You’re probably thinking, Shamgar? Never heard of
him. Who’s Shamgar?
This is not surprising. Shamgar is hardly noticeable; his story is easy to miss,
sandwiched between Ehud and Barak in Judges. His story takes up single verse, although Deborah’s song
mentions conditions in his day.
Here’s his story:
And after him [Ehud] was Shamgar
the son of Anath, which slew of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox
goad: and he also delivered Israel. (Judges 3:31)
That’s it.
Here’s where Deborah’s song mentions Shamgar:
In the days of Shamgar the son of
Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers
walked through byways. (Judges 5:6)
So let’s think about this Shamgar and his headcount of
Philistines. What can we figure
out about him?
First, he fought with an ox goad, not a sword or spear. Either he didn’t possess a real weapon
or he didn’t have one with him at the time he needed it, so he used what he
had. He had an ox goad with him,
so we can assume he was in the field plowing or doing something else that
involved driving oxen, and he was interrupted in that task by the threat of
Philistines.
Six hundred
Philistines dead. That’s quite
a mob. An army, in fact. An army of Philistines invading.
Who is with Shamgar?
Was he part of a group wading into a melee with the Philistines? If so, how would they know at the end
who killed which Philistines? I
think we are meant to realize that Shamgar achieved this body count
single-handedly, which is why no one else was mentioned with him.
What kind of thing is this ox goad? Other commentators describe it as a
pole 8 feet long with a pointy end and a shovel-y end, and I don’t know where
they get this information, but I haven’t any other clues, so I’m going with
that.
So now we have a picture of what Shamgar accomplished. We can envision him out plowing, then
noticing an invading army of Philistines.
Does he warn his people?
Maybe he sends someone to summon help. And he decides he will step up and face the Philistines
alone, maybe stall them just long enough for backup to arrive.
Maybe he parleys with them, and they laugh at him, but he is
undeterred.
Shamgar: Go home, or I’ll have to beat some sense into you!
Philistines: Oh
yeah? You and what army? Show us what you got!
Then he starts jabbing and knocking heads with his ox
goad. They get irritated, but they
can’t get close enough to grab him.
He’s a strong man from all that work in the fields and all that time carrying
that ox goad. He’s not retreating
because he has to hold them off as long as he can. He keeps it up, mowing down more and more Philistines until
the pile of bodies gets disturbingly high.
The Philistines can’t believe this one man dares to defy
them all, so they try to surround him, but they still can’t get close
enough.
Then, after many have fallen, a thought sneaks into the
Philistine minds, This man must be
protected by God, and by invading, we are fighting against God. So they retreat in fear. Shamgar watches them go with great
relief.
Yeah, Shamgar is totally awesome.
So, what can we learn from Shamgar to help us today?
--With God on your side, you can defy the fury of the crowd
in miraculous ways.
--When the need is urgent, use what you’ve got.
--Stand your ground.
--Keep swinging!
--One person can
make a difference and save a nation. (Why hello, type of Christ!)
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