#DailyDevotion The God Of Peace Will Save You
Heb. 13 20The God of peace brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, Who by His blood made an everlasting testament to become the great Shepherd of the sheep —21may He give you every good thing you need, to do what He wants you to do, working in us through Jesus Christ what pleases Him. To Him be glory forever. Amen. 22 I urge you, fellow Christians, listen patiently to what I say to encourage you, because I’ve written you a short letter. 23You should know that Timothy, our fellow Christian, is free again. If he comes here soon, he and I will see you. 24Greet all your leaders and all the holy people. Those who are from Italy greet you. 25Grace be with all of you.
If you have some sort of “may” in verse 20 of your translation, that is coming from the optative form of “equip/give” from the next verst. The force of this sentence is the laying down of who it exactly is that is going to be doing the action in verse 21 and why He is going to do it. The God of peace is the subject of this sentence. Peace originates with God the Father. We are out of peace when we are outside of God our at least our attention is directed away from Him. Now it is true that many will try to disturb your peace when God is your peace, and you have peace in God with disturb the peace of those who are outside of God. Let then fix our eyes on God our Father and the LORD Jesus Christ so we may remain in His peace.
This God of peace brought back from the dead our LORD Jesus Christ. In doing this, He justified Jesus who died as a sinner and one who is cursed by God. Jesus’ resurrection shows to us the Father has accepted Jesus’ sacrifice. Jesus’ blood made an everlasting covenant between God and man. His blood reconciled the world to the Father (2 Cor. 4 & 5). The Father wanted to be at peace with us and wanted us to know His peace. He sent Jesus to shed His blood to make peace between God and man. This everlasting covenant says I’m at peace with you for the sake of Jesus Christ. Believe this and receive this peace, live and dwell in it.
Jesus has become the great Shepherd of the sheep. Jesus is the Shepherd of Psalm 23. He is the Shepherd of Ezekiel 34, David or rather the new David. He is gathering His flock from the ends of the earth by us sharing this good news of peace with God through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus lets us know this in John 10 when He proclaims Himself as the Good Shepherd.
Now the author prays that this God “give you every good thing you need, to do what He wants you to do, working in us through Jesus Christ what pleases Him.” He is speaking of the grace and mercy He gives us in and through Jesus Christ. We see the promise of the fulfillment of this prayer in Paul’s writings, 1 Th. 5, “23The God of peace make you holy in every way and keep your spirit and soul and body sound and without a fault when our Lord Jesus Christ comes. 24You can depend on Him Who calls you — He will do it.” In 1 Pet. 5 it is written, “10After you have suffered a little while, the God of all Grace, Who called you in Christ Jesus to share His everlasting glory, will make you perfect, firm and strong.” Finally Paul affirms it in Phil. 1, “6I’m sure that He Who started a good work in you will go on to finish it until the day of Christ Jesus.” We are then now to gather with one another and encourage one another with the words of this letter. He closes with grace be with you all. The grace of God is certainly present with those who read this letter and believe it.
O God of peace, give us Your Holy Spirit so we may believe in the everlasting covenant established by Jesus with His blood, so we may live and dwell in You and Your peace. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.