“Them the Lord asked him, ‘What is that in your hand?’ ‘A shepherd’s staff,’ Moses replied.” (Exodus 4:2, NLT).
Shamgar wasn’t expecting God to choose him. After all. he didn’t have much to offer. He was only a farmer of “impure” blood as suggests his name with Canaanite roots and not Hebrew ones. If the job of being a judge in Israel had been offered to those who were qualified in his day, Shamgar wouldn’t have met the requirements because of his lack of experience and preparation. He only had his cattle and a goad to round up his oxen. But what good was that against a whole Philistine army? Nevertheless. Shamgar chose to place the little that he had in God’s hands and his life changed completely. The Bible summarizes his story in only one verse: «After Ehud, Shamgar son of Anath rescued Israel. He once killed 6oo Philistines with an ox goad» (Judges 3:31, NLT).
“Shamgar’s story stirs my soul,” writes Lysa Terkeurst in her article “A Life with Extraordinary Impact, Proverbs 31” “He was an ordinary person, in an ordinary place, doing an ordinary job. The thing that made him extraordinary wasn’t anything external. It was his internal drive to do the right thing and be obedient to God, right where he was. His job was to be obedient to God. God’s job was everything else.” Sometimes we think that our lives and efforts are too small to make a difference. However, God only asks us to be faithful with what we have at hand: five loaves and two fish, a bit of flour and oil, five stones and a sling . . . God does not need you to have resources or extraordinary talents, instead He needs you to be willing to use your goad to round up oxen precisely where you are.
The Israelites were unable to forge swords in those days, because the Philistines did not allow them to do so (see 1 Samuel 13:19), but Shamgar did not let that stop him. In those days, goads for cattle were over two yards long and had a chisel at one end, which served to clean the plow. Shamgar simply sharpened what he had and used it to serve.
Dear Lord, though I don’t feel like the ideal candidate,
though I am so small compared to the task at hand,
I am willing to serve You. I give You what I am and what I have.
I trust that, although my talents and circumstances are ordinary,
they will be more than enough in Your hands.
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Take From: Devotional Thoughts for Women 2022
«NO FEARS»
BY: VANEZA PISSUTO
Collaborators: Alexandra Perez & Angelica Cuate
