Our text today is found in a book of the Bible that takes place after the death of Moses. God freed His people from Egypt, gave them the Law, and led them to the Promised Land. Now Moses is dead. It is also a period after Joshua, Moses’s successor. Joshua led God’s people through a period of conquest, conquering the Promised Land. But now Joshua is dead.
All that brings us to the time of the judges, and why the book bears that name. Judge is a term applied to heroes who would rise and deliver God’s people. The Israelites went through cycles of disobedience which led to them being oppressed by their enemies, then God sent them a deliverer when they cried out to Him for help. Today we will be focusing on the third judge in this period.
Judges 3:31(CSB)
After Ehud, Shamgar son of Anath became judge. He also delivered Israel, striking down six hundred Philistines with a cattle prod.
This is the Word of God.
For the people of God.
Thanks be to God.
There is not much in this one verse about Shamgar. Especially when you compare this to the information about the first judge. The first judge is Othniel.
In Judges 3:8, we read the Israelites are disobedient to God, which led to them being oppressed by a neighboring nation. After eight years, the Israelites cry out to God in verse 9, this is when the Lord sends Othniel to deliver them. We read that Othniel is Caleb’s younger brother, the Caleb who was the only spy from a team sent out by Moses who believed God would help them overcome the giants in the Promised Land. (Numbers 13) There is not much more information about Othniel, but more about him than Shamgar.
There is not much about Shamgar in verse 31. Especially when you look at the information given on the second judge, Ehud, in Judges 3:12-30.
Again, the Israelites are disobedient to God. This time they are oppressed by the Moabite king, Eglon, who allies with two other enemies of God’s people. After eighteen years of being oppressed by Eglon, the Israelites cry out to God.
We have a lot of details on Ehud and his act that leads to the deliverance of Israel. Ehud is left-handed, a key detail because of where he hides a sword. Being left-handed was so unusual that King Eglon’s security team did not check Ehud’s right thigh to see where the weapon was hidden. Alone with Eglon in a locked room, Ehud stabs him in the gut. King Eglon is so fat that his belly fat completely absorbs the blade. As his guards wait for an “embarrassing” amount of time, Ehud sneaks out the window and rallies the people to victory.
There is not much on Shamgar, only verse 31, and a mention of him in Judges 5:6. That additional verse says, “In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, the main roads were deserted because travelers kept to the side roads.” It was dangerous to travel because the Philistines had raiding parties coming into Israel unchecked. The Israelites had been disobedient to God, and now they were suffering because of these raiding parties. Unguarded villages were also vulnerable to these Philistine bands.
Shamgar is an unlikely deliverer for the Israelites. He is believed to be a foreigner. “Anath” was the name of a Canaanite goddess of sex and war, so this was not an Israelite title. But God chose Shamgar to deliver his people.
While there is not a lot of information on Shamgar, we do know his weapon is a piece of farm equipment. The CSB calls it a cattle prod, but this is not like the instrument of our day which uses a gentle shock to redirect livestock. This was an ox-goad, an eight-foot-long pole with a metal tip to push or stir cattle. On the other end was a curved blade for clearing a plow. Shamgar would use this as a weapon to kill six hundred Philistines.
Both Ehud and Shamgar have a unique use of a weapon in their stories. But unlike Ehud, there is no secret plot with Shamgar. It is the story of a farmer who uses his farming tool to defeat the enemies of Israel. Nothing more is shared about it.
These are all the details we have about Shamgar. Perhaps there were too few survivors among the Philistines to tell the story, only claims of a crazy farmer with a cattle prod. And there is a good chance Shamgar lived in one of these unguarded villages, which would limit the number of Israelites who would witness Shamgar’s heroics. But this one verse with these limited details is all we have about Shamgar, the third judge of Israel.
As I was preparing, several of the commentators compared Shamgar to Samson, who later in Judges whips the Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey. Samson has a lot written about him, so much so that Samson overshadows the minds of scholars as they try to explain Shamgar. Shamgar has too few details in his story for us to grasp much of anything to form a lot of discussion.
But that is exactly our application today. Not everyone will have a story that is widely known by larger audiences. Most of us will only be known and remembered by a small circle. We may have a tremendous impact on those in our small circle, creating a never-ending ripple effect. And that is what makes each of us important to the Kingdom of God.
Our audience is not an arena full of people, it is an audience of One. And our faithfulness to Him is what matters. If we are loving God and loving others, it will leave a legacy. It will be His legacy.
Matthew Henry wrote in his commentary on Shamgar, “He that has the residue of the Spirit could… make plowmen judges and generals, and fishermen apostles.” Our life lived in glory to God is you and me taking our one talent and investing it into the lives of people with the transformational grace of Jesus. Mordecai opens his home to his niece Esther, his love and encouragement empower her to live her life and rescue God’s people from extinction. Jochebed loved Moses enough to send him floating down the Nile River, without her sacrificial love Moses does not live to lead anyone. That is what happens when we live for the audience of One.
You and I are important to God. We are important far beyond what we know. God loves you and has your life in mind to be a ripple in someone else’s life. No matter how boring or lacking in detail our stories are, He can use us far beyond our circle. We matter in His story.