One Verse Wonder - Judges 3.31

Judges 3.31 -  After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad. He too saved Israel.

This verse in the book of Judges tells the story of Shamgar. Tt is not the whole story of his life, it is just the story of a chapter in his life when he did what was needed to be done regardless of the odds. Shamgar was willing to go out and fight in the battle before him armed only with a simple oxgoad. He did so much with so little. The out come of his bold action was to save Israel. Shamgar was a hero in this chapter of his life and rescued the people God had sent him to save.

My story is full of chapters, some good and some bad. I am 42 years old and the book is probably over half written. Also, within those chapters there are good and bad paragraphs. The bad are when God takes a back seat in my life where I leave Jesus behind and when I stop listening to Him. Often in the small things, not just the big things, there can be ugly bits in my story. To avoid the story being a series of unfortunate events I need to keep letting God write my story. Shamgar did what was needed to be done regardless of the odds. Regardless of what God wants me to do I need to be willing to act, and those paragraphs will take care of themselves because God is a good author.

With a half-written book, it is worth taking stock where I want to end up at the end and what chapters lay ahead. I have chapters of being a husband, chapters of being a father with young children and then older children, I have chapters with family and chapters with friends, I have chapters of work, ministry and worship. In each chapter I need to hear the authors direction. In my story I can give up fighting, I can stop running, I can be faithless to God’s direction. Shamgar was willing to go out and fight in the battle before him armed only with a simple oxgoad. I need to go out and do what God wants me to do in all areas of my life in the little bits and the big bits of the story.

In Shamgar’s story he did not have much, but He did so much with what God gave him. At the minute I have not been giving much by way of a particular role, authority or responsibility in Pottersfield Ministries, but with what little responsibility I have I need to finish it well. I need to close this chapter of my life and call IGNITE well. I need to fight the good fight, run the race and be faithful in the little things.

Application: I want there to be a good outcome of my story. I want my story to end well, not just for me but for God, but also in particular those I love around me. Shamgar, with his bold actions, was to save Israel. I do not expect to save a massive group of people, but I just want to point people to Jesus. I just want to point those I am close to, to Jesus. Shamgar was a hero in this chapter of his life and rescued the people God had sent him to save. I believe that it is imminently important that people come to know Jesus and I will pray each night with Jade for our family and friends and our IGNITE Class to become more dependent on Jesus, and for those who do not know Jesus that they will be saved.