Who is Shamgar?

For the next couple of days, I want us to look at someone in the Bible that you've probably never heard of before: a man named Shamgar. When I get to heaven, I have some questions for Shamgar. In the whole book of Judges, there's a lot about warriors like Deborah, Gideon, and Samson, but Shamgar only gets two verses. I think Shamgar got the short end of the stick (or the ox goad).

Shamgar was a human like you and me, who lived 3000 years ago in a place that wasn't safe. The cities around him were constantly fighting and you couldn't travel on the roads without being afraid of violence.

Shamgar protected God's people from some wicked and violent men called Philistines, and Shamgar used an ox-goad to do it. An ox-goad is a wooden pole about six to ten feet long, with a tip of iron on one end and an iron blade on the other end. It served farmers like Shamgar with two benefits. The blade was used to scrape the path of roots, thorns, and clay so you could plant (kinda like a plow). The other side, the tip, was used to poke oxen and keep them going in the right direction.

Shamgar's example teaches us that God uses ordinary people and ordinary tools to do extraordinary things. No, you probably won't slay terrorists and protect women and children with a farming tool, but following Jesus is an extraordinary adventure in ordinary life. Every encounter with someone, every shift in plans, every circumstance is God inviting us to trust Him and be used by Him. That's why we need to don't need to pray for divine opportunities in our everyday lives - they are already there. We need to pray for spiritual eyes to see the opportunities God puts in front of us and then for hands and feet that will obey what He calls us to do.