Shiloh

Shiloh...place of rest.

Since learning the meaning behind this word last year, it has become one of my favorite words. We see the word Shiloh in multiple places in the Old Testament:

"The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be." Genesis 49:10 KJV
"Then the whole congregation of the people of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the tent of meeting there. The land lay subdued before them." Joshua 18:1
"So they said, 'Behold, there is the yearly feast of the Lord at Shiloh, which is north of Bethel, on the east of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.” Judges 21:19
"Now this man used to go up year by year from his city to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests of the Lord." 1 Samuel 1:3

These are just a few of the many times that we see Shiloh in the Bible. Let's take a closer look at the first scripture passage from Genesis. Here we see the word Shiloh used as a name prophetically for Christ (Until Shiloh come). The meaning of this is "one who pacifies." As scripture unfolds we learn that Christ is the only one who can pacify our sin. He is the only one who can give true peace. In fact He is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). Christ not only provided peace by dying on the cross but He is peace personified! This means that He is our peace and in turn, peace is not something, but rather someone.

Now let us look at the other scriptures. We see also that Shiloh was a place. In Judges we are told that there is a yearly feast that takes place at Shiloh and denotes the location of the gathering. We also see in 1 Samuel that Elkanah would go up to Shiloh every year to worship and sacrifice. It is noted that Shiloh was one of the earliest and most sacred of the Hebrew sanctuaries before the Temple was built in Jerusalem. The ark of the covenant was kept at Shiloh from the last days of Joshua to the time of Samuel.

So we can gather from what we just learned that Shiloh is both a name for Christ and a sacred place set aside for worship and rest. Because of the ultimate sacrifice that Christ gave, we can find rest and peace in Him! (Hebrews 9: 12-14).

Jesus is my Shiloh!!

What specific areas in your life do you need to declare that Jesus is your Shiloh??

Are you struggling with infertility and not resting in Christ? Are you or your child battling an illness? Are you overly concerned about your weight or appearance and you want to change?

For me, I found that I wasn't fully resting in Christ when it came to our family making decisions about our future. We are on fire for God and we believe with our whole hearts that we are here to live for Christ (Phil 1:21) but where did God want us to be? As we sought out God to answer this question, we thought we knew where God was leading us. When things didn't go as planned, I felt crushed. When we were in the midst of praying and seeking out God's will for our lives, we prayed that we would go wherever God would be glorified most. For some reason, God believed that He would be glorified more by us being somewhere else. Through the process, my husband and I came to the point where we were literally willing to give it all up for Christ. His job, our home, our things... So we put our house on the market and prayed. We prayed for direction, we prayed for clarity, we prayed that God would be glorified, and we prayed that if it be God's will that our house would sell...

After our home being on the market for almost 3 months with minimal interest, I took off for Revelation Wellness Instructor Training. While at training God was doing lots of stirring and working in my heart. He brought me to the point that I realized I was lacking trust in Him. I had allowed the failures of people to spill over into my trust for God. Just because people had failed me didn't mean that God would do the same thing. I didn't need to have a plan. I didn't need to know all of the answers to the questions that I had because I needed to trust that God has the best plan and He knows all of the answers to my questions. I needed to rest in Jesus.

When I came to this realization, I knew that I needed to pray some bold prayers in wild obedience to what God had revealed to me. In boldness, I prayed that God would make us homeless. I also prayed that we would obediently go wherever God opened a door. I finally felt as though I was calling on Jesus as my Shiloh. I was fully resting in Him and felt a sense of peace about our future. I didn't feel as though we had to figure out our next move. I knew that God would guide us.

Before leaving retreat, we had one offer on our home and another family interested. My husband was also called by a former co-worker and was made aware of a job in Massachusetts and a potential job opening in Maine. Fast forward almost 2 months and here we are living with my parents in Maine because we sold our house and my husband accepted the job. We still don't know all of the answers and still have many questions, but we have realized one thing... we need to continually seek out Jesus as our Shiloh. He is the only one who can give us true peace and rest. May we continue to seek Shiloh every day.