Just because we have been tapped by God to be shown throughout the world that we have His Favor, doesn’t mean we can walk around and not take into consideration everyone else around us. Value, God sets down His values for life, limb and property and expects, us, His people, those He has covered under the Cloak of His Favor; mirror the same values He has.
We are to go about our daily business thinking of others and being aware of how our actions, or non action, can harm others. It’s called due diligence. And when we error, we are to compensate. Just saying sorry doesn’t cut it with God we must make the injured party whole.
Making someone whole is one of the many facets of the Hebrew word for Peace, Shalom. Without restitution there is no peace and if you fail at what is required by God, you are a peace breaker.
From Vine’s Complete Expository of Old Testament Words,
A. Nouns.
shalom (H7965), "peace; completeness; welfare; health." The root is a common Semitic root with the meaning "peace" in Akkadian, Ugaritic, Phoenician, Aramaic, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic.
Shalom is a very important term in the Old Testament and has maintained its place in Mishnaic, rabbinic, and Modern Hebrew. In Israel today, people greet the newcomer and each other with the words mah shlomka, ("what is your peace," "how are you doing,") and they ask about the "peace" ("well-being") of one's family.
The use of shalom is frequent (237 times) and varied in its semantic range. The first two occurrences in Genesis already indicate the changes in meaning: "And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace [shalom in the sense of "in tranquility," "at ease," "unconcerned"]; thou shalt be buried in a good old age" (Gen 15:15); and "that thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace [shalom with the meaning of "unharmed" and "unhurt"]..." (Gen 26:29). Yet, both uses are essentially the same, as they express the root meaning of "to be whole." The phrase ish shelomi ("friend of my peace") in Psa 41:9, "Yea, mine own familiar friend [literally, "friend of my peace"], in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me" (cf. Jer 20:10), signifies a state in which one can feel at ease, comfortable with someone. The relationship is one of harmony and wholeness, which is the opposite of the state of strife and war: "I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war" (Psa 120:7). Shalom as a harmonious state of the soul and mind encourages the development of the faculties and powers. The state of being at ease is experienced both externally and internally. In Hebrew it finds expression in the phrase beshalom ("in peace"): "I will both lay me down in peace [beshalom], and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety" (Psa 4:8).
B. Verbs.
shalem (H7999), "to be complete, be sound." This verb occurs 103 times. The word signifies "to be complete" in 1Ki 9:25 : "So he finished the house."
Another verb, shalam, means "to make peace": "When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him" (Pro 16:7).
C. Adjective.
shalem (H8003), "complete; perfect." This word is found in Gen 15:16 with the meaning of not quite "complete": "But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." The word means "perfect" in Deu 25:15.
Now a question for me, am I a person of Shalom, do I diligently operate in Shalem , and do I work at making others Shalem just like my Father, God?
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