THE COVENANT OF SHALOM
If one mentions Isaiah 54 in many Christian circles, most will immediately think of verse 17, “No weapon formed against you will prosper…” That is an important promise to every believer, but the reason that it’s true is found earlier in that chapter. I want to focus attention on the 10th verse, in which God promised a “covenant of peace.”
Isaiah 54:10 For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from you, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, says the LORD (Yahweh, the I AM) that has mercy on you.
The Hebrew word translated “peace” is “shalom,” the root meaning of which is “wholeness and completeness.” As an anointed Bible teacher named Billye Brim has put it, and many teachers and preachers have since quoted her, it means “nothing missing, nothing broken.” That is the source of the peace that shalom indicates! Why could God make this promise, and the other precious ones in this chapter? What comes before Chapter 54 lays the groundwork.
Let’s back up to the 53rd chapter of Isaiah where we find a significant prophecy of the Messiah, whom we know to be the Lord Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 53:4 Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his
stripes we are healed.
Again, the word translated “peace” is “shalom,” wholeness and completeness! Jesus took our sin upon Himself and gave us His righteousness. He received the punishment for our sin, that we don’t have to be punished by God. He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows that we might have the joy of the Lord. By His stripes (wounds from the beating upon His back), we are healed.
All of what the Lord Jesus Christ did for us at Calvary was a “substitutionary sacrifice” by the Lamb of God. If He purchased our shalom, and provided us with a Covenant of Shalom, the New Covenant, what was the “chastisement for our peace” (nothing missing, nothing broken)?
1 Corinthians 11:23 For I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which the Lord Jesus was betrayed took bread:
24 And when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: do this in remembrance of me.
His body was broken for us that we are made whole! This is the provision of “the covenant of peace” — the covenant of wholeness and completeness. His body broken for us is that which was promised in Isaiah 53:4, the “chastisement for our peace” — for us to receive the covenant of “nothing missing and nothing broken!” This is but one more of those exceeding great and precious promises to those who are in Christ Jesus!
2 Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises…