We continue our tour of God’s armory. A dagger, yes, but an ox goad? What can you do with that?
Ehud, whose name means “unity,” now lives up to the meaning. Having delivered God’s pointed message to fat Eglon at Jericho, “he blew the trumpet in the mountains of Ephraim, and the children of Israel went down with him from the mountains; and he led them. Then he said to them, ‘Follow me, for the Lord has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand’” (Jdg 3:27-28). From there, they traveled to the southern fords of the Jordan, cutting off the Moabites’ flight from Jericho back to their home country on the other side of the river. “At that time they killed about ten thousand men of Moab, all stout men of valor; not a man escaped” (v 29). The following verse gives the happy result for Israel: “So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest for eighty years” (v 30). Meanwhile, on the western slope of the mountains, the Philistines were encroaching on the Israelites in the foothills. So we’re introduced to “Shamgar the son of Anath” (v 31). Shamgar, probably a farm boy minding his own business, decided that the Philistines’ interference wasn’t right. One thing led to another, as they say, and in the end Shamgar “killed six hundred men of the Philistines with an ox goad.” Our outline might read: a solitary warrior; a spectacular win; a surprising weapon. An ox goad was not just a little stick. Some have been found to be 8 feet long and 6 inches wide at the stout end. Of course, it was the pointed end that did the business! Then the author adds: “and he also delivered Israel” (v 31)—just by the way! So Shamgar’s life is contracted into one sentence. How would yours read? Like Ehud and Shamgar? Faithful where they were with what they had, and used by God for His glory?