Reconciliation in Scripture: Peacemaking

Isn’t the whole land before you? Please separate yourself from me. If you go to the left hand, then I will go to the right. Or if you go to the right hand, then I will go to the left.”

Abimelech took sheep and cattle, male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and restored Sarah, his wife, to him.

To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. Behold, it is for you a covering of the eyes to all that are with you. In front of all you are vindicated.”

Abimelech said, “I don’t know who has done this thing. You didn’t tell me, and I didn’t hear of it until today.”

Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his friend, and Phicol the captain of his army.

Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me, and have sent me away from you?”

Now come, let’s make a covenant, you and I. Let it be for a witness between me and you.”

Jacob sent messengers in front of him to Esau, his brother, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom.

He commanded them, saying, “This is what you shall tell my lord, Esau: ‘This is what your servant, Jacob, says. I have lived as a foreigner with Laban, and stayed until now.

I have cattle, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favour in your sight.’”

He stayed there that night, and took from that which he had with him a present for Esau, his brother:

He delivered them into the hands of his servants, every herd by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass over before me, and put a space between herd and herd.”

He commanded the foremost, saying, “When Esau, my brother, meets you, and asks you, saying, ‘Whose are you? Where are you going? Whose are these before you?’

Then you shall say, ‘They are your servant, Jacob’s. It is a present sent to my lord, Esau. Behold, he also is behind us.’”

He commanded also the second, and the third, and all that followed the herds, saying, “This is how you shall speak to Esau, when you find him.

You shall say, ‘Not only that, but behold, your servant, Jacob, is behind us.’” For, he said, “I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.”

So the present passed over before him, and he himself stayed that night in the camp.

He himself passed over in front of them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.

Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, fell on his neck, kissed him, and they wept.

Esau said, “What do you mean by all this company which I met?” Jacob said, “To find favour in the sight of my lord.”

Jacob said, “Please, no, if I have now found favour in your sight, then receive my present at my hand, because I have seen your face, as one sees the face of God, and you were pleased with me.

Please take the gift that I brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.” He urged him, and he took it.

Esau said, “Let’s take our journey, and let’s go, and I will go before you.”

So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir.

Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to talk with him.

Then Joseph couldn’t control himself before all those who stood before him, and he called out, “Cause everyone to go out from me!” No one else stood with him, while Joseph made himself known to his brothers.

Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” They came near. He said, “I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.

He fell on his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck.

He kissed all his brothers, and wept on them. After that his brothers talked with him.

His brothers also went and fell down before his face; and they said, “Behold, we are your servants.”

Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, received Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her away,

When Phinehas the priest, and the princes of the congregation, even the heads of the thousands of Israel that were with him, heard the words that the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the children of Manasseh spoke, it pleased them well.

Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, and the princes, returned from the children of Reuben, and from the children of Gad, out of the land of Gilead, to the land of Canaan, to the children of Israel, and brought them word again.

He said to them, “What have I now done in comparison with you? Isn’t the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer?

God has delivered into your hand the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb! What was I able to do in comparison with you?” Then their anger was abated towards him when he had said that.

The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “Therefore we have turned again to you now, that you may go with us and fight with the children of Ammon. You will be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”

Her husband arose and went after her to speak kindly to her, to bring her again, having his servant with him and a couple of donkeys. She brought him into her father’s house; and when the father of the young lady saw him, he rejoiced to meet him.

The whole congregation sent and spoke to the children of Benjamin who were in the rock of Rimmon, and proclaimed peace to them.

Benjamin returned at that time; and they gave them the women whom they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh Gilead. There still weren’t enough for them.

Jonathan called David, and Jonathan showed him all those things. Then Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as before.

So David received from her hand that which she had brought him. Then he said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. Behold, I have listened to your voice and have granted your request.”

David came to the two hundred men, who were so faint that they could not follow David, whom also they had made to stay at the brook Besor; and they went out to meet David, and to meet the people who were with him. When David came near to the people, he greeted them.

The woman said, “Why then have you devised such a thing against the people of God? For in speaking this word the king is as one who is guilty, in that the king does not bring home again his banished one.

The king said, “Let him return to his own house, but let him not see my face.” So Absalom returned to his own house, and didn’t see the king’s face.

So Joab came to the king and told him; and when he had called for Absalom, he came to the king and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king; and the king kissed Absalom.

and I will bring back all the people to you. The man whom you seek is as if all returned. All the people shall be in peace.”

King David sent to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, saying, “Speak to the elders of Judah, saying, ‘Why are you the last to bring the king back to his house, since the speech of all Israel has come to the king, to return him to his house?

You are my brothers. You are my bone and my flesh. Why then are you the last to bring back the king?’

Say to Amasa, ‘Aren’t you my bone and my flesh? God do so to me, and more also, if you aren’t captain of the army before me continually instead of Joab.’”

He bowed the heart of all the men of Judah, even as one man, so that they sent to the king, saying, “Return, you and all your servants.”

So the king returned, and came to the Jordan. Judah came to Gilgal, to go to meet the king, to bring the king over the Jordan.

Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjamite, who was of Bahurim, hurried and came down with the men of Judah to meet King David.

There were a thousand men of Benjamin with him, and Ziba the servant of Saul’s house, and his fifteen sons and his twenty servants with him; and they went through the Jordan in the presence of the king.

A ferry boat went to bring over the king’s household, and to do what he thought good. Shimei the son of Gera fell down before the king when he had come over the Jordan.

All the people went over the Jordan, and the king went over. Then the king kissed Barzillai and blessed him; and he returned to his own place.

Now the men observed diligently and hurried to take this phrase; and they said, “Your brother Ben Hadad.” Then he said, “Go, bring him.” Then Ben Hadad came out to him; and he caused him to come up into the chariot.

Ben Hadad said to him, “The cities which my father took from your father I will restore. You shall make streets for yourself in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria.” “I”, said Ahab, “will let you go with this covenant.” So he made a covenant with him and let him go.

Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.

Please return. Let there be no injustice. Yes, return again. My cause is righteous.

A brother offended is more difficult than a fortified city. Disputes are like the bars of a fortress.

The envy also of Ephraim will depart, and those who persecute Judah will be cut off. Ephraim won’t envy Judah, and Judah won’t persecute Ephraim.

Or else let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me. Let him make peace with me.”

In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance to your fathers.

Then join them for yourself to one another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand.

tell them, ‘The Lord GOD says: “Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his companions; and I will put them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in my hand.

I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. One king will be king to them all. They will no longer be two nations. They won’t be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.

“Seventy weeks are decreed on your people and on your holy city, to finish disobedience, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.

“Say to your brothers, ‘My people!’ and to your sisters, ‘My loved one!’

It will be in that day,” says the LORD, “that you will call me ‘my husband,’ and no longer call me ‘my master.’

I will sow her to me in the earth; and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; and I will tell those who were not my people, ‘You are my people;’ and they will say, ‘You are My God!’”

I said to her, “You shall stay with me many days. You shall not play the prostitute, and you shall not be with any other man. I will also be so towards you.”

and he will judge between many peoples, and will decide concerning strong nations afar off. They will beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war any more.

From the days of your fathers you have turned away from my ordinances and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of Armies. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’

He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.

“If therefore you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has anything against you,

leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Agree with your adversary quickly while you are with him on the way; lest perhaps the prosecutor deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and you be cast into prison.

“If your brother sins against you, go, show him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained back your brother.

But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’”

Be careful. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him.

Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before that they were enemies with each other.

The Samaritan woman therefore said to him, “How is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

On the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family was revealed to Pharaoh.

“The day following, he appeared to them as they fought, and urged them to be at peace again, saying, ‘Sirs, you are brothers. Why do you wrong one another?’

When Peter had come up to Jerusalem, those who were of the circumcision contended with him,

saying, “You went in to uncircumcised men and ate with them!”

Take them and purify yourself with them, and pay their expenses for them, that they may shave their heads. Then all will know that there is no truth in the things that they have been informed about you, but that you yourself also walk keeping the law.

For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life.

Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

For if the rejection of them is the reconciling of the world, what would their acceptance be, but life from the dead?

Now I beg you, brothers, through the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions amongst you, but that you be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgement.

For it has been reported to me concerning you, my brothers, by those who are from Chloe’s household, that there are contentions amongst you.

Now I mean this, that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos,” “I follow Cephas,” and, “I follow Christ.”

For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you fleshly?

Therefore it is already altogether a defect in you that you have lawsuits one with another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?

(but if she departs, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband not leave his wife.

For in one Spirit we were all baptised into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all given to drink into one Spirit.

Therefore I beg you to confirm your love towards him.

But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation;

namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed to us the word of reconciliation.

We are therefore ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ.

For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of separation,

having abolished in his flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace,

and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility through it.

I exhort Euodia, and I exhort Syntyche, to think the same way in the Lord.

and through him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on the earth or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross.

yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without defect and blameless before him,

I am sending him back. Therefore receive him, that is, my own heart,

no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much rather to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

If then you count me a partner, receive him as you would receive me.

But if he has wronged you at all or owes you anything, put that to my account.

Brothers, if any amongst you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back,