Pick Up A Toothpick!

Armed with not much more than a tooth pick he went to war. What would cause a man to defend or to engage in warfare of this sort? Obviously overpowered he won. 600 men dead in his wake.

Sometimes the people you meet will surprise you beyond your wildest imagination.

Judges 3:31 After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad. He too saved Israel.My friend Mark asked on his Facebook who was one of our favorite character studies. Yesterday I put Eleazar, son of Dodo. Today it is Shamgar. I love obscure characters. How many have you met in your life that unsuspectingly just “WOW” you?

Being a prophetic person, desirous of seeing people fulfill their call, I get excited when an “unknown” steps up to the plate and blows people away. I love “feel good” movies. (Like the Goonies!)I love seeing the impossible become possible

So here is Shamgar, mentioned with no preface. On the scene. With an ox goad. And he kills 600 Philistines.

What’s an ox goad? I used to joke that it was little more than tooth pick. In reality if facing the Philistines it might seem so. It most likely was 2-10 feet long or so. It may or may not have had a piece of metal attached to prick at the hind quarters of oxen.

Out of obscurity he comes.

So many live in “obscurity” and yet everything looks tiny when you are on a mountaintop. So frequently it is our time in a valley that causes us to see just how big people really are.

Judges 5:6-7 6 In the time of Shamgar son of Anath, and in the time of Jael, Public roads were abandoned, travelers went by backroads. Warriors became fat and sloppy, no fight left in them. Then you, Deborah, rose up; you got up, a mother in Israel. God chose new leaders, who then fought at the gates. And not a shield or spear to be seen among the forty companies of Israel.

Anath means answer. Shamgar means sword. These will be important shortly.

People were frightened. The city often plundered. People avoided this place. They went around it. A city under siege. A city forgotten.

And here was Shamgar. Did he have a history? We are told His father’s name meant “answer.” His father provided an answer to the city’s needs His name meant “sword.” (“Daddy-what’s a shamgar?” “Son-It’s kind of like an ox goad.”) Carrying an ox goad, he most likely tilled fields and cared for oxen. He could have given up. But no.

He did not wait for the situation to be perfect. He took control. He engaged with what he had. Too often people are looking for the right prayer, the right book, the right preacher, when all they need is in them. God often does in the lives admitting their need more so than in the lives of those who can not see their need.

Three times God declares, “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (Proverbs 3:24; James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5)

Don’t wait for what you need, but discover what you have. An ox goad, an empty vessel or a mustard seed. Moses argued with God about what he did not have and God said “what is in your hand?” David used his sling.

Whether it was one at a time or all 600 at once (My thinking was challenged on that years ago.) Shamgar brought change. God so often uses the available and not the able.

What you are facing today my friend is but a moment from victory. I encourage you to look to what you have. No education? No money? No good clothes? Can I encourage you to look beyond what you see or feel for a moment?

The time will never be right for a miracle, or convenient for a victory. So often it will be right in the midst of adversity and negativity. When your back is up against the wall, Jesus is the door. Whether it is 600 Philistines or Goliath or lack or sickness, you are armed. Greater is He that is in you than he who is in the world. Do you meditate on your circumstance or your fighting stance? (Circumstance comes from the words that indicate “standing around” or not engaged.) Your battle has been settled, your enemy defeated. Your posture is to be one of composure and rest.

You do not need a history for you have His Story.