessed Abraham (the new name given Abram) with a son Isaac, born by a miracle of I AM. I AM gave Isaac twins. The younger was divinely chosen to receive this promise and oath that was the family inheritance, reversing the understanding that the older gets the family inheritance. This son, originally named Jacob but later named Israel, fathered twelve sons. Israel became the name this family went by, and the names of the Twelve became clan-names in this family. This family was moved from Canaan, the land that was part of the promise to this family, to Egypt by I AM for 400 years.

Then after 400 years, I AM mightily and powerfully redeemed Israel, convincingly defeating the anti-God Pharaoh and his armies at the Red Sea. I AM took these people, under the leadership of a Levite Moses, into the wilderness between their land of slavery and their land of promise and turned them into a nation. There he set up laws and ceremonies to show that shalom was going to be restored.

First, I AM put in place laws to show the people how to relate to their God who rescued them from slavery in Egypt and their family members who comprise this community where peace is restored. They were to only love and adore him and nothing else. They were to see him as holy and not to use his name in vain, emptying it of is sacred status. They were to fear him and obey him. They were also taught how to relate to each other. Those who have were to provide for those who have not. They were to treat others as they wanted to be treated. They were not allowed to slander and blaspheme each other. They were to love each other. There were to relate to each other as I AM intended for them to in the Garden in the beginning. There was a sacrifice put in place to show that the people of I AM were in this state of fellowship, bringing them back to peace with each other.

Also, I AM provided a way for him to return and dwell amidst their presence, like it was in the Garden of Eden before Adam and Eve rebelled and rejected I AM and peace. This way was centered upon a system of sacrifice. The book of Leviticus really delves into this sacrificial system. In Leviticus 9, there is a pattern that is established for the order the sacrifices are to be presented. First a sin offering was offered to purify the priests and the holy things in the Tabernacle/Temple. Then a sin offering was presented to purify the people. This was followed by a burnt offering to make atonement on behalf of the now nation called Israel. Then a peace offering was made to show that all was as it should be. This peace offering is interesting because it is as if I AM and the people/individuals offering this particular sacrifice are having a meal together. The fatty portions of the animal (a bull or goat or sheep) are consumed on the altar by I AM while the meat is consumed by the person(s) offering it. The people are now in the proper relationship with I AM and they are in the place, state, they should be in.

The question is, does this new community created miraculously from this one man and his family, actually bring peace back to creation as I AM said they were to do (Exodus 19:6)? Indeed that is the question.